By Matthew Hurley

James Toney has always been a man who speaks his mind.  To that end he either makes people laugh or cringe and in boxing sometimes both reactions go hand in hand. Since he burst onto the scene in 1991 with an upset victory over Michael Nunn for the IBF middleweight title Toney has provided endless sound bites for writers and, depending on his motivation, deft or daft performances in the ring.  He is nothing, if not a character.

His former manager Jackie Kallen relates a story of a young, precocious James Toney and the fighter’s inability to harness his emotional rage into the technically brilliant fighter he would one day become.  Toney, by his own admission, was a thug and drug runner on the mean streets of Detroit.  An intimidating presence with a hair trigger temper Toney, like many fighters from disenfranchised backgrounds, found refuge in the boxing gym.  In Detroit, where Toney began his professional career in 1988, no boxing figure was bigger than Thomas Hearns. 

Despite Hearns’ tough ring personae, the “Hitman” was never the proverbial “bad seed”.  In fact he was a shy, reluctant kid growing up, who, like Toney, came from a fatherless home.  Hearns found guidance under the tutelage of boxing trainer Emanuel Steward and honed his skills in the famous Kronk Gym.  At the time, Kallen worked as a publicist for Kronk and as Hearns progressed she wrote articles about him and grew to become very close to Detroit’s favorite son.

“It would be an understatement to say that Tommy was a hero in Detroit,” she recalls.  “Until the Pistons came into their own, Tommy was all the city had.”

After leaving Kronk, Kallen eventually stumbled across Toney, a fighter who would bring her great acclaim, endless headaches and ultimately, sad resignation.  But one important thing she did was bring the young fighter to meet Thomas Hearns at the boxer’s mansion.

Hearns, always a team player when it came to other fighters, showed the young Toney around the palatial grounds.  He pointed out his trophies and championship belts in his trophy room and finally led James out to the pool in the backyard.

“It had a big boxing glove painted on the tiles at the bottom,” Toney remembers.  “I wanted that.  I wanted all of that.  And Tommy said it could be mine if I just stayed out of trouble.”

Not too long afterwards Toney would find himself in the ring at John O’Donnell Stadium in Davenport Iowa against a fighter many were touting as the next Ray Leonard.  Michael Nunn did a number on Toney for nearly ten rounds but James was exacting a toll on the young champion, a tactic he would refine and perfect as he matured.  With a leaping hook Toney separated Nunn from his senses and the IBF middleweight belt.  It looked as though the boxing world would fall at his feet after that.  The angry young man perfected his “dangerous”, “cocky” attitude and maintained that not only was he the best fighter in the world but that one day he would be heavyweight champion.

It hasn’t been a very smooth ride since then.  Despite garnering acclaim as the best “pound for pound” fighter in the sport fissures in Toney’s psyche began to emerge.  A humiliating loss to Roy Jones sent the fighter into a tailspin and destroyed his relationship with Kallen. 

Personal problems would dominate the fighter for years and it physically manifested itself in an alarming tendency to balloon in weight.  If James had wanted to be a heavyweight he had achieved his goal but not in the ring.  Instead he gorged himself at the dinner table and slowly began to resemble the cartoon character Fat Albert.  But still, this apparent physical mess could still box circles around anyone who stepped into the ring with him at the gym.  Toney’s defensive prowess, his ability to stay in the pocket and slip punches and then make his opponent pay made many an observer refer to him as “old school”.

Disgusted with what he had reduced himself to, Toney made a decision to refocus his life on boxing.  Just like that, he was back, beating opponents with remarkable ease and then, inexplicably, losing focus and dropping decisions to Montell Griffin in a rematch and Drake Thadzi.  After a draw with the well respected Mike McCallum, a fighter Toney holds in high regard, he again refocused and went on a winning streak that remained unbroken until he tested positive for steroids and his victory over WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz was declared a no-contest.

To the steroid issue James maintains that whatever it was metabolized in his system after receiving injections for a bicep injury.  “Do I look like I’m on steroids?”  Indeed he does not, but it was still his decision to step into the ring against Ruiz without notifying the commission that there may be a problem with his post-fight urinalysis.  All of which brings the thirty-seven year-old fighter to his fight against Hasim Rahman for the WBC heavyweight title on March 18.

Whether he agrees or not, this could be Toney’s last shot at a major title.  Although it would seem the blubbery boxer could fight on until he’s fifty, should he lose there probably won’t be many heavyweight fighters out there clamoring to get in the ring with him and Toney seems aware of that.

“I know they’re all scared of me,” he snarls.  “None of them want to fight me because they know I’ll stand there and beat the living shit out of them and they won’t be able to lay a glove on me.  Even if they do, I don’t get hurt.  Rahman?  He’s a pussy and I’m going to knock him out.  You think that bitch Klitschko would ever get in the ring with me?  Him or his punk ass brother?  Forget it.  I’d rip them Frankenstein’s apart.”

Never at a loss for words the aging fighter remains a promoters dream come true.  Rahman, no slouch himself when it comes to self-promotion, is right on board with his antagonist.

“He’s a fraud as a man,” the champion says with a wave of his ham hock hand.  “He’s disrespectful.  He can talk but can’t back it up.  He’s a fraud on who he has chosen to fight in the past.  I know one thing, March 18 will be his last championship fight.  You can stick a fork in him, because he’s done.”

Rahman’s assertion that Toney is a “fraud because of who he has chosen to fight” is a little presumptuous considering Hasim lost to both Evander Holyfield and John Ruiz, two fighters Toney beat convincingly.  But his assertion that March 18 will be his last championship fight has more than a ring of truth to it should he beat “Lights Out” Toney.

In the end, it has all the makings for a very good heavyweight bout.  If both men can carry as much firepower into the ring with their fists as they spout with their mouths, March 18 should begin to solve the mystery of who will be viewed upon as the true heavyweight champion of the world.