Crap Decisions - James Toney W12 Dave Tiberi

In 1991, James Toney had a great year. He beat undefeated Merqui Sosa; knocked out undefeated Michael Nunn to win the IBF middleweight crown; and had three successful title defenses against Reggie Johnson (29-1), Francesco Dell'Aquila (31-1), and Mike McCallum (42-1). Toney was one of the hottest names in boxing, had won a Fighter of the Year award, and was P4P material. James Toney was undefeated and at the top of his game. However, his first fight in 1992 told a different story. Coming off a draw with Mike McCallum, who Toney would later beat two more times, "Lights Out" opted to take a soft defense. The challenger was an Italian-American kid from Delaware with a record of 22-2 by the name of Dave Tiberi. He was considered nothing by the boxing public, but what many didn't know was that Bernard Hopkins was Tiberi's chief sparring partner for five years. He trained in Philadelphia and New York sparring almost every single day with the like of Hopkins, Prince Charles Williams, and Bam Bam Hines. That night, Tiberi shocked the boxing world by weathering the early storm of James Toney coming back to outwork and outclass Toney for the majority of the fight. Tiberi would force Toney to the ropes and pound away at every opening. In a Rocky Marciano style assault, Dave banged the head, face, arms, and body as it didn't matter what he hit as long as he landed. At the end of the fight and with most observers feeling Tiberi clearly won, one of the worst decisions of all times was announced. The first judge had it in the right direction scoring the bout 117-111 for Tiberi. Nevertheless, the other two judges’ scores read 115-112 and 115-111 for the winner and still champion by split decision James Toney. The verdict of the judges was a disgrace to boxing. ABC's boxing analyst Alex Wallau was quoted saying: "a couple of incompetent people at ringside robbed him (Tiberi) of that (the title)." Donald Trump, the owner the fight's casino said it was the worst decision he had ever seen in boxing. Courageously, William Roth, the Senator of Delaware, opened an investigation into the sport of boxing with hopes to right this wrong. After nine months, they uncovered that the two judges who scored the fight for Toney were unlicensed in New Jersey where the fight took place. Regardless, the boxing committee or judges, who had illegally worked the fight, did not take any action to reverse the travesty. Tiberi, so devastated by the sport of boxing not to fix its mistakes, made a moral decision to retire for good. Of course, Tiberi has always been quoted saying that he would have happily fought again against anybody as champion defending his title, but the sport he once loved took that away from him. There have been many horrible decisions in boxing history; this is just one of them. However, James Toney W12 Dave Tiberi is considered by many to be one of the worst of all time. In fact, it was rated as the #7 worst decision in boxing history by Boxing's Most Wanted