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He’s a 38 year-old, cigar-chomping, roly-poly, ex-middleweight fighting 70 pounds above his prime weight. He’s a ring veteran with an old school style and 78 fights on his ledger. Controversy seeks him no matter where he goes. 18 years as a prize fighter and here he is again, getting ready for another big fight with another shot at the heavyweight title on the line. He’s James Nathaniel Toney and he’s letting the good times roll.
At a press conference on Tuesday in the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center in New York City to announce his January 6th rematch with the "Nigerian Nightmare" aka Samuel Peter, Toney was his usual swaggering self. Looking out the windows at the spectacular and unparalleled views of New York City he was asked if he was slowing down at age 38 with all of the fights and after all of punishment he has both given and taken over the years. Toney sounded like the raspy-voiced singer James Brown when he said, "No man! I feel good! I know guys that are 38 having their first kid. I’m on my seventh kid and I’ve got a good five years left." It wasn’t clear if Toney meant five more years of having kids, or five more years of fighting.
Whatever the case, whether Toney has a good five years left in this game they call boxing might not be up to him if Samuel Peter has anything to do with it. If nothing else, Peter is a crude, clubbing, dangerous puncher and on the rare occasion that he actually managed to hit the crafty Toney he did seem to wobble him. The two are fighting a rematch because their first fight, a World Boxing Council heavyweight title eliminator fought last September in Los Angeles, ended with Peter getting the split-decision - but most of the public and boxing intelligentsia figuring Toney as the winner. [details]
At a press conference on Tuesday in the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center in New York City to announce his January 6th rematch with the "Nigerian Nightmare" aka Samuel Peter, Toney was his usual swaggering self. Looking out the windows at the spectacular and unparalleled views of New York City he was asked if he was slowing down at age 38 with all of the fights and after all of punishment he has both given and taken over the years. Toney sounded like the raspy-voiced singer James Brown when he said, "No man! I feel good! I know guys that are 38 having their first kid. I’m on my seventh kid and I’ve got a good five years left." It wasn’t clear if Toney meant five more years of having kids, or five more years of fighting.
Whatever the case, whether Toney has a good five years left in this game they call boxing might not be up to him if Samuel Peter has anything to do with it. If nothing else, Peter is a crude, clubbing, dangerous puncher and on the rare occasion that he actually managed to hit the crafty Toney he did seem to wobble him. The two are fighting a rematch because their first fight, a World Boxing Council heavyweight title eliminator fought last September in Los Angeles, ended with Peter getting the split-decision - but most of the public and boxing intelligentsia figuring Toney as the winner. [details]
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