Comments Thread For: James Toney-Denis Lebedev For The WBA Interim Crown?

[Dedication]

Maybe I'm acting a bit over the top. Especially being the Toney fan I am. I was actually excited for the Toney vs Lebedev fight to begin with. It's only until I saw videos of Lebedev training against a Toney esque style as early as the beginning of June, a couple of months before the fight was announced, made me think of him as bit pathetic really. How on earth can I respect a fighter training that early for another, who is past prime in case you didn't know? Again maybe I'm being harsh. It is the fight game after all, and Toney is a seasoned pro, so Lebedev is obviously looking to gain as big advantage as he can. I will try my best to reserve my judgement about him till after the fight and see who he decides to take on next.

[edgarg]

Maybe I'm acting a bit over the top. Especially being the Toney fan I am. I was actually excited for the Toney vs Lebedev fight to begin with. It's only until I saw videos of Lebedev training against a Toney esque style as early as the beginning of June, a couple of months before the fight was announced, made me think of him as bit pathetic really. How on earth can I respect a fighter training that early for another, who is past prime in case you didn't know? Again maybe I'm being harsh. It is the fight game after all, and Toney is a seasoned pro, so Lebedev is obviously looking to gain as big advantage as he can. I will try my best to reserve my judgement about him till after the fight and see who he decides to take on next.

The tenacity of Toney fans always astonishes me. The guy has had 5 fights since Jan.2007, that's nearly 5 years. One split against a guy called Danny Batchelder, a novice compared to Toney. An NC against Rahman, and a robbery of a split against Fres Oquendo. His last fight was against a very average guy named Damon Reed, 46-14, weighing in at 257. This was about 9 months ago. In between he won (sole KO) over Matthew Greer all of 12-5 a TKO. You guys expect to see a Toney who fought Jirov. Well....I'm a realist around boxing.

Most thought, when Toney went hunting in the MMA, that he was retired from boxing. He's never recovered from the bad beating he got from Sam Peter. I saw that fight and Toney was out on his feet, really KO'd or at least KD'd except that he held on to the top rope. He was constantly stunned in that fight and it could have been stopped at any time. It likely caused brain damage.

He was a geat fighter, but that was long years ago, and he should have retired after the Peter fight. Yet, totally absorbed fans-not least him also- keep talking about how he would beat a Klitschko. He has become, except for his voluble, hardly understandable speech, as pathetic a figure as the once great Evander Holyfield. Indeed, Holyfield is more understandable than Toney.

The ecouragement you guys give hem, will get him killed or paralysed in the ring.

[Drunk Punch]

He's had way too many fights already. Just listen to him speaking, he sounds worse than Holyfield.

[Mikhnienko]

Guillermo Jones, WBA Cruiserweight champion, is scheduled to defend on November 5th at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL.

I guess we need an interim champion for those 24 hours between bouts?

He hasn't defended in almost 2 years. should have done it sooner/

Yeah, I get that but come on. On one hand you have a fighter like Paul Williams who fights champ after champ, yet gets hated upon. Then in the other Lebedev who prides himself on beating past prime legends - and what people like you call a genius promotional strategy. It's ridiculous, and I for one am calling him out on his BS. Don't really give two fingers if anyone else doesn't. Preparing to fight Toney months before it was announced, that's how bad of a fighter he is. How on earth does someone respect a fighter that trains for a past prime opponent, without him even knowing you're doing so? That's got to be up there as one of the top ATG b1tch moves.

Young? He's 32. Cheeesus! And has only lost one fight. You want to talk about age? Fine. Lebedev and Andre Ward have fought the same amount of fights. Ward is the younger between by about 6 years. Has taken on much better opposition yet receives more hate. LOL. I mean you've got to call it as you see it. Dude's a bum.

Lebedev had a 4 year 'retirement' cuz he had **** management, got no pay and had to take a normal job to support his family. He's a talented fighter who was driven from the sport due to the dark buisness side.

He stopped Maccarenelli right after Haye did, Castillo, Esparza. KO'd Alekseev, beat Huck then tried to get a Huck rematch which he deserved but couldn't. That's a very solid string of fights. After Jones he called out IBO Champ Danny Green to fight in Austrailia cuz Tszyu is training Lebedev but Green wanted no part. You claiming he's a protected fighter afraid to 'step up' is ***ing delusional. He's a tough fighter being avoided.

Alot of guys take payday fights vs old or inferior opposition, Martinez for example, and while im not a fan of it in general if anyone is going to earn a payday in this manner a guy like Lebedev is about as deserving a guy there is.

Jones was a shot payday no doubt but toney while old is still formitable and has a style that lends itself to not withering away with age just like a hopkins or archie, hell the majority of ppl are picking toney to win against a prime CW who should be WBO Champ. Look at Tarvers performance vs Green, it was better than he looked in his hopkins or dawson fights.

[Lucky Jim]

The tenacity of Toney fans always astonishes me. The guy has had 5 fights since Jan.2007, that's nearly 5 years. One split against a guy called Danny Batchelder, a novice compared to Toney. An NC against Rahman, and a robbery of a split against Fres Oquendo. His last fight was against a very average guy named Damon Reed, 46-14, weighing in at 257. This was about 9 months ago. In between he won (sole KO) over Matthew Greer all of 12-5 a TKO. You guys expect to see a Toney who fought Jirov. Well....I'm a realist around boxing.

Most thought, when Toney went hunting in the MMA, that he was retired from boxing. He's never recovered from the bad beating he got from Sam Peter. I saw that fight and Toney was out on his feet, really KO'd or at least KD'd except that he held on to the top rope. He was constantly stunned in that fight and it could have been stopped at any time. It likely caused brain damage.

He was a geat fighter, but that was long years ago, and he should have retired after the Peter fight. Yet, totally absorbed fans-not least him also- keep talking about how he would beat a Klitschko. He has become, except for his voluble, hardly understandable speech, as pathetic a figure as the once great Evander Holyfield. Indeed, Holyfield is more understandable than Toney.

The ecouragement you guys give hem, will get him killed or paralysed in the ring.

Wow, that is an excellent post and I agree 100%. Toney is about one or two hard punches away from becoming a vegetable. His "fans" don't seem to realize how serious pugilistic dementia is. And Toney has all the signs of it --he drools and slurs and has been having problems controlling his temper lately. Toney is an ongoing boxing tragedy and a cautionary tale.

I should add that Toney was also badly hurt in the first round against Greer, who is not even a tomato can. He's a punching bag, a total stiff.

[dan649]

I found a WBA belt in my cocoa pops packet last week and couldnt give it away coz all my friends already had interim and diamond belts. I will throw it in the garage with the rest of the WBA belts and not tell anyone in case they send me a bill for sanctioning fees.