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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 *************** 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. [details]
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 *************** 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. [details]