Do you think James Toney was skilled and talented?

[New England]

Except that wasn't his only problem.

The fact he has poor footwork was a problem.

The fact he can't fight off the backfoot was a problem.

The fact he can't cut off the ring was a problem.

The fact he can't make adjustments was a problem.

The fact he can't block a right hook to the body to save his life was a problem.

The fact he can't avoid a jab was a problem.

The fact he loads up on his punches was a problem often causing him to cross his feet over.

Toney was a flawed fighter, to act like the only reason he fell short was his lack of discipline is a nothing more than a bad joke.

there's just so much wrong in this post to address everything specifically, but i'll offer you a video of toney practicing virtually everything you've listed in some sparring footage from the kronk gym in 1990.

paritcualarly, i'd love to see where you think his footwork is poor. that's just absurd. the man had a terrific ability to counterpunch and avoid punches, and you can't do that without a proper base.


it's like you've taken a screenshot of james toney showing up out of shape, or when he was a plodding heavyweight, and saying that's all he had to offer. the man boxed for well over 25 years, and during periods of that career he was a historic level, top flight fighter.

[dan_cov]

Obviously skilled and talented but a lot overrate him a tad.
Type of guy you can make look however you want to on highlight reels & I feel that is where a lot do rate him based off of. They see highlight reels & think he is the best fighter too ever live.

He wasn't a complete fighter in fact I'd say he was fairly one dimensional unless you played too his strengths which a lot did, foolishly.

[New England]

there's just so much wrong in this post to address everything specifically, but i'll offer you a video of toney practicing virtually everything you've listed in some sparring footage from the kronk gym in 1990.

paritcualarly, i'd love to see where you think his footwork is poor. that's just absurd. the man had a terrific ability to counterpunch and avoid punches, and you can't do that without a proper base.


it's like you've taken a screenshot of james toney showing up out of shape, or when he was a plodding heavyweight, and saying that's all he had to offer. the man boxed for well over 25 years, and during periods of that career he was a historic level, top flight fighter.

[-PBP-]

Obviously skilled and talented but a lot overrate him a tad.
Type of guy you can make look however you want to on highlight reels & I feel that is where a lot do rate him based off of. They see highlight reels & think he is the best fighter too ever live.

He wasn't a complete fighter in fact I'd say he was fairly one dimensional unless you played too his strengths which a lot did, foolishly.

Can't green K this post but this is the truth. Against fighters that played into his strengths he was phenomenal. And those are the fights that typically appear in his highlight reels which makes everybody ignore the rest of his career.

[IronDanHamza]

there's just so much wrong in this post to address everything specifically, but i'll offer you a video of toney practicing virtually everything you've listed in some sparring footage from the kronk gym in 1990.

paritcualarly, i'd love to see where you think his footwork is poor. that's just absurd. the man had a terrific ability to counterpunch and avoid punches, and you can't do that without a proper base.


it's like you've taken a screenshot of james toney showing up out of shape, or when he was a plodding heavyweight, and saying that's all he had to offer. the man boxed for well over 25 years, and during periods of that career he was a historic level, top flight fighter.

You are actually trying to say that James Toney had good footwork?

I suggest you watch his fights.

He cannot fight off the back foot and he cannot cut off a ring.

You want to know particularly? Reggie Johnson probably being the most stand out example outside of Roy Jones where his footwork looked novice-like.

No ability to cut the ring off, constantly loading up and thus crossing his feet over. Same thing against Nunn.

Against Griffin his feet were so stuck in the mud he allowed Griffin to jump in and out and outwork.

I can't believe you're actually arguing he has good footwork to be honest. Even the most rabid of Toney admit his feet aren't good.

He a terrific ability to counterpunch....when he's in the pocket and stationary. When given movment he is as good as useless. That has been shown time and time again.

Toney rarely even attempted to fight off the back foot, but when he did it was hard to watch.

It's funny because that's what I always hear "you haven't watched Toney" "you've only watched the HW far version"

No, that's the issue, I've actually watched his entire career. Clearly many others have not.

[IronDanHamza]

Obviously skilled and talented but a lot overrate him a tad.
Type of guy you can make look however you want to on highlight reels & I feel that is where a lot do rate him based off of. They see highlight reels & think he is the best fighter too ever live.

He wasn't a complete fighter in fact I'd say he was fairly one dimensional unless you played too his strengths which a lot did, foolishly.

"Fairly" is a term to be used loosely here I think.

He IS one dimensional. I don't think that's even arguable if you have actually seen the guy fight.

[IronDanHamza]

Can't green K this post but this is the truth. Against fighters that played into his strengths he was phenomenal. And those are the fights that typically appear in his highlight reels which makes everybody ignore the rest of his career.

The only time Toney ever looked "phenomenal" was against sub par opponents.

Although he often looked like **** even against them.

[champion4ever]

James Toney was a super talent. His toughest challenge were on the scales. He just couldn't find a way to stay in shape. He would often gained more than 30 lbs between fights. It was his overall lack of professionalism and self-discipline as an athlete, which all helped contributed, to the harming of his legacy.

[JTfloyd]

If he had the discipline of a Floyd or Hopkins, he'd probably be known as one of the greatest fighters ever. He'd always lose to Roy, but if he bothered to be in shape, it would definitely be a closer fight. His only problem (besides BK as others have mentioned) is that he was so talented, he came into fights unprepared. That being said, he was willing to fight "anyone, anytime" and his positives outweigh (no pun intended) the negatives. If he hadn't torn his achilles, his heavyweight career might've been much different. Just watching him fight Jameel McCline's 6'6" goofy ass in 2004 would've been some fascinating ****.

[bojangles1987]

toney fought the kind of fighters that floyd mayweather avoided. i think everybody would see floyd mayweather as much more human if he'd fought the prime roy jones' of the world, the way james toney did.

Prime Toney got his ass kicked by the Robert Guerreros of the world. Worse, actually. I'm not even bringing up Roy Jones.