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man, do i love this match up. who says the division is crap these days. things have been heating up lately: the rahman/maskaev rematch could be fun. klitschko took on the most dangerous puncher besides himself, peter, and got byrd out of the scene and heavyweight division. now klitschko's fighting another big puncher in briggs. we had an awesome fight between brewster and liakhovich not long ago. ibragimov and austin fighting for the # 1 spot in the ibf, this could help us gauge how good sultan is or can be, although i question how much of a test ray austin will be.
now james toney is stepping up to fight the second biggest puncher in the division. in my opinion, the heavyweight match ups in the last couple of years have been fairly good overall. i just hope the alphabets don't keep throwing mandatories at the current champs so we can get at least one goddamn unification fight!
toney/peter: i really don't see how toney will be able to dent peter. peter has an excellent poker face so it's a bit hard to tell when he is really hurt - which so far has only been in the klitschko fight a few times even though wladimir was sticking to boxing instead of trying for a KO. peter, i believe, does have the power to hurt toney. james was stunned a couple of times when he fought rahman, and rahman, although may be a smarter and better trained fighter, doesn't seem to still have the edge on his punches that he once had. or atleast he did not show it.
jt has good solid D, but in viewing his last 3 fights he has shown to be very stationary and frequently lays against the ropes to help recover his wind. if peter's trainer knows what he is doing, peter will attack toney when he is on the ropes and know the times when not to - such as when toney is playing possum and/or trying to make his opponent punch himself out.
both guys have questionable stamina if they are constantly pressured. for some reason though, i wouldn't be surprised to see peter trying to box more than he did then in his bout with younger klitschko. that may lead to a lot of boos from the crowd of people who are "part-time" boxing fans. toney is obviously the better schooled fighter with more tricks up his sleeves, but one or two good solid punches are sometimes all one needs. especially with the heavies. i remember one peter fight where sam stood over his bent over opponent and put all his momentum into an extremely dangerous downward chopping punch to the back of his opponents head, sending his opponent head first into the canvass. that was scary ****. aside from rahman, who seemed too hesitant to really let his hands go, this will be one hell of a chin check for toney. remember, no matter how slick you are, you are not going to avoid every punch.
this is true, but i remember his fight with robert hawkins from last year. it went to the cards, but it seemed that the only reason it did was because peter wanted to show that he could box, and wasn't just merely a one dimentional slugger. in total, he's went the distance five times, with one loss out of those. and out of those five fights, only one was scheduled for 12. only his fight with klitschko had any major importance. but from that one fight, we have seen that he had really tried to impress everybody by knocking out klitschko. not smart.
in the end, i think it may really come down to what strategy jt and peters will be using. i like peter if he mixes a bit of boxing in between spurts of continuous and relentless attacks with KO intent. i like toney if peter simply tries to outbox him.
now james toney is stepping up to fight the second biggest puncher in the division. in my opinion, the heavyweight match ups in the last couple of years have been fairly good overall. i just hope the alphabets don't keep throwing mandatories at the current champs so we can get at least one goddamn unification fight!
toney/peter: i really don't see how toney will be able to dent peter. peter has an excellent poker face so it's a bit hard to tell when he is really hurt - which so far has only been in the klitschko fight a few times even though wladimir was sticking to boxing instead of trying for a KO. peter, i believe, does have the power to hurt toney. james was stunned a couple of times when he fought rahman, and rahman, although may be a smarter and better trained fighter, doesn't seem to still have the edge on his punches that he once had. or atleast he did not show it.
jt has good solid D, but in viewing his last 3 fights he has shown to be very stationary and frequently lays against the ropes to help recover his wind. if peter's trainer knows what he is doing, peter will attack toney when he is on the ropes and know the times when not to - such as when toney is playing possum and/or trying to make his opponent punch himself out.
both guys have questionable stamina if they are constantly pressured. for some reason though, i wouldn't be surprised to see peter trying to box more than he did then in his bout with younger klitschko. that may lead to a lot of boos from the crowd of people who are "part-time" boxing fans. toney is obviously the better schooled fighter with more tricks up his sleeves, but one or two good solid punches are sometimes all one needs. especially with the heavies. i remember one peter fight where sam stood over his bent over opponent and put all his momentum into an extremely dangerous downward chopping punch to the back of his opponents head, sending his opponent head first into the canvass. that was scary ****. aside from rahman, who seemed too hesitant to really let his hands go, this will be one hell of a chin check for toney. remember, no matter how slick you are, you are not going to avoid every punch.
You guys have to also remember that its not like peter has crushed every one he has fought he has been the distance before agienst guys eith neither the skill nor the chin of toney.
in the end, i think it may really come down to what strategy jt and peters will be using. i like peter if he mixes a bit of boxing in between spurts of continuous and relentless attacks with KO intent. i like toney if peter simply tries to outbox him.
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