Toney: I aint done!! I just looked that way...
Toney: I ain't done!
www.fightnews.com
By David Robinett and Robert Hough
http://www.fightnews.com/1photos/toney_batchelder4.jpg
Photo: Armando Roldan
"If it was a bigger fight, I would have been more motivated," admitted heavyweight James Toney after his sluggish split decision win over Danny Batchelder on Thurdsay night in San Jose. Toney, who wants to fight again in late June or early July, gave himself a D+ for the fight and vowed to drop some weight for his next couple bouts. The 38-year-old, who fought at 229 pounds, didn't reach his goal of weighing about 217 for this fight, his first since back-to-back losses to Samuel Peter. He joked that his wife, who earlier this week gave birth to the couple's sixth child, had something to do with it. "I had my wife's eating habits," said Toney, who added that he fought injury-free for the first time in two years. "I ain't done," said Toney. "I just looked that way." more at http://www.fightnews.com/hough_robinett2.htm
I dont get it.. Toney comes in the lightest since the booker fight and looks the worst ???
he should get his weight down please James!!!
And according to that saying of the fight it was a boring chess match waiting game fight..
Re: Toney: I aint done!! I just looked that way...
at 217 he will be a monster but hes not getting any younger.
Re: Toney: I aint done!! I just looked that way...
:coolclick:, for the news Starr
Im glad to see Toney being realistic here. After the second Peter fight it wa sa bit embarrassing to hear him say he thought he won the fight when he clearly didnt. Here his perspective was much more in line. He admits he didnt look good and says himself he was lacking motivation.
Toney was saying the right things. He wasnt talking about dominating the best he talked about fighting again quickly and getting a few more pounds off. It will be ideal for Toney to fight again before mid July. He can stay busy, lose some more weight and more importantly get back some movement and sharpness. Try to get that output up some more.
Im not giving up on Toney yet, if he works hard he can see out his career in a positive manner...
Re: Toney: I aint done!! I just looked that way...
I still think Toney should continue with a step by step method of keeping busy and trying to sharpen up but Ive also decided to post a report written by someone else from another forum. Like me, this person is a Toney fan but having actually seen the Toney bout would prefer Toney to hang them up. I havent seen the fight yet and so make my decision to see James continue from a different angle...
Anyways, here is the write up....
People are asking about what happened in the Toney match so here's a pretty long explanation for it:
I'm not even gonna waste time talking about the undercards because they were complete borefests. But the saddest part is that the Toney match was a bigger borefest than all of them combined. It was literally 10 rounds of everybody in the crowd booing him and telling him to fight.
I'm a fan of James Toney and the only reason I went was to see him fight. I was dissapointed in him after the second Peter fight, but this was just pathetic. Danny Betchelder is a guy with zero power and basic boxing skills at best. He lost 3 out of his last 4 including getting knocked out by the light-punching prospect Dimitrenko. In the first round, Toney did almost nothing while Betchelder circled around him and connected some jabs. In the next few rounds Toney tried maybe one or two combinations and missed them. As the fight progressed, although Toney had control of the ring, he barely threw punches. The only punches he connected with were some jabs and body shots while they were clinching. He would come out to almost every round and start off the first 15 seconds throwing many punches and for the rest of the round do almost nothing.
The only significant punches throughout the night were from Betchelder, who knocked Toney off balance and back a few feet with right hands once in a while. Toney never even landed one meaningful, clean punch to the head at all. I've never seen him look so terrible. His balance sucked, he barely threw punches, he took shots from Betchelder that he could have effortlessly avoided a few years ago, his timing was HORRIBLE (on a few occasions where he threw a big right hand, he would miss by a mile and fall into the ropes), his punches had no pop, and he barely showed any desire to entertain the crowd or even win the match.
I didn't score the rounds, but I thought Betchelder deserved to win a close decision. When the 96-94 Betchelder score was announced everyone was cheering and after the last score of 97-93 for Toney was read everybody booed him until they left. After the fight, people were yelling at Toney as he was taking pictures and signing autographs. One guy told him that he was a fan of his but this horrible performance showed that his career is over and Toney started arguing/joking around with him. Maybe the one plus today was that I got to shake hands with the disappointed looking Freddie Roach. I know he was disappointed in Toney after the Peter match but this was just embarassing.
Toney accomplished a lot in his career and although he could have done more if he cared about fitness, he still is a great fighter and deserves a ton of respect for winning titles in 4 divisions (I don't think the "steroids" shit mattered in the Ruiz fight) despite his small size. He truly never ducked anyone and was one of the best defensive fighters of the 90's.
The news article about the fight made it seem like Toney clearly won a dull fight and one judge just scored it like an idiot. I am a fan of his, but there is no way that the fight should have been scored 98-92 for him. Maybe he should have won a really close decision, but based on the fact that he landed nothing significant and showed little desire to win while Betchelder landed a few nice shots and threw more punches, I think Toney should have lost. Betchelder tried to box safely from the outside all night because inside he couldn't do anything and he was pretty succesful at landing some jabs and a few right hands. Most of the punches had no effect on Toney, but instead of fighting back and landing some clean shots of his own he just kept smiling.
After watching this fight, the small amount of faith I had in the 38 year old James Toney is completely gone. From the start to the end, he didn't seem to care about winning the match and his skills looked even worse than they did in the second Peter fight. He needs to retire, but I doubt he will anytime soon. I think he's in a terrible situation health-wise because he still has one of the best chins in boxing, but his skills have completely gone away. He's gonna be taking beating after beating without caring about losing brain cells and unless he suffers a knockout he will not bother worrying about his health. Fights like these are easy money for him and he has way too much pride to retire.
Overall, just a really boring night of boxing and on top of that a really sad day for Toney fans.. I think May 24th, 2007 is the day James Toney was officially finished as a fighter. Maybe he just wasn't motivated at all to KO or look impressive against Betchelder because it wasn't on TV, but he just looked horrible in every single way tonight.
Re: Toney: I aint done!! I just looked that way...
Quote:
Originally Posted by miles
:coolclick:, for the news Starr
Im glad to see Toney being realistic here. After the second Peter fight it wa sa bit embarrassing to hear him say he thought he won the fight when he clearly didnt. Here his perspective was much more in line. He admits he didnt look good and says himself he was lacking motivation.
Toney was saying the right things. He wasnt talking about dominating the best he talked about fighting again quickly and getting a few more pounds off. It will be ideal for Toney to fight again before mid July. He can stay busy, lose some more weight and more importantly get back some movement and sharpness. Try to get that output up some more.
Im not giving up on Toney yet, if he works hard he can see out his career in a positive manner...
Miles that news was what i posted lol nvm i like Starr anyway so here have another :coolclick: Starr.
