Prizefighter: The International Heavyweights Nov 14

[Gandalf]

I'll say this though, James Toney pisses me off. He should have been this weight against Browne and would have won that fight if he had been. Instead he has lost all the weight for....Prizefighter. You couldn't make it up.

I'm getting excited now as James Toney in shape is always going to be fun. 9 rounds in an evening won't be a big deal for Toney and expecially as the tournament appears to be rigged in favour of him progressing. If anything, if Toney gets to the final he will have a good shot as he might well be in his groove by then.

[ross]

I might have been watching the Browne fight biased but if anyone cares to score it I bet most have it for Toney. Browne did fuck all because he kept getting caught with the counter right. What he did throw he missed.

Had that fight been elsewhere it would have been a Toney win or more people would have called it a robbery.

[Fenster]

Can't believe people think Toney will win. The format is all wrong for him. I can already see him being interviewed afterwards telling everyone he was robbed and the UK is full of bums and he wants to fight David Gaye and Fraudley Harrison... same old same old.

[Gandalf]

Can't believe people think Toney will win. The format is all wrong for him. I can already see him being interviewed afterwards telling everyone he was robbed and the UK is full of bums and he wants to fight David Gaye and Fraudley Harrison... same old same old.

All he has to do is start quickly and keep it going for a couple of rounds. Being a short bout he just needs to make sure he outlands the other man which Toney generally has throughout his career. I don't see it as being a problem, it's not as though he is going in there knowing he has 12 rounds. Looking at the records of some of these other guys, it isn't as though he is being put in with particularly difficult men. He can take more risks, it isn't as though he is fighting Sam Peter and needing to be wary of how and when he throws. Also, at this weight I will be surprised if some of these guys can even hit Toney clean as he was still slipping and slidding despite looking like some kind of newly discovered blubbery thing from the deep against Lucas Browne and Damon Reed. He is only going to be more elusive being so short and quicker too.

I'm quietly optimistic that he will impress somewhat in this. Toney hasn't been this light at HW in many, many years. Maybe he won't win it, but I think he can give a good account of himself. He won't be vintage Toney of a decade gone, but this isn't asking him to be.

[Gandalf]

I might have been watching the Browne fight biased but if anyone cares to score it I bet most have it for Toney. Browne did fuck all because he kept getting caught with the counter right. What he did throw he missed.

Had that fight been elsewhere it would have been a Toney win or more people would have called it a robbery.

I don't think Toney did enough to win, but he won rounds and landed the better shots throughout the the fight. He was just ridiculously heavy and out of shape.

Prizefighter means little, but the fact that Toney is in shape means he is rolling the dice that one last time.

In truth though, none of us has a clue how good an in shape Toney can be as the last time he was in shape, he ripped his leg apart in the first couple of rounds against Lebedev.

It's been years since he won a meaningful fight, though I think there is a fair case that he beat Rahman easily in their second fight, then who gets the shot at Wlad? Toney has a point when he says he has been avoided like the plague in that regard. They have fought anyone but him.