Today i realised why we should appreciate a certain ATG James Toney!

**Lionheart Lacy** · 05-20-2007 06:04 AM

i will tell you why today after watching the taylor spinks undercard fights and the main fight iteself why James Toney is the best!

my predictions for the fights were - miranda by ko in a tough fight against a technically sound fighter with a thunderous right hand.
i thought taylor would win by ko in the early rounds.

we all said miranda is a old skool fighter. he is in fact. he fights often with the best. and he stands toe to toe. today i realised that dont matter. its what they can do in the ring when they get in the trenches! this guy talked alot and even i thort he was gonna crush kelly. but unfortunetly miranda seemed totally drained b4 the fight began probably from fear/pressure which is normal.
now when JToney talks he backs it up, he has a beautiful defense. even when he is in the trenches (eg nunn, rahman, and peters) he dusnt make his face like he wants u to feel sorry for him. he fights back.

about the spinks taylor fight, i had spinks winning but he ran the whole night but still taylor didnt try hard enough to catch him and batter him.if toney was in spinks's situation, this fight would have been exciting, even tho being the smaller man, toney would have stood infront of taylor and it would have been exciting. if toney was in taylor situation which i dont see him being in, cos toney most likely would have been fighting miranda or pavlik or calzaghe not blown up welterweights. if JToney was in their with spinks he would have Fukin thrown punches not jus follow spinks around the ring and then get angry at the end of the fight

at the end of the fight taylor made it very clear that he is in it for the money, i knew this since the ouma fight and it was made clearer in the press conference and the interview at the end. he isnt willing to fight the best, jus innit for the money and then go home and watch coronation street.

Toney has throughout his career called out the best, he loves fighting. that love is missing from taylor. spinks jus shouldnt be mentioned in the same paragraph as toney let alone the same sentence. Miranda jus doesnt have the old school ruggedness, stubborness and chin of a toney nor dus he have the defense of a toney. toney's style is so good thats why he has moved up in weight and won titles.

trust me we should all appreciate toney whilst he's here, the guys been fighting at the highest level since alot of us were either not born or very young (turned pro in 1988...i think)he's always called out the best, calld out fighters like nigel benn and eubank. sounds weird saying that cos them two fighters were in a different era...(the 1990's) and toney is still here entertaining us. infact he is fighting next week...awesome! this is a true fighter, completer package. its not a ordinary fighter who calls everyone out from middleweight to heavyweight, has about 80 pro fights under his belt with only 6 losses and never being stopped. i have never seen a fighter like James Toney and trust me i have seen alot...the best!
God Bless him!

**Kev** · 05-20-2007 06:12 AM

I agree completely, not for nothing do I have the fat one as my avatar pic!

Toney is proper old school, will fight anybody at any time and like you say has never shown fear at any time in his career.

He manages to stay and look calm in any circumstance something that only a bare handful of fighters are able to do.

**Lionheart Lacy** · 05-20-2007 06:43 AM

CC to you too! yes his ability to stay calm is awesome in the most scariest of situations. i mean i didnt think i'd say this but this guy is more stubborn than eubank and has a betta chin.

toney has a great ability to adapt (when in shape) something you cant say about alot of the champions these days....btw taylor is a disgrace. calzaghe should fight kessler, or retire. he has made 20 title defenses out of empty tomato cans..

btw i thort miranda looked drained in the first 30 seconds, his punches were not explosive i dont know why probably drained him self backstage from all the pressure. i dunno but did anyone else notice this

and another odd thing was he didnt staredown with pavlik, didnt seem happy when they announce his name like in the AA fight and even worse he started backing up in the first 15 seconds without taking a punch....why? i dunno. im not making excuses for him but these things i noticed before the fight really got started?

**p4pking** · 05-20-2007 06:50 AM

it's because Toney really worked his way up the hard way and devloped SKILLS few fighters have... Miranda may have had a rough upbrininging and as such it's easy to be sympathetic to him... but at the end of the day it comes down to who is the better fighter.. It doesn't really matter what you've been through in life, there are abilities and attributes that are only brought out in the ring.. Miranda is nowhere near Toneys class as a figher.

**Drama** · 05-20-2007 06:51 AM

Agreed Toney is the man

**JonesJrMayweather** · 05-20-2007 07:24 AM

james toney uses the philly shell like mayweather..just a slightly different version. he's really good at fighting on the inside and doing little things that will either make a fighter miss or lessen the damage of the landed punches..that's why he can fight with anybody of any size..against heavyweights its to his advantage to fight on the inside because most of the heavy can't throw short punches and toney could sit in the storm and land..but if he came across a long guy like one of the klitchkos and they used the jab he'd be in trouble...but all in all JT would have been exciting..and when is he fighting again?

**Gandalf** · 05-20-2007 12:53 PM

James Toney has been one of my favourite fighters for years. Im extremely interested in how he fares next week.....

I cannot see Toney going on for too much longer, so Im happy to just enjoy his fights while we still have him around...

A real old school warrior with skills to boot...

, for a nice posting Lionheart