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By Doug Fischer - I’ve got good news and bad news to report from Reseda, California.
The good news is that James Toney is back and looking about as sharp as I’ve seen him in four or five years.
However, for more than a few fans, that’s also the bad news.
After Toney was dropped and dominated by Samuel Peter in their rematch last January there was a sizable contingent of fans around the world who happily said “good-bye, James.” Sadly, many of those fans used to love watching Toney work his craft and talk his trash back when he was the middleweight and super middleweight champ.
However, much of the respect Toney earned during his glory years and during his amazing comeback year of 2003, when he beat then-undefeated Vassiliy Jirov for the IBF cruiserweight title in a classic 12-round confrontation and then dominated 3-to-1 favorite Evander Holyfield to a ninth-round stoppage, was gradually stripped away by his often frustrating heavyweight campaign, which was pockmarked by persistent injuries, layoffs, excessive weight gain, and testing positive for banned substances. [details]
The good news is that James Toney is back and looking about as sharp as I’ve seen him in four or five years.
However, for more than a few fans, that’s also the bad news.
After Toney was dropped and dominated by Samuel Peter in their rematch last January there was a sizable contingent of fans around the world who happily said “good-bye, James.” Sadly, many of those fans used to love watching Toney work his craft and talk his trash back when he was the middleweight and super middleweight champ.
However, much of the respect Toney earned during his glory years and during his amazing comeback year of 2003, when he beat then-undefeated Vassiliy Jirov for the IBF cruiserweight title in a classic 12-round confrontation and then dominated 3-to-1 favorite Evander Holyfield to a ninth-round stoppage, was gradually stripped away by his often frustrating heavyweight campaign, which was pockmarked by persistent injuries, layoffs, excessive weight gain, and testing positive for banned substances. [details]
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