By Mark Workman

James “Lights Out” Toney has now fought four times as a heavyweight and while many seem to think he’s a possible future heavyweight champ, some people just can’t seem to envision the idea of Toney as the undisputed heavyweight champion.

Is James Toney’s pursuit of heavyweight superstardom a serious menacing threat to the heavyweight division or simply an exercise in futility and plain old denial of one’s physical limitations in the division? Or is he just a heavyweight mercenary out for the money?

James Nathaniel Toney was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on August 24, 1968. Currently he is fighting out of Sherman Oaks, California. Toney (69-4-2, 43 KOs) has captured titles as a middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and cruiserweight. He is a former IBF middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight champion.

Toney won the WBA heavyweight belt from John Ruiz via unanimous decision in April of 2005, but after Toney failed a post-fight doping test and the steroid Nandrolone was found in his system, the fight was ruled a no-contest and the belt returned to Ruiz. He currently wears the IBA heavyweight belt, a lightly regarded bauble in the increasingly putrid pond of alphabet organizations.

As an amateur, Toney compiled a record of 31 wins, 2 losses and 29 of those wins by KO. At the tender age of 20, Toney decided to turn pro. After racking up a professional record of 25-0-1 with 18 KOs, Toney challenged Michael Nunn for his IBF middleweight title in May of 1991. In a fight where Toney was behind on the scorecards, he made a miraculous comeback by stopping Nunn in the eleventh round and capturing his first major title. That very same year, Toney was named Ring magazine’s Fighter of the Year.

Constantly fighting with his weight, Toney then moved up to super middleweight in 1992. At 168 pounds he won memorable fights against boxers such as Iran Barkley—beating Barkley so badly that Iran’s corner wouldn’t let him come back out for the tenth round—but lost a lopsided unanimous decision to Roy Jones, Jr. in November of 1994.

Jones put Toney down in the third round, the first in Toney’s career. Toney blamed ex-manager Jackie Kallen for the loss and even went as far as threatening to kill her. He reconciled his differences with Kallen and is now self-managed. Toney made considerable efforts to call out Roy Jones, Jr. for a rematch but his words fell on deaf ears as Jones never answered the rematch call. Toney finally moved up to light heavyweight when he was no longer able to make the 168-pound super middleweight limit.

After the Jones fight, Toney fought Montell Griffin in February of 1995 and lost a majority decision. He would fight Griffin again in December of 1996 and this time lose a unanimous decision. In both fights with Griffin, most fans thought Toney should have been declared the winner. Toney would fight Mike McCallum for the third time in February of 1997, winning a unanimous decision and capturing the WBU cruiserweight title, another lightly regarded championship belt.

Forever fighting his personal battle of the bulge, Toney would endure constant problems in making weight, forcing him into the heavier weight divisions, finally landing him permanently in the heavyweight division where he currently resides.

I’ve always liked James Toney as a fighter but I just don’t get him as a heavyweight, and I’m not sure I ever will. Even though I can sometimes live without his excessive trash talking and brash image, this is part of his appeal with many of the fans. Passive heavyweights don’t exactly create a lot of excitement and sell tickets. And Toney is far from passive.

He’s a charismatic fighter who brings a big marquee name to the heavyweight ranks, something that is so desperately needed in a division of barely known champions. But Toney walks around between fights bloated and not looking much like a real heavyweight champion.

In four fights as a heavyweight, Toney has come into the ring heavier each time he’s fought, causing many to wonder if he’ll ever win his battle with the refrigerator. And this recent steroids business doesn’t help with answering that question.

In his campaign as a heavyweight, he’s fought Dominick Guinn, WBA titlist John Ruiz, the legendary Evander Holyfield and Rydell Booker. And even though Toney has looked very good in all of these fights, I just don’t see him beating the bigger heavyweights such as Wladimir Klitschko.

Toney hasn’t turned the lights out on anybody in the heavyweight division except an aging and shot Evander Holyfield, whose corner threw in the towel in the ninth round of their fighter, after Toney had floored Evander with a bodyshot. I wonder if Toney would have been so successful against a younger Holyfield.

I think James Toney has a good chance of beating all four of the current heavyweight champions: Hasim Rahman, Chris Byrd, Lamon Brewster and John Ruiz, again. But I just don’t believe that he can effectively compete with the much larger heavyweights of today.

Toney is a skilled tactician and vicious in-fighter, rolling his shoulders and slipping punches and then masterfully countering with short and thudding right hands, uppercuts and vicious left hooks. His immense talent is without question.

He has more boxing skills than maybe all of the current champions combined but can he hold his own against the bigger fighters such as Klitschko? Wladimir has a 5 inch reach and 9 inch height advantage over him, not to mention more weight that he carries a lot more naturally? I’m not convinced he can. But James Toney is never a fighter to be counted out or disregarded.

If Toney and Wladimir did fight and James could lure Klitschko into his trap and fight him on the inside, anything is possible. I could easily see Toney slowly dismantling the bigger Klitschko fighting on the inside with his short, snapping and heavy right hands and uppercuts. But I doubt Wladimir would be foolish enough to fall into that trap and would instead fight Toney at a distance, keeping him at bay with his large height and reach advantages.

Wladimir was able to hold off Sam Peter this way and beat him, even after getting up off the floor from three knockdowns. Toney is even smaller than Peter, giving away five inches in height and doesn’t have Peter’s knockout power. I just don’t see Toney beating Wladimir as long as Klitschko fights the smart fight.

Recently, John Ruiz filed a lawsuit against Toney for allegedly causing damage to his career and health, based on Toney’s steroid usage in their bout. Toney tested positive for Nandrolone, a drug that increases muscle strength, size and hardness and decreases body fat. It also reduces fatigue associated with training and the time required for the body o recover after physical exertion.

John Ruiz, the division’s champ with nine lives, has called Toney nothing but a “blown up middleweight.” A bitter public war has erupted between them and a rematch may be the only hope John Ruiz has to create any interest at all in one of his future fights, outside of unification bouts with the other three belt-holders. But Toney cannot fight again for the WBA title until mid 2007, as per the WBA rules and punishment imposed upon him for steroid usage. But that punishment does not prevent him from fighting for any of the other three titles.

If the sport had one governing body, as it should, Toney wouldn’t be able to fight for any title until he was nearly 39 years old. Of course, there is always the option of Toney fighting Ruiz again without the WBA title on the line; but as long as we have to sit with these numerous ABC titles, I don’t think fighting outside of them does anything at all to help the sport or ticket sales for those fights. But that’s certainly a topic for debate.

Toney has denied the allegations made against him by Ruiz, saying that the results of the doping test were due to medication he was taking to heal a muscle injury. In any event, the punishment stands and he can’t fight for the WBA title again until mid 2007; and his legacy is forever stained by this whole debacle.

Toney has to fight a rematch against Ruiz—and pass the post-fight dope test—to set this entire ordeal straight in the minds of the fans. Many will never believe that he fairly beat Ruiz until a rematch is fought and he beats Ruiz again. Ruiz may not even be fighting in two years, much less still hold the title; and who knows where Toney will stand in the sport in two years.

Once considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, I just can’t picture James Toney, at the age of 37, as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, so why do we care? The division needs young heavyweights who are the future of the heavyweight division and can fuel excitement and interest in the sport again and bring back more of the general public who have given up on boxing.

Promoter Don King has already stated in the press that Hasim Rahman’s first defense of his new WBC title—received after champ Vitali Klitschko recently retired—should be against James Toney. King has said that a fight against Toney is “the fight the public wants to see.” I not only wonder if this is true but whether or not this is good for boxing, considering Toney’s recent problems.

On December 15 Toney was to next fight Rob Calloway (56-5-1, 43 KOs) but has just pulled out of the fight at the prospect of fighting Rahman in early 2006. Rahman fought Rob Calloway in June of 2004 and knocked him out in the second round. I was very curious to see if Toney could do better than that, eighteen months later. Oleg Maskaev, the new WBC No. 1 contender, and Wladimir Klitschko are also possible opponents for Rahman’s first defense of his new title.

 

Toney portrayed heavyweight legend Joe Frazier in director Michael Mann’s biopic of the life of Muhammad Ali, starring Will Smith as Ali. I sometimes wonder if James Toney is more suited to portraying a heavyweight than actually fighting as one. One has to wonder how much more his weight is going to increase in future fights and how much his stamina will suffer because of it.

He looked sharp in his most recent fight against Dominick Guinn (25-3-1, 18 KOs), a fighter with less than half the experience of Toney and not even close to as many knockouts, but Troney appeared bloated and far from the image of a true heavyweight champion.

Some of the most astute boxing writers in the world picked Ruiz to defeat Toney because of Toney’s small size and what many perceive to be a “middleweight in a heavyweight’s body,” carrying too much weight for his small frame. But Toney gave Ruiz a masterful boxing lesson and quite a good beating.

During a March press conference to promote the Ruiz fight, Toney lost it and had to be restrained by his promoter, Dan Goosen, and security after getting into a profanity-laced screaming match with Ruiz’s trainer/manager Norman Stone, in what they have called absolute “‘roid rage.”

Toney is a brilliant fighter, has a strong and loyal following and is certainly a future Hall of Fame inductee; but I’m a firm believer in the fact that boxing needs to go back to having only one champion, not four. With James Toney being unable to fight for the WBA title until 2007, having him win one of the other heavyweight titles prevents complete title unification until that time. I couldn’t be more against that. Boxing needs unification in every weight division for the good of the sport.

And if he’s using steroids to win fights, he shouldn’t be fighting at all. The last thing the sport needs is another death in the ring due to a grossly unfair mismatch advantage because a fighter is using a banned substance. But we may never know the whole truth behind this Nandrolone situation, so I’d prefer to give Toney the benefit of the doubt.

Many see Toney as the savior of the heavyweight division, thinking he will bring more excitement and a big marquee name to the division; but I wonder if this is really more about what the current heavyweights lack than how much Toney truly possesses as a heavyweight.

With the recent retirement of WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko and the current state of the heavyweight division, I think James Toney has a good chance of making a considerable dent in the heavyweight ranks, but I just can’t see him at his age becoming a lasting force in the division against the much bigger heavyweights of today.

With his win over Ruiz, James Toney stood to be only the third middleweight in history, after Bob Fitzsimmons and Roy Jones, Jr., to capture the heavyweight title; but with that win now reversed who knows what book will finally be written for James Toney as a heavyweight?

It remains to be seen what role James Toney will play in this supposed upcoming unification tournament that Don King now says will happen in this coming New Year. And even though I believe James Toney has a good chance of making it through a good portion of such a tournament, I believe bigger fighters such as Wladimir Klitschko will eventually derail his campaign as a heavyweight.

But while he’s fighting, there’s surely some big money to be made.

For comments about this article, you can email Mark Workman at mark@markworkman.com .