A fighter’s pride will often take them a long way in the ring, and nobody knows that better than James Toney.
The mental belief that no boxer is better than them can get competitors through tough moments and allow them to keep on waking through fire to get the win.
American legend Toney did that many times in his decorated career and for that has earned his place amongst boxing’s greats. Between 1988 and 2017 he fought 92 times in all and won 77 of those fights, 47 by way of knockout. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes and famously mastered the shoulder roll defence technique.
‘Lights Out’ fought the likes of John Ruiz, Evander Holyfield, Hasim Rahman, Roy Jones Jr and many more, and thinks that his era was one of the best ever.
Speaking to The Parry, he was asked if there were any fighters from the current crop who could have been world champion during his day, and picked only four.
“‘Bud’ Crawford could be one, David Benavidez, [Gervonta] ‘Tank’ [Davis], Shakur Stevenson, but Shakur, he move, he box, he like a Sugar Ray Leonard type. All good fighters but other than that, I don’t see no one else after that, no one, no one.”
Of the fighters he picked, Crawford is a two-weight undisputed champion who has held titles in four weight divisions, while ‘Tank’ and Stevenson are both current lightweight belt holders and Benavidez is a former super-middleweight champion who is chasing a big fight against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
