James Toney is universally recognised as being one of the toughest fighters in boxing history.
Throughout the course of his impressive professional career, Toney fought over 90 times and won world titles in three weight classes.
‘Lights Out’ defeated Michael Nunn to capture the IBF world middleweight title back in 1991, and would defend it on a handful of occasions before he made the move up to super-middleweight, where he defeated Iran Barkley via 9th round stoppage in 1993 to claim the IBF title at 168lbs.
Toney suffered the first defeat of his career at the hands of Roy Jones Jr in November 1994. After multiple unsuccessful attempts at winning a world title once again, Toney captured the IBF cruiserweight title from Vassiliy Jirov in 2003, although he would not make a single defence of this crown.
Despite coming up against an abundance of great fighters, many of which were known for their thunderous punching power, ‘Lights Out’ has named the one fighter who hit him harder than the rest.
In a round of ‘Best I Faced’ with the Ring Magazine, Toney revealed Merqui Sosa as his biggest punching opponent, claiming the Dominican made him ‘see triple’ when they fought back in 1991.
“Pound-for-pound it’s Sosa because he hurt me the most. I’ll never forget that fight, we fought on an ESPN show in Atlantic City on a Sunday. I went at him like I did everyone back then and that mother f****r hit me so hard in the third round I was seeing triple for the next three rounds. He knew how to hit and he was so awkward that I couldn’t time him and he caught me high on the head.”
Sosa competed from 1987 to 2000, twice holding the NABF light heavyweight title. He was also described by Roy Jones Jr as one of the strongest men and hardest punchers he ever faced.
Toney drew the curtain on his career in 2017, shortly after he beat Mike Sheppard in May of that year. The 56-year-old from Michigan has reportedly left the door open for a return to the sport, although it remains unclear whether he will lace his gloves up ever again.
