For reasons only he knows, former multi-weight champion and onetime star James Toney refuses to give up fighting. “Lights Out,” now aged 47 and sporting a 76-10-3(46) record compiled over a quite astonishing 27 years as a pro boxer, will box Canada’s Eric Martel Bahoeli next month.
Toney has put the fight up on his Twitter page and the bout, scheduled for just eight-rounds, is up on BoxRec as happening in Ontario on November 13th. Perhaps fittingly, that day is Friday the 13th.
The term ‘crowd effect’ is a very powerful thing, and it has been for centuries. Anyone who spent their lives under constant spotlight, being the target of praise, popularity, fame and of course colossal earnings, will never want to live without it. Just as there are physical withdrawals from drugs, there is an equal amount of psychological withdrawal from lack of constant attention.
There comes a time for every fighter, when there more boxing fans suggesting retirement, than clamoring for the next fight. Of course it is much easier to suggest, then to do. For Roy Jones Jr., this has been the case for a considerable amount of time now. Jones has not faced a highly rated opponent since 2011, when he was knocked out by Denis Lebedev in Russia. Since then Jones was able to accumulate three victories against less known competition, and is planning on keeping his boxing career afloat.
Whatever you think of him and his decision to be still fighting when in his mid-40s and way past his best, it has to be agreed how future Hall of Famer James Toney has given his whole life to the sport that made him famous, respected and successful. An old-school warrior and fiercly proud of it, Toney, who has already achieved more than enough to have walked away satisfied, has two more goals to reach before he’s done: to have fought a total of 100 pro bouts and to retire as the undisputed heavyweight champion. One of these targets may well be reached, while the other will not. Toney is next scheduled to box in Latvia on July 26th against the huge Evgeny Orlov. Even at this stage in his career, Toney should have enough left to out-score the man-mountain who is colorfully known as “The Molecule From Hell.”
The fact that Sprott won the fight is not in doubt, but the terrible scores by two of the judges makes you shake your head in sadness for the sport. The judges scored it 29-28, 30-27 and 30-27. There was no way that Sprott won all three rounds of the fight unless you ignored completely how Gavern was lighting him up in the 2nd round and had Sprott hurt.
Sprott may have won the fight, but it was hardly as lopsided as the two judges that scored the fight 30-27. That was some terrible scoring, and it kind of cheapened his win. In the 3rd round, Gavern hurt his right elbow in the opening seconds of the round, and from that point on he was in a defensive shell throwing next to no punches.
Toney, a veteran of 88 pro outings dating back to the tail end of the 1980s when his marvellous career began, has surprised many by getting himself in good physical shape (at least Toney looks to be in good shape, having dropped something like 50-pounds) and tipping-in at a lowly (for him) 217-pounds. This, and the fact that Toney has been matched with relative novice Matt Legg (who has just 7 pro bouts to his name) in his first fight, must be what has influenced the bookmakers.
Fight fans can expect an interesting, hopefully exciting, latest instalment of the popular “Prizefighter” tournament on November 14th. Set to go out, as usual, live on Sky Sports, the latest tournament is another international heavyweights edition, with a Team USA Vs. Team UK element added for further intrigue.
The full eight-man line-up has been confirmed by Matchroom Sports as follows:
James Toney (USA)
Jason Gavern (USA)
Brian Minto (USA)
Damian “Bolo” Wills (USA) – (stepping in for Sherman “Tank” Williams, who pulled out for some reason)
Larry Olubamiwo (UK)
Michael Sprott (UK) – (stepping in for an injured Sam Sexton)
Matt Legg (UK)
Tom Little (UK)
Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (16-0, 14 KOs) outpointed American legend James ‘Lights Out’ Toney (74-8-3, 45 KOs) over 12 rounds to capture the World Boxing Foundation heavyweight title at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre this afternoon in Melbourne, Australia.
The first half of the fight saw an interesting contest with the shorter Toney starting positively looking to attack Browne with Browne using his range to set up power shot opportunities. Toney caught Browne with some good right hands in round five while Browne used his jab to great effect to keep Toney at bay for the most part of each round, to rack up points with the judges. Browne’s heavy hands always seemed to look threatening but the Australian respected Toney’s defensive nous and opted against being overly aggressive.
The second half of the fight saw Browne continue to use his size to control the smaller Toney whilst Toney reduced his offensive output which saw Browne take the later rounds to record a 117-111, 119-109 and 120-108 victory on the three judge’s scorecards.
Tomorrow afternoon Melbourne, Australia time, one of the biggest fight cards seen in Melbourne in recent years takes place at the Melbourne Exhibition & Convention Centre. Headlining the action is unbeaten Australian heavyweight Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (15-0, 14 KOs) who takes on current IBU heavyweight and former multiple division world champion James ‘Lights Out’ Toney (74-7-5, 45 KOs) for the World Boxing Foundation heavyweight title.
Current IBU heavyweight champion and future hall of famer James Toney (74-7-3, 45 KOs) and his father, trainer and manager John Arthur took time out to exclusively speak to ESB today ahead of Toney’s heavyweight showdown with unbeaten Australian Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne (15-0, 14 KOs) in Melbourne, Australia this Sunday.
Toney and Arthur discussed all subjects, including his time in Melbourne and fight preparation, recent ring inactivity, managing of weight, time in the UFC and future plans.
Arthur explains the bout with Browne came after the proposed bout with Tomasz Adamek fell through, that was scheduled for last September. “We were supposed to fight Adamek in September” where after that “I started to reach out to everybody and it seemed like every door that got called in the United States was closed. I reached out to some people and they put me in touch with some promoters in Australia and they said they wanted to make this happen and this is where we have ended up at… This kid (Browne) has wanted to fight James and James has never ducked and dodged anybody his whole career so I said let’s take it.”
By James Slater: James “Lights Out” Toney has been somewhat quiet as of late; the 44-year-old living legend not having fought since his April 2012 stoppage win over Bobby Gunn. Aside from calling out British heavyweight giant Tyson Fury late last year (a fight that failed to materialize and perhaps would not be sanctioned in the U.K anyway), Toney has made no headlines.
But now, the word is the former middleweight, super-middleweight and cruiserweight world champ could be facing another unbeaten big man in a fight this spring. Australian man mountain, Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne has been quoted in an article on Boxing News Magazine’s web site as saying a fight between he and Toney is “80 to 90-percent going to happen.”