H2H: Peak James Toney v Peak Joe Calzaghe

[joecaldragon]

OK, I think Toney's peak was from:

JANUARY 1991 when he took Merqui Sosa's unbeaten record
til
JULY 1994 when stopped Prince Charles Williams

In this period, Toney also beat...

Michael Nunn (36-0), Reggie Johnson, HOFer Mike McCallum, Doug DeWitt, Iran Barkley, Tim Littles

He didn't lose a fight, won the IBF middleweight title, the IBF super-middleweight title, and The Ring Fighter Of The Year 1991.

In July 1994, he was pound-for-pound no.2 behind Pernell Whitaker.

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And I think Calzaghe's peak was from:

JUNE 2003 when he stopped Byron Mitchell
til
NOVEMBER 2007 when he outpointed Mikkel Kessler
(*sorry but I did not think Joe performed well against Hopkins)

In this period Calzaghe also beat...

Jeff Lacy, Sakio Bika, Mario Veit, Kabary Salem, Mger Mkrtchian, Evans Ashira

He didn't lose a fight, and won the IBF, WBC and WBA supermiddleweight titles.

In November 2007, he was pound-for-pound no.3 behind Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

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SO... how do you think a fight between these two greats would have gone? Please vote as well.

[Xplosive]

The Toney that fought Barkley, takes Joe apart and wins a punishing UD, if not a late TKO.

Because Toney is so fat, and so much of a joke now, people forget how good he used to be. He was at one point very possibly the P4P best, before a man named Roy came around.

Toney at his very best would give ANY middleweight in history a tough fight(except Jones), and would have beaten alot of others.

[DINAMITA]

I think Toney has the perfect style to defeat Calzaghe convincingly. A tremendous counter-puncher with great strength, mental toughness, and punching power. Toney by late KO.

[Sweet Pea]

Toney was never P4P best. He was a very good fighter in his prime, but as good as he was at his set style, he was a tad limited to be honest, in that he didn't perform nearly as well against out-boxers and movers as he did come-forward fighters who played right into his stationary counter-punching style. I've always thought Toney was a tad overrated and would lose to the likes of Hopkins.

With Calzaghe, both have strengths on each other really, so it's harder to call. Joe leaves himself open a lot, which could lead to a lot of countering opportunities for Toney, but he also has a good jab and great footspeed, which could give Toney problems setting up on the in and out Calzaghe. His combos would more than likely land often(at least 1 or 2 of the flurry), while he may get countered nicely every now and then. But overall I just don't know if Toney has the footwork or the style to effectively beat the out-fighters, aside from the lazy Nunn who he happened to catch down the stretch in a fight he was trailing in.

I'd say it would be a closely contested fight though, Calzaghe outworking and taking Toney off his game, Toney landing the cleaner, harder shots. I'll take Joe by Close Decision. He may be overrated in the General Forum, but he gets underrated elsewhere, while Toney is almost universally overrated IMO.

[Holmes' Jab]

Agree with that last post. Excellent analysis Pea.