Lights Out For James Toney At Age 44, Loses Another Payday Fight
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Correspondent
New York, NY (April 30th, 2013)– At 5’10” and 250 pounds, James ‘Lights Out’ Toney’s 1o year invasion of the heavyweight division has been hit by two irrefutable realities: Toney is too short to win a major heavyweight title, and at age 44, he is too old to win a minor heavyweight title as well.
Toney’s once considerable technical boxing skills are just memories now for the man who once stopped Evander Holyfield, and decisioned fighters like 31-0 IBF Cruiserweight champion Vassily Jirov and 22-0 WBC Continental Americas Heavyweight champion Rydell Booker quite easily. Toney had WBA World Heavyweight champion John Ruiz knocked down and he decisioned him too, only to have the result reversed in New York state due to testing positive for a banned substance.
Toney has returned to the ring three times in the last 19 months in fights of differing levels of significance. One factor is clear, however. Toney might have finally reached his own situation of ‘Lights Out’ as he career reaches the end of the road.
In November 2011, Toney lost a 12 round decision to then interim WBA World Cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev in Russia. Toney then won the vacant IBU Heavyweight title after stopping Bobby Gunn, who broke his hand. On April 28, 2013, Toney lost a 12 round decision to 16-0 Australian Lucas Browne for the vacant WBF World Heavyweight title, his twenty-ninth world title fight of major and minor status.
Having fought and won world titles in divisions we know, such as IBF middleweight, to divisions we don’t know, like IBA Super Cruiserweight, James Toney has been around the block and then some. His last two losses have been on the road traveling to foreign venues for another payday, a bad habit aging American fighters get into.
At least in Great Britain fighters like Audley Harrison and Danny Williams have many opportunities for payday losses on the home front or in Europe nearby.
Born in August 1968, Toney’s career record is 74-8-3, with 45 knockouts. His fights are often noteworthy because the tempo slows to his methodical, quiet defense and jab pace, where he uses an old school style featuring a shoulder roll to avoid punches, with keen infighting. A Michigan native, Toney debuted in October 1988 with a second round stoppage of Stephen Lee in Michigan. A 1987 Michigan Silver and Golden Gloves champion, Toney has fought between 157 and 257 pounds in his career.
Toney now lives in California, where only nine of his 85 professional bouts have taken place. The lights may still be on for a few more payday bouts, but soon James Toney will experience lights out on his own career. He should consider it a day, and get out with his faculties intact while he has the chance to reach the Halls of Fame.
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