Toney wants to fight the Arreola-Klitschko Winner – News

By Dave Lahr: 41-year-old James Toney (71-6-3, 43 KO’s) is still interested in fighting one or both of the Klitschko brothers, and is hoping that he can get the winner of the September 26th fight between Chris Arreola vs. Vitali Klitschko. According to news reports, Toney is hoping he can fight Vitali Klitschko next.

That match-up seems like a fight that I would prefer not to see, because it would likely be such a huge mismatch. I honestly don’t know whether Toney thinks he can really beat Vitali or Wladimir Klitschko or if Toney is mostly interested in just getting a good payday.

Who knows? Toney might actually think he can beat them, which is kind of scary that Toney would be misjudging what’s left his talent and thinking he could compete with the huge Klitschko brothers. Toney, a master technician, probably sees all the things that the Klitschko brothers do wrong in the ring both defensively and offensively, and thinks he could expose those things in a fight.

I think Toney actually could if the Klitschko brothers were both 5’10”, 41 and overweight like Toney is. Given those limitations, I could see Toney probably beating both of the Klitschko brothers on the same night if they were old, fat and short. But that’s not going to happen, and I don’t envy being in Toney’s position if he’s given a shot at Vitali Klitschko.

Boxing being the sport it is, Toney might actually get a shot at the winner of the Arreola-Klitschko bout. Toney is ranked #9 in the IBF, #11 WBC and #12 WBO. There’s certainly a lot more deserving heavyweights in ranked in front of Toney that I’d rather see fight Vitali, but sadly, none of them have the name power that Toney has, which is why my guess is that Toney will be Vitali Klitschko’s next opponent should he get by Arreola on the 26th of September.

Vitali has a no mandatory defense coming up for his World Boxing Council heavyweight title, meaning that he can fight pretty much anyone he wants in the top 15. I can’t see anyone else available that Klitschko fan fight instead, unless Klitschko decides to fight a unification bout against the winner of the November 7th fight between WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev and British challenger David Haye.

Vitali had already been burned once by Haye when David walked out on contract negotiations and opted to fight Valuev. But Klitschko might decide to try for a second chance of Haye looks sparking in his fight against Valuev and takes him out in an impressive fashion. If that’s the case, then it would be crazy for Vitali to fight Toney when a potentially big money fight against Haye would be there for the taking. At 38, Vitali can’t afford to be too proud not to take another shot at Haye.

As for Toney, he has a fight coming up on September 12th against Matthew Greer (12-5, 11 KO’s), a fighter that I have never heard of before this bout. It looks as if Toney’s playing it safe and avoiding anyone halfway decent out of fear of getting beaten. Toney escaped with a questionable 12 round split decision win over Fres Oquendo in December.

Many boxing fans felt that Toney lost that fight and I’m in agreement with them. I saw Toney winning only three rounds and getting totally dominated by the 36-year-old Oquendo, who didn’t look all that great himself. Toney was unable to pull the trigger and looked pretty much like a shot fighter.

I can’t remember the last time Toney looked good in a fight. It’s been years dating back to his 12 round decision win over John Ruiz in 2005. The decision was later overturned after a drug test showed that Toney tested was positive for a banned substance.

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