By Jim Dower: According to an article from Fightnews, heavyweight James Toney (71-6-3, 43 KOs) said that he’d be willing to move down to 185 pounds to fight Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1, 32 KOs) and that he would knock Bernard out. In light of the 40-year-old Toney’s recent poor showing against Fres Oquendo, a 12-round split decision victory in December, as well as Toney’s equally dismal performances against Hasim Rahman and Danny Batchelder in 2007 and 2008, I find it hard to imagine that Toney could beat a fighter as good as Hopkins at this point.
Though Hopkins is four years older at 44, Bernard has kept himself in excellent condition throughout his 21-year pro career and hasn’t taken nearly as much punishment in the ring that Toney has taken. Frankly, it would be hard to imagine seeing Toney strip down 45 pounds of fat to make the 185 pound catch weight for a bout with Hopkins.
Since weighing in at a firm 217 for his fight with Evander Holyfield in 2003, Toney has consistently come in around the 230 range for most of his bouts, looking round, fat and slow. The extra weight around his middle has seemed to slow him down badly in fights with Samuel Peter, Rahman, Batchelder and Oquendo.
There’s no question that Toney has been a less effective fighter since moving up in weight after his 2003 bout with Holyfield. At this point, it would appear almost impossible for him to trim down to 185 to make a fight with Hopkins, even if Bernard was interested in taking such a fight.
Oh, I’m sure that Toney could take the weight off if he wanted to, but like Chris Byrd who dropped over 30 pounds to fight at light heavyweight and then ended up weak in getting knocked out in the 9th round by Shaun George in May, Toney would probably be far too weakened to fight effectively against Hopkins.
If anything, Toney needs to try and take off some more fat and give Oquendo a rematch and prove conclusively that he’s a better fighter than Fres, because from what I saw of the fight, Oquendo appeared to win the fight. I do think that Toney may have been able to beat Hopkins earlier in his career some 10 or more years ago, but definitely not now.
Hopkins is still fighting remarkably well, good enough to be perhaps the 2nd best fighter in the light heavyweight division after Chad Dawson. There’s not much point in facing Toney right now for Hopkins, because Toney has clearly struggled in his last six fights, losing twice, fighting to a draw and a no contest in the past two years.
In contrast, Hopkins has won three out of his last four fights in the past two years and is coming off a shocking 12-round decision over Kelly Pavlik in October. Hopkins would likely not want to waste what little time he has in his career to face Toney, and at the same time, it would seem unlikely that Showtime or HBO would want to see Hopkins face Toney.
That, of course, could change if Toney was suddenly to rack up a couple of impressive wins over some top heavyweights or light heavyweights , but I don’t see it happening.
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