James Toney tells Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, ‘Include me in for exhibition fights’

By Boxing News - 05/08/2020 - Comments

By Jim Dower: Boxing great James ‘Lightsout’ Toney is giving Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield a heads up that he wants to be included in their exhibition matches. The 51-year-old former three-division world champion Toney (77-10-3, 47 KOs) hasn’t fought since 2017, but he’s still game.

It would be interesting to see Toney face Tyson and Holyfield in exhibition matches. However, if Toney is going to do that, then he needs to think about losing a little weight. Toney has put on some pounds since retiring in 2017, and he may not be in good enough condition to give a good account of himself against Tyson and Holyfield.

Toney is younger than the 53-year-old Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) and the 57-year-old Holyfield (44-10-2, 29 KOs), both of which recently revealed that they’d be fighting in exhibition matches.

James Toney ready to join Tyson and Holyfield

“To all those bringing up my name in these exhibition fights… count me in,” said Toney on social media. “If they want to do it, give me a call. I ain’t going nowhere.”

Toney beat Holyfield by a ninth-round knockout in October 2003. Holyfield was 40-years-old at the time and Toney 35. That was a rough patch during Holyfield’s career, as he lost three consecutive fights to Chris Byrd, Toney and Larry Donald.

If Toney can get in shape, he would give Tyson and Holyfield a lot to think about.

The one common thing about thee three fights is Holyfield was entirely outclassed. This wasn’t the Holyfield that boxing fans had remembered earlier in his career. By that point, he wasn’t the same guy that had gone to war and beaten Riddick Bowe and Mike Tyson.

Toney has been in a lot of top fighters during his professional career. He’s the likes of Roy Jones Jr., Sam Peter, Mike McCallum, and Reggie Johnson. The list goes on and on. Toney has a massive amount of experience and ring knowledge.

Surprisingly, Toney isn’t in demand as a trainer as he knows so much about the game. Toney would be the ideal trainer for a lot of the elite fighters in the sport.

‘Iron’ Mike Tyson surprised a lot of boxing fans recently in the workout clip of him working out with his coach. Even though Tyson looked overweight, his hand speed, power, and skills looked great. The video of Tyson has gone viral, and boxing fans and boxers are impressed with what they’ve seen of him.

Toney doesn’t have the same hand speed and power that Tyson possesses, but he makes up for it with his talent.

 

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