theres a video of james toney sparring gerlad mcclellan and my impression was he dominated him in every aspect. mcclellan could not land one right hand on james and that was his big punch. thats one of those fantasy fights and everybody asks how fighters would do against mclellan in fantasy match ups. hes a boogeyman. he didnt look like a boogeyman against toney. i say that just to try to place james because he had a lot of ups and downs throughout a long career that its easy not to remember what he was at his peak. ray leonard had some bad knockouts and some controversial decisions at the end of his career and it tarnished his legacy. people look back at him they forget what he was at his peak. at his peak james was one of the most complete fighters ever. he had everything. where james ranks all time is different from where james was at his absolute peak. he might have been one of the most perfect fighters fighting at his very peak. a top 5 middleweight.
hopkins you could take that a few different ways. toney beats a young hopkins up. badly. he probably struggles against old hopkins, for a lot of the same reasons he struggled against jones.
I saw that shyt too a few months back, james made that sparring session look easy against g man
me personally, i would put james into the hall but i think he'll have a hard time getting in. he's a three division champ but he would argue he's a 5x time champ (wbu at 175 and nabf at heavy
)
when i look at james resume he got some names on there
nunn (very underrated win imo, arguable his best as well)
mccallum x2
barkley
jirov
holyfield
whats mind boggling about james is how he can put on great performances like he did against barkley and mccallum 2nd fight and fukking lose to guys like Drake Thazadi
what impresses me the most in his career is how he was able to move up all the way to heavyweight and still able to take a punch. when it comes to GOAT chin boxing is damn near criminal james don't get mentioned, i don't ever remember james getting hurt until the first fight he had with sam peter. james was out of shape, off balance and still able to school the younger, stronger peter but didn't get the decision. that right there alone just shows us how talented that motherfukker was.
a prime james vs a prime hopkins at 160, i'd give the edge to hopkins.
I'd real life smack a nikka for disagreeing !
