people speaking about how much Evander “The Real
Deal” Holyfield grew old in front of our eyes and succumbed to an oversized
cruiserweight & younger James “Lights Out” Toney in their heavyweight contest.Based on what I observed, the question remains open, “Should Holyfield retire?” Here is why I state this: This fight showed me how multi-talented James Toney is more so than it showed me how much older Holyfield looked.
Toney deserves his props. He fought a very masterful fight and demonstrated superiority in practically ALL categories of boxing. Toney showed he has tremendous hand-speed at the heavyweight division, he showed he can take a punch as well as he can dish out a punch, maybe even better. This James Toney will present problems for any heavyweight out there today. His defense is very underrated. He continuously made Holyfield miss and made him pay with counterpunches. With his ability to make a fighter miss, and counter effectively with either hand, he poses a true threat to capture the heavyweight title. I would love to see him against either of the big 3 champions (Lewis, Byrd, Jones). I am certain this will further illustrate just how good Toney’s skills are as a heavyweight.
Moreover, Toney became only the 2nd man in history to stop Evander Holyfield (Bowe was the 1st to do so) when trainer Don Turner threw in the towel in the 9th round after Holyfield was knocked down by a series of punches from Toney. Evander made it back to feet but Turner, rightfully so, had seen enough and put his fighter’s health as the top priority and had the fight halted. A very commendable decision…
As for Holyfield, this was the best that I have seen him look in the last few years. He has no reason to drop his head. His shoulder problem appeared healthy and he landed some good left hooks on Toney and yet Toney was able to take the punches. There are several heavyweights in the top ten that are far less talented in defense than James Toney. So any of them may have had problems with Holyfield tonight. Evander stated after the fight, “Its not like the guy doesn’t have good defense. He is a good fighter.” That is a very true statement that merits closer attention.
By hearing an assessment like that from Holyfield, it may also be an indication that his loss tonight may be justified in his mind based on Toney’s outstanding performance.
So before we put too much attention on Holyfield’s decision, may I suggest that we do not overlook what James Toney accomplished tonight. He dominated a warrior that came to fight and was there in front of him and willing to go toe-to-toe.
Hats off to Toney for a great boxing performance! This was a very good heavyweight fight and was good for the sport of boxing!
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Ron Brashear can be contacted at brashear@insideboxing.com, ron@brasheargear.com