Soon after, Toney mentioned that he would only wait until the following summer for a Jones fight. Jones however, didn?t seem eager to jump into the ring with Toney any time soon. Following the win over Thornton, Toney began to call out to Roy Jones for a fight.

James Toney would go on to have five non-title fights before defending his Super Middleweight title with a 12 round unanimous decision against veteran Tony Thornton in November of 1993. It was during this fight that Toney showed the world his superior skills and picked up his second world title. He was so badly beaten that his trainer, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, would not allow his fighter to come out for round 9. By the end of round 8, Barkley?s face had been turned into a bloodied mess.

As Barkley swung wildly against his elusive target, Toney countered with short crisp punches to Barkley?s head and body. However, once the opening bell sounded, the fight became a virtual one-sided massacre, as Toney ripped Barkley apart in a close quarters battle. To add to the excitement was the fact that there was bad blood between the two fighters as they both played out their cold as steel street tough image to one another. Going into this fight, Barkley, an aggressive hard punching warrior, was coming off a win over the legendary Thomas Hearns. Following an easy ?tune up? fight against Doug Dewitt, Toney challenged IBF Super Middleweight champion Iran Barkley. Toney?s weight would commonly escalate to 195 lbs between fights and it was becoming increasingly more difficult for him to make the required 160 lbs Middleweight limit.Īfter the second McCallum fight Toney decided to step up to the 168 lbs Super Middleweight division. During many of those defenses, Toney?s toughest opponents were not those of the ring but in fact that of the scales. In 1991, Toney was named Ring magazine?s fighter of the year. Toney would go on to defend his middleweight title 5 more times against the likes of Francesco Dell Aquilla, WBA champion Mike McCallum, Dave Tiberi, Glenn Wolfe, and again McCallum. In that fight, Toney had to overcome a nasty cut (that would later require 33 stitches), to pull out a decision win over Johnson. In fact, Toney had stepped back into the ring to defend his title against the highly dangerous number 1 contender, Reggie Johnson, a mere 7 weeks after he had won the title from Nunn. From the time he fought Nunn, until his fight with Roy Jones in November 1994, Toney had fought an amazing 20 times. Over the next 3 and half years, Toney would become one of boxing?s most active champions. Toney surprised everyone in the arena when he knocked Nunn out in the 11th round and won the title. He entered this match, in Nunn?s hometown of Davenport Iowa, as a huge underdog. On May 10, 1991, Toney earned a title shot against the then undefeated IBF middleweight champion Michael Nunn. Over the next two years, James Toney had compiled a record of 26 wins no losses and 1 draw. Toney then took on Jackie Kallen, a former publicist for the Kronk Boxing Gym, as his new manager. He was 7 and 0 when his manager Johnny ?Ace? Smith, a drug dealer, was shot and killed. On October 26, 1988, at the age of 20, James Toney turned pro. Toney had compiled an amateur record of 31 wins 2 losses and 29 KO?s when he decided that he wanted to make a living in the ring. It was then that Toney realized that he was not a team player and decided to focus his attention on boxing. According to Toney, during the tryout he and Sanders got into a confrontation and exchanged words which escalated to the point where Toney hit Sanders. He blew that opportunity at a University of Michigan training camp when he become involved in an altercation with Deion Sanders. He excelled at both football and amateur boxing and became one of his high school?s top football players He was offered university football scholarships to Michigan State and Western Michigan schools. In high school, he not only had the reputation of being a ?gun packing drug dealer?, but also of a talented athlete. Much of his youth was spent in a typical ghetto environment. He moved to Detroit with his mother Sherrie when his father abandoned him at the age of three. James Nathaniel Toney was born on Augin Grand Rapids Michigan.

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