for granting every boxing fan their wish by beating John Ruiz and taking his title along with basically the only reason we had to deal with the painfully boring touchy feely style of ruiz. James Toney you are my hero!!!
Plus now Ruiz has to deal with the distinction of being the man who lost to 2 of the 3 men in the history of boxing who won a heavyweight title after previously being middleweight champions. Toney & Jones Jr. both beat Ruiz for a heavyweight title and both men were former middleweight champions.
i must agree. toney has finally rid us of the human clinching machine.
atleast we agree on something, I still hate you.
Hopefully now they match up toney with byrd to unify those 2 belts and then the winner of rahman vs klitschko can meet the winner of toney vs byrd and we can have a unified champ finally.
not one interesting fighter in the lot. toney is the only semi-intriguing story.
Sad state of affairs in the heavyweight division.....Toney was a fucking butterball and he still beat John Ruiz. I am happy Ruiz is finally calling it quits. Thank god for the lighter weight classes in boxing these days.
i like Toney but he's gotten slow and lumbering. Ruiz was pathetic. Toney was right, he was an easy matchup. Toney fought exactly what he had planned and won.
I watched it on the rerun...I was hopin for a KO...but it was def a good fight. I don't think Toney can unify the belts as I don't think he can match up against any of the other belt holders cause he's real short.
The problem is that there is little to no interest in todays american youth for boxing. Boxing is not the same sport it was during the 70's when you could see your favorite fighters match up on network TV and everyone knew who the champ was. It's not like any of the other major sports because number one it's strictly a PPV event for any halfway decent fight and fighters aren't busy anymore, your lucky to get a champ defending his title once a year. The majority of the sport has now become a foreign affair almost everything south of 160 is latino dominated and everything north of 160... not many people care but even the heavyweight class has been foreign run the last several years since Lewis won the title.
I love Toney and think he is a legend and an old school fighter, he's never been a physical specimen but he loves the fight game and he makes it entertaining. Though it's a sad day when the elite boxing division has a former middleweight champ in the twilight of his career as its only shining ray of hope.
Quote:Though it's a sad day when the elite boxing division has a former middleweight champ in the twilight of his career as its only shining ray of hope.
change middleweight to superheavyweight and this would be an ironic moment
there is no super heavyweight division, thats in the olympics.
so much for that fuckin celebration, ruiz is gonna get his belt fuckin back.
Quote:By TIM DAHLBERG, AP Boxing Writer
May 11, 2005
John Ruiz lost his piece of the heavyweight title in the ring when he was beaten by James Toney. Now he will likely get it back after Toney tested positive for steroids after the April 30 fight at Madison Square Garden.
Assuming the World Boxing Association follows its regulations and reinstates Ruiz, he will have gone from a retired former champion to the WBA title holder in a matter of only a few days.
The New York State Athletic Commission on Wednesday changed Toney's victory to a no contest after his post-fight urine test came back positive for nandrolone. The commission suspended Toney for 90 days and ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine.
ADVERTISEMENT
The real damage for Toney, though, will come from losing the heavyweight title that he won for the first time in a unanimous decision over Ruiz.
``I'll go to all ends of the earth to make sure Johnny gets the belt back,'' Ruiz's manager, Norman Stone, said Wednesday.
Toney didn't return phone calls, but issued a statement through his promoter, Dan Goossen, denying he ever used performance enhancing drugs.
``I don't do drugs, period,'' Toney said. ``I've never used any illegal substances to prepare myself for a fight.''
Goossen, who also didn't return calls, suggested in the statement that medications given Toney by his doctor following surgery to repair his biceps and triceps last year resulted in the test coming up positive.