James Toney Mocks Shakur Stevenson’s Pound-for-Pound Status

“For what? What has he done?” Toney told About Boxing. “If you want to be top dog, fight the best fighters out there. Don’t make excuses. I did. Roy did. Marvin Hagler did. Who does he have to fight? The likes of Devin Haney, Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.”

Toney has previously attacked Shakur’s safety-first style, but this criticism concerns his choice of opposition. Championships across four divisions have not produced fights with Haney, Tank Davis, Ryan Garcia or Conor Benn. Shakur’s negotiating demands help explain why.

Talks involving Haney included Shakur demanding a 144-pound catchweight and calling for him to surrender his WBO welterweight title. Shakur also wanted catchweights for proposed bouts against Garcia and Benn. None of the three fights materialized.

He showed interest in Lamont Roach Jr. while Roach looked like a manageable opponent coming up from lightweight. That enthusiasm vanished after William Zepeda dominated Roach.

Toney operated under a far different philosophy. He moved from middleweight through super middleweight, light heavyweight and cruiserweight before competing at heavyweight. He defeated Vassiliy Jirov for the IBF cruiserweight championship, then stopped Evander Holyfield without asking a natural heavyweight to drain himself.

Modern fighters do not need to duplicate Toney’s remarkable climb. However, someone who accepted that degree of physical danger will have little respect for manufactured weight limits and preconditions.

Shakur dominated Teofimo Lopez at 140 pounds. His willingness to face other major names now seems dependent upon getting them on terms designed to protect him. Toney fought bigger men at their weight. Shakur wants bigger names at his.