James "Lights Out" Toney Spares No One

By Darren Nichols

19/04/2006

James "Lights Out" Toney Spares No One

"The referee Eddie Cotton, and the judge John Stewart were all high, constipated, whatever. Everybody at Top Rank, they’re all ball-less. When I was cracking Rahman, he couldn’t take my shots. You all saw him doing the Yankee Doodle Doo."

BoxingTalk:  James, what did you think of Dominic Guinn’s performance?

James Toney:  Dominic Guinn’s performance was good.  I thought he did what he had to do to win.  He could have jumped on Audley Harrison earlier, but Harrison didn’t want to fight.  He’s a typical Brit.

BoxingTalk:  What do you feel about Jason Gavern’s performance tonight?

James Toney:  I’m proud of Jason Gavern.  I thought he did good.  Jason is a fighter.  He’s not a gym fighter.  By no means is Jason a gym fighter. The important things that count, he brings to the fight.  He fights when he’s ready to fight.  Jason took a big guy tonight with monstrous punching supposedly and took him out of his game.  Beat him, out-hustled him, out-punched him.

Reporter:  Do you think Jason learned this from sparring all those rounds with you?

James Toney:  Oh yeah, no doubt.  I do a lot of work baby.  I do a lot of rounds.

Reporter:  How are you feeling James?

James Toney:  I’m feeling good now, after my liver and kidneys are healing up from all those low blows and back punches that Rahman gave me.  I was in bad shape for a little bit, but I’m not one to complain.  I’m good now.  I’m ready to fight in June or July.

BoxingTalk:  What was the extent of your injuries?

James Toney:  My liver and kidneys were bruised and lacerated.  I had 360 shots hit back there.  If you see the fight again, you will see he hit me in the back.  Rahman only got warned once or twice.  But like I said, I’m a true fighter, I don’t complain about sh_t, I try to get a job done, I won that fight, I landed 47 % of my shots.  What did he land? 22.  Oh well.  Whatever.  There you go.  Then you get these d_ckwads on HBO, like Jim Lampley.  You see, they don’t know how to call no fights.  The dude wasn’t even hitting me.  You guys all saw the fight.  Didn’t you see me slipping all this guy’s shots.  Even though I weighed in at 236 pounds, I was really 230 because I weighed in with my pants on and jewelry, and then I had to the flu in the first place.  As bad as I was, he still couldn’t do me.  He was in the best shape he could be in, and he still couldn’t do anything with me.  So what do you say about that?  This is supposed to be our best fighter right here.  The best heavyweight champion we all got.  He couldn’t do sh_t with me that night.  I took him to school.  I screwed his whole face up.  I chewed him up, and I’m telling you all right now…everyone can talk about what they want to say, but James Toney is the best fighter in the world.  James Toney can fight.

Reporter:  If you were at your best, what would have happened?

James Toney:  He would have been out of there in 4 or 5 rounds. Everybody knows that.  You see how I hit him.  I was wobbling him.  Remember, I’m a middleweight now, he’s a full fledged heavyweight.  Do you know where I really screwed him up at?  When the bell rang to begin the first round, and I ran at him, his eyes got as big as golf balls.  I told you all.  I don’t run from nobody.  I don’t run from nobody at all.  If you have a problem with me, I beat you to it.  Rahman had a problem with me, I beat him to the middle of the ring, and when he saw that, his eyes got as big as golf balls.  And then what happened to his big right hand?  You all saw the fight, right?  What happened to me when he moved his big right hand?  Nothing.  I laughed at his bitch ass, didn’t I?  I laughed at him.  His eyes got as big as coconuts.  When I was cracking Rahman, he couldn’t take my shots.  You all saw him doing the Yankee Doodle Doo.  And then I had him doing the Heisman a couple times with my body shots.  You saw his leg lift up, right?  You call it how you see it. 

Reporter:  What’s happening June 11th?  You said you wanted to fight on June 11th.

James Toney:  I want to fight in June or July.  I’m upset right now.  I’m very upset because everybody knows I won that fight.  You got these [people] talking sh_t about why I wasn’t in shape.  If I wasn’t in shape, how was able to go 12 rounds with a man hitting me in my f_cking back.  I took 360 shots to my liver and kidneys with one warning.  I just spent two and a half weeks in and out of the hospital in hyperbaric chambers to get my body back to the way it is supposed to be.  Don’t you think I have the right to be upset?

Reporter:  Didn’t you have laryngitis too?

James Toney:  Man, I had acid reflux.  I was throwing up everyday.  I am just getting my voice back right now.  I ain’t even suppose to be talking.

BoxingTalk:  When you got in the ring tonight, one of the first things I noticed was much slimmer you looked.  Is that due to the hospital stay?

James Toney:  Yeah.  I lost 18 pounds while I was in there.

BoxingTalk:  Is that the good 18 pounds?

James Toney:  That’s a good thing.  It’s the good 18 pounds.  I couldn’t eat for 2 weeks, because that’s part of the process.  When I’d eat, I would throw up four to five times a day.  I was going back and forth to the hospital so they could figure out what was going on with me.  I was in hyperbaric chambers, and I started to do pretty good.

BoxingTalk:  Was there anything about Rahman’s performance that surprised you?

James Toney:  The only thing he did was that he went the distance with me.  That’s the only thing that surprised me.  Rahman knows that he got a gift.  He knows he didn’t get a draw.  He knows he lost that fight.  You see he didn’t complain about it.  If he knew it were a draw, wouldn’t you think he’d protest hard that he won the fight?  A week later on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights he said, ‘I don’t know if I’d beat James if we were to fight again.’  That’s not the sound of a confident guy, because he knew that was the best fight he has ever fought.

Reporter:  Would you rather fight Oleg Maskaev?

James Toney:  I want to fight Hasim Rahman right now.

Reporter:  Are you surprised at Rahman’s reluctance to fight you again?

James Toney:  He knows he got a gift.

At this point, James’ “Pops” came in the room and told BoxingTalk and other reporters that this is the first interview James has done since the fight due to his laryngitis.

James Toney:  I couldn’t talk for two weeks.  I couldn’t talk at all.

BoxingTalk:  That’s got to be tough for you not to be able to talk.

James Toney:  It was hard.  Yeah, it’s tough man.  My wife loved it though.  She got a 2 and a half week vacation.  I was in bad shape.  If it wasn’t for my Pops, my mom, my wife, and this really nice lady on the plane, I would have died.  That’s for real.  I didn’t know I was in that bad of shape.  Everybody counted the shots on HBO, and they counted 360 shots to my liver and kidneys.

Reporter:  How long before you could get back in the ring again and start training?

James Toney:  Two weeks.  The doctor told my Pops two weeks, so I will be in the gym in two weeks, and I want to be in the ring in June.  I want Hasim Rahman.

BoxingTalk:  If you were to face him again, how would the fight be any different?

James Toney:  I’d be in tip-top shape, and I’d knock him out.  You saw when I was hitting him, I was riding him.  Now remember, he’s supposed to be the big bad guy you guys are all talking about.  What do you all think about him now?

BoxingTalk:  Was there anything about his punching power that…

James Toney: …No, no, no.  What do you think about him now.  Hasim Rahman was at his best that night, I was nowhere near my best.  I had the flu that night.  I could have postponed it like all those other sissies.  They ran scared.  I could have cancelled out, but I didn’t.  I faced a tiger.  He was in great shape that night, I wasn’t.  Now, if I got in better shape, what makes you think I wouldn’t kill him next time.

Reporter:  Do you feel there was too much emphasis on volume punching as opposed to accuracy?  You were far more accurate than Rahman.

James Toney: The referee Eddie Cotton, and the judge John Stewart were all high, constipated, whatever.  You know, Rahman was throwing a lot of punches, but he wasn’t hitting me.  He was throwing a lot of punches, but I was blocking him.  I was doing the old school shoulder rolls, and he was getting frustrated.  I was connecting with my uppercuts, left hooks, and right hand.

Reporter:  Rahman even admitted that he never landed a clean shot on you.
 
James Toney:  No, and I make him even do the Heisman.  He tried to land a right hand, and when it landed on me, I looked at him and laughed, and he said, ‘Oh, sh_t.’   That was the expression he had on his face.  They were happy after that fight, because they knew they lost the fight.

BoxingTalk:  What has been the word from Dan Goossen, and negotiations with Top Rank and Steve Nelson for a rematch with Hasim Rahman?

James Toney:  Steve Nelson, Hasim Rahman, Bob Arum, Todd DuBoef, they can all [screw off.]

BoxingTalk:  But that’s not going to get you the fight.

James Toney:  They are all cattle-catchers.  The bottom line is that Bob Arum knows he loss that fight. Bob Arum said after the fight, ‘Well, we thought we did enough to win.’  Bitch, you know you didn’t win that fight.  Everybody at Top Rank, they’re all ball-less, ball-less pricks. 

Reporter:  Do you think they will do everything they can to get Rahman as far away from you…

James Toney:  They’re not trying to fight me.  They’re doing that right now.  Look, they want the WBC to overlook the incident, and then fight Oleg Maskaev.  So they’re going to fight Oleg Maskaev.  I’ll let you know, if Rahman is the real champion, and he felt he really won that fight, he would try to fight me right away.

Reporter:  You still have your IBA title, right?

James Toney:  Yeah, because it was a draw.  I didn’t lose.  I didn’t lose that fight at all.  I won that fight.  (Coughing)  I’m sick right now.  This is the first time you have all seen me like this in my life.  I’m still superhuman even when I’m sick.

BoxingTalk:  Do you want Hasim Rahman to pay for your agony right here?

James Toney:  Oh, he’s going to pay I guarantee you that.  If he’s a real man, he would fight me.  All that other bullsh_t, like Oleg Maskaev, he ain’t gonna make no money with Oleg Maskaev.  What’s he going to make?  Half a million dollars

Reporter:  You think he’d make that much?

James Toney:  You know what I’m sayin’?  Who is going to pay to see it?  Who is going to pay to see that?  Would y’all?  How is Bob Arum going to package that?  On the undercard of a Cotto fight?  When was the last time the heavyweight champion fought on an undercard?  All of Don King’s fighters do that.  All of Bob Arums fighter do that.

Reporter:  Do you think that is what’s wrong with the heavyweight division.  Everyone is avoiding one another?

James Toney:  Everyone is trying to avoid fighting me, that’s the problem.  If I’m this short, fat, rollie-pollie motha …250 pounds, why is everyone trying to avoid me?  It shouldn’t be a problem.  I should be the first one they want to pick on, everyone on down from Samuel Peters.  This is the biggest joke I’ve heard all week.  They had Shannon Briggs on ESPN in the studio.  This son-of-a-bitch had the audacity to say that everybody was scared to fight him.  You punk bitch.  I saw you in Cancun last month, you were scared to death when I went right to you.  Come fight me you son of a bitch.  I’ll knock your f_ckin’ dreads off.

BoxingTalk:  What about fighting Serguei Lyakhovich?  He’s got a couple big wins recently.

James Toney:  Yeah he got a gift.  He won the fight.  He out-hustled Lamon.  I feel sorry for Lamon as a friend, but if he wants to fight me, his title is gone.  I’m telling you man, no more mercy, no more mercy for these guys. 

BoxingTalk:  If you can’t get Rahman in June, who is the first person you would want to fight?

James Toney:  Who do you want me to fight?

BoxingTalk:  I think a fight with Lyakhovich would be good.

James Toney:  Make it happen.  Tell Dan.  All y’all tell Dan, I’ll fight Lyakhovich or whatever his name is.

Reporter:  What about fighting Chris Byrd?

James Toney:  I’ll fight her [sic] too.  He and his wife Piggy Smalls.  I got a girl 180-pounds ready to whoop her ass, and any other wife out there in boxing who is trying to cripple the sport.  All these wives are banding together.  What’s her name, Mosley’s wife?

BoxingTalk: Jin.

Reporter:  I thought the Mosley’s were friends with you guys.

James Toney:  I’m cool with Shane.  I don’t know her or care to know her.  If Shane is offended by it, [screw] him.  I don’t give a crap who I offend.  If you like me, you like me.  If you don’t, you don’t.  Shane, and all these other guys who let their wives come in here and try to corrupt their minds, that’s foul.  They have no balls, no backbone.

BoxingTalk:  What did you think of the Mayweather-Judah fight?

James Toney:  I told everybody Mayweather was going to put it on him.  Mayweather is the best fighter in the world who isn’t a heavyweight.

Reporter:  Do you think he can handle welterweight?

James Toney:  Yeah, but his biggest test is going to be if he fights Mosley.

Reporter:  You don’t think it would be a test if he fought Margarito?

James Toney:  Oh, I keep forgetting my man.  I love that dude.  That dude is a bad fighter.  Margarito is tough.  If Mayweather gives him some movements, he could offset that.  It would be a good fight.  It wouldn’t be a boring fight, I can tell you that.  There is no way in hell Margarito can be in a bad fight.

BoxingTalk:  Who do you like in the Hopkins-Tarver fight?

James Toney:  Oh God.  They put another slaughter together.  Both those bums can’t hit each other, but I hope Bernard wins.  I think Bernard waited too long to move up.  It’s been his time to move up for years, but I think he should win.  Antonio Tarver ain’t got no heart.  He’s from the South.  Country boy, cotton-pickin’ bastard.  He got bubblegum colored lips.

BoxingTalk:  James, you have a lot of fans on BoxingTalk.  What would you like to say to them all?

James Toney:  Everybody on BoxingTalk.  James Toney is back.  He’s healthy again, besides for the draw on March 18th, but I’m going to make it better when we get the rematch.  We’re ready to take care of business.   Thanks of the support and love out there.  See you in a minute.

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