![]() The first of those bouts had resulted in a famously disputed split decision over Dave Tiberi, during which a sluggish Toney looked quite unlike the laser-focused champion who’d confronted McCallum just months earlier. In the intervening period McCallum had fought just once, claiming a decision over journeyman Fermin Chirino at super middleweight, but Toney’s paymasters – no doubt keen to keep him out of Burger King – put him in the ring three times between February and May. The judges called it a draw, but whoever you favoured, you could not dispute it had been a fine exhibition of boxing: absorbing, highly technical and not without late drama. That first encounter produced memorable fireworks, with the cerebral McCallum boxing to orders early and containing Toney, only for the Ann Arbor man to roar back and stagger “The Body Snatcher” in the final round. But Toney oozed confidence of his own, having dethroned Nunn in May, turned back the challenge of Reggie Johnson in June, and blasted outgunned Italian Francesco Dell’Aquila in October. The Jamaican was also on a hot streak: he’d outpointed Herol Graham and Steve Collins, sensationally sparked-out Michael Watson, and recently gained sweet revenge over Kalambay. One thing was certain: Bob Arum had a great deal of confidence in his young charge to match him with McCallum, a supreme boxer many a marquee name had swerved. The stage was set for a time-honoured battle: the feared young puncher, recently crowned, versus the long-in-the-tooth bullfighter, who some believed knew more about “The Sweet Science” than Toney would ever learn. Between them, they had a record of 70-1-1, with McCallum having dropped a close decision to Sumbu Kalambay three years prior and Toney having drawn with Sanderline Williams in 1990. When Toney and McCallum clashed the previous December, it matched the headstrong but gifted champion, then just 23, against the masterful boxer-puncher McCallum, a veteran of 43 fights and a dozen years his opponent’s senior. ![]() Whether you agree or not, you’d likely have to rank it top five, right up there with his dazzling wins over Michael Nunn, Iran Barkley, Vassiliy Jirov and Evander Holyfield. ![]() Some would argue that James Toney’s first victory over Mike McCallum, which also happened to be his final defense of his middleweight title, is, all things considered, his greatest performance. ![]()
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