James Toney is an American professional boxer who retired in 2017. He started his career in 1988 and has won multiple world titles in the three weight classes throughout his 29 years of boxing. Toney has accumulated a substantial net worth throughout his career, as we will see later in this post.
James Toney’s Career
Tony has worn three titles in weight classes, the IBF middleweight, super middleweight, and cruiserweight. He also received WBU, WBA, and WBF titles in different weight classes. Throughout his career, Toney earned approximately $ 19 million from purses and bonuses from views.
Toney won over Michael Nunn, Reggie Johnson, Mike McCallum, Evander Holyfield, and Charles Williams who were also talented boxers. Tony was trained by Gregory Owens and had his first professional fight on 26th October 1988 beating Stephen Lee with a knockout in the second round.
Toney knocked out Michael Nunn in eleven rounds winning the IBF and lineal middleweight on May 1991 and entered a 20 to 1 underdog. The win earned him the Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year award. Toney’s split decision win over Dave Tiberi was so controversial as many felt Tony had lost and the United States senator called a corruption investigation in the sport. He retained his title against WBA champ Mike McCallum in 1991, his last fight as a middleweight.
He challenged Iran Barkley in 1993 for the IBF super middleweight title but stopped after nine rounds as he suffered several eye swellings in both eyes. His knockout with Williams paved the way for his fight with the goated 1988 Olympic silver medalist Roy Jones Jr.
Toney lost at light heavyweight in February 1995 to Montell Griffin. He beat Mike McCallum in February 1997 but in the next fight, he lost to Drake Thadzi. He took a break and in 1999 he came back ready to reclaim his status and defeated former title holders Adolpho Washington, Saul Montana, Steve Little, and Michael Rush. He performed well and received an award for Come Back and Fighter of the Year. This moved him up to heavyweight for the next 7 years.
In April 2005, Tony failed his post-fight drug test it came out positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol this led to the withdrawal of the win from his record by the New York Athletic Commission but he defended himself saying it was steroids to treat his arm injury fighting Rydell Booker. He lost his next fight to Samuel Peter.
His final match was on May 13th, 2017 at the age of 48 winning after Mike Sheppard by sixth round and receiving the WBF heavyweight title. Tony retired with 92 professional bouts in his 29 years of boxing.
James Toney’s Early Life
Toney was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on August 24th,1968. As a teenager, he turned to street fighting and selling cocaine as his dad who was also a boxer was absent. He joined a boxing gym at the age of 11 and played football which landed him a scholarship offer from Western Michigan to play defensive back but went back to boxing, and had to lose some weight to begin his boxing career.
The Net worth of James Toney
Toney had a brief career as an MMA fighter with a debut against Randy Couture in 2010. He also appeared in Michael Manns biography starring Muhammad Ali in the film. Tony’s boxing, mixed martial arts, and film career accumulated to his $ 2 million net worth.
