"Boxing is the #1 sport in the world and football is the 2nd. As a sport, we can't let the promoters dictate who is gonna fight who and let the networks and these alphabet sanctioning bodies run the show...Boxing is all I know and I really and truly feel like I am the last old school boxer left. I'm the only one that slips punches, rolls my shoulders over, and fire punches back. Floyd Mayweather is a great fighter, but he doesn't stand right in front of people, make them miss and make them pay. He does it with movement, and it works for you, so I can't hate on that. I got big balls...I just want the fans to know, sometimes you may think I come off as bitter and disrespectful, but put yourself in my shoes. Just say you worked the same job for 21 years and you are still good at what you do. And then they have some kid come fill your position and he's only been with the company for 3 years. Well, that's what the IBF did when they sanctioned Wladimir Klitschko to fight Dereck Chisora," stated future Hall of Famer James "Lights Out" Toney. In this candid interview, Toney explains what boxing means to him, the reason why he's eager to get an opportunity to prove that he's still a force to be reckoned with in the heavyweight division, and much more.
PC: What's been going on man?
JT: I've been running around all over Hollywood just doing my thing. A lot of people want me to be just a Hollywood guy, but I'm going to do both things right now; fighting and movies.
PC: What is it looking like for you in the fight game and the movie thing?
JT: The movie scene is going better than the fight game actually. I got my reality show coming out, called "Book of James." We are still putting things together to see what network it's going to be on; most likely it's going to be on A&E.
PC: I know that's been in the works for you for awhile now. What can people expect from this reality show?
JT: The show is going to be something like "Run's House" and "The Osbourne's." I'm not doing the typical sports jockey reality show. It's about me and my whole family life; what I do every day and what my family does every day. I didn't want the same old tired athletic theme. I didn't want to do that, so we went a different route. I want to show everybody the good side of me; the family side.
PC: How many kids do you have and how long have you been married for?
JT: I've been married for 3 years now to my wonderful wife Angie. We have 5 kids together and I have 1 kid from a previous marriage.
PC: They had a conversation on our message board awhile back about top boxing styles and your name frequently came up. What made you adopt the style that you use?
JT: My trainer, Bill Miller, who was one of the founders of Kronk Gym, kept on giving me tapes when I started training with him. I would take them home and study all of the great fighters and I seen what their style was and it showed me how they were able to win their fights because they were very consistent at what they did. They used a lot of slipping while throwing punches at the same time, and staying in the pocket punching, and I dedicated myself to do that style. Man, for the first 3 or 4 years, I was getting my ass whooped trying to fight that way. But then, after awhile, when I turned 17 or 18, it was the other way around. I started whoopin' everybody else's ass. That's one thing people gotta understand; you can be a good fighter and do your thing in the ring, but your foundation comes in the gym. I had the best foundation in the world. I don't care if you're in New York, Philadelphia, and it definitely don't come from here in LA. I had it in Detroit, at Kronk Gym. I worked with all of the best fighters, Tommy Hearns, Milton McCrory, Duane Thomas and Lindell Holmes. I boxed with everybody. I might have got my ass whooped at first, but that's how I learned my craft and as I got older, the tides changed.
PC: So you did take your lumps trying to perfect that style.
JT: Man, I took a lot of ass whoopin's man. I must have took over a thousand of them before I got it right.
PC: You were an ex-football player that made the transition to boxing with great success. Now that the heavyweight division is down, we see trainers trying to take some of these big athletes and make them into boxers...
JT: (Cutting in) I'm a rare breed, man, and I don't say that to sound cocky or anything, but it's not going to help with these guys because they are putting them in pretty, air-conditioned gyms with all of this new technology and shit. They won't come up the way I came up. When you play football, you got pads on, but when them pads come off, its trouble. You get in there with them 8 oz. or 10 oz. gloves on, it's a totally different story. Not only does your body have to be tough in this sport, but your mind has got to be tough too man. If your mind ain't right for it, which a lot of these guys from football, they mind's not ready for it...then it's a short career for them. You can play football and basketball, but there is no playing boxing. In football and basketball, you got teammates, but in boxing, you ain't got nobody but you in there. If you ain't got no heart, that's your ass.
PC: What was the greatest fight that you have seen, a fight that really stands out in your mind? I'm sure there is a ton, but just give me one.
JT: The greatest fight I have ever seen for myself would have to be Tommy Hearns and Marvin Hagler. You know, Tommy is like my godfather and it hurt for me to see him get knocked out, but that's the greatest fight of all time. These two guys went in there and fought like they really wanted to fight. Most fighters today want to get in and get out without getting hurt. The fans pay their $49.95 and they deserve fights like Hagler/Hearns. Everybody works hard for their money and then they get bullshit fights; 10 to 12 round fights with guys running around. They fought and they fought like gladiators.
PC: You rarely see a fight with the hype that Hagler/Hearns had live up to the billing.
JT: They lived up to the hype. Man, I always pull that fight out and show my son. I tell him, "Even though my man got knocked out, Marvin Hagler is a beast." In my book, Marvin Hagler is the greatest middleweight ever...and I fought at middleweight. I would have loved to have fought him.
PC: Back in the day, and you may feel the same way, but you really wanted boxing to go back to 15 rounds. Do you still feel that way?
JT: We need to bring them back. We need 15 rounds. You look at the NFL right now and you can't hit nobody; let's not do what everybody else doing. Go back to where boxing originated at and that's 15 rounds. If we really want to go back to where it originated, we would be fighting 100 rounds. You got cowards now can barely go 10 rounds, let alone 15. Boxing is the #1 sport in the world and football is the 2nd. As a sport, we can't let the promoters dictate who is gonna fight who and let the networks and these alphabet sanctioning bodies run the show.
PC: What does the sport of boxing mean to you?
JT: Everything. Boxing is all I know and I really and truly feel like I am the last old school boxer left. I'm the only one that slips punches, rolls my shoulders over, and fire punches back. Floyd Mayweather is a great fighter, but he doesn't stand right in front of people, make them miss and make them pay. He does it with movement, and it works for you, so I can't hate on that. I got big balls.
PC: I remember watching the pre-fight hype for the Holyfield fight and you said you were going to stand right in front of him, make him miss, and make him pay, and I'll be honest with you, I remember thinking, James Toney is crazy if he thinks he's going to do that.
JT: I would do the same thing to the Klitschko brothers. I would stand right in front of them; I ain't hard to find and I ain't going nowhere. Emanuel Steward knows what I used to do to all of them so-called big punchers in the gym; Gerald McClellan and all of them guys; Fabian Williams. I boxed them all. I went in there and said, "Everybody line the fuck up. The champ is here!"
PC: What is the most classic gym war that you can remember having?
JT: The most classic gym war I had? Oh my God, I had so many of those. Oh, there was a guy, who was so talented, by the name of Maurice Williams. That motherfucker used to bring it in the gym. We had some wars. Eventually them drugs got the best of him. He used to give me some helluva work in the gym though. I'll never forget that.
PC: If you had to name one fighter that you never got to fight that you would have liked to step in there with, who would that be?
JT: Bernard "Bitch Ass" Hopkins. At one point, Bernard Hopkins was talking so much shit about me. And don't get me wrong, when we shared the cover of Ring Magazine, I don't blame him for taking the money fight against De La Hoya and not fighting me, but there has been plenty of time since then that we could have gotten it on, and he refuses to fight me. I will be in the Hall of Fame before he is though, so what can I say?
PC: Going back to the acting thing for a minute, I'm sure Muhammad Ali was someone you looked up to. What was it like playing Joe Frazier in the movie "Ali"?
JT: It was a great tribute to Ali. There will never be another one like him and it was an honor to be in that movie. I remember he came on the set one day and I couldn't wait to get out of there to tell people that I got to meet him, shake his hand, and we were joking around and shit. He is a good dude that I feel like was misunderstood for a long period of his career, much like myself. We had a good time. He is a great man, and Will Smith...man, he is a true professional. We went in there and we knocked it out. We handled our business.
PC: You played the hell out of the Smoking Joe part. Being that you have fought with the same style for so long, was Frazier's style something you really had to go in the gym and work on?
JT: I'm a natural fighter and that's what I do. I've studied so much film on these guys, I pretty much knew what I was going to have to do going into that movie to emulate him. It was pretty natural for me to be "Smoking" Joe, who was another bad motherfucker.
PC: I really appreciate this interview. I wanted to pick your brain on some of the things you have accomplished, and most of all, what the sport means to you because I do think you have been misunderstood over the years. Give me some closing thoughts JT.
JT: I just want the fans to know, sometimes you may think I come off as bitter and disrespectful, but put yourself in my shoes. Just say you worked the same job for 21 years and you are still good at what you do. And then they have some kid come fill your position and he's only been with the company for 3 years. Well, that's what the IBF did when they sanctioned Wladimir Klitschko to fight Dereck Chisora. I'm not knocking the kid because he's supposed to take the fight, but he's only been a pro for 3 years, so expect to see the same shit you have been seeing from every other Klitschko opponent. That's all. I love the fans that support me, and the ones that hate me, I love them too.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]