James Toney: The 'Lights Out' Life of a Middleweight Who Fought His Way to Heavyweight

James Toney turned down college football scholarships, took up the gloves full-time and spent almost three decades proving he could be hit only rarely and stopped never. Between 1991 and 2005 he won world titles at middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight, beat Evander Holyfield, and saw a heavyweight title win over John Ruiz erased by a failed drug test. This is the life of "Lights Out."

Michigan Roots and a Choice Against Football

Records disagree slightly on where the story begins. Wikipedia gives Toney's birth as August 24, 1968, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while ESPN, reporting on his Hall of Fame election, describes him as a native of Grand Rapids, the city most closely tied to his name. Either way, his formative years were spent in Michigan's boxing-rich neighborhoods, where his family lived near the households of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Buster Mathis Jr. His own father had boxed but was not part of his upbringing.

The teenage Toney was no choirboy. By his own later account, recorded by Wikipedia, he fought in the streets and sold crack cocaine. He was also a gifted athlete on the football field, good enough to draw scholarship offers from Western Michigan as a quarterback and from the University of Michigan as a defensive back. He walked away from both. Toney explained that he was not a team player and did not take orders well, so he chose a sport in which he answered only to himself.

He had first wandered into a gym at about eleven but did not commit until after high school. The amateur phase was short and violent: 33 wins, 32 of them inside the distance, against two losses.

Bill Miller, Jackie Kallen and the Shoulder Roll

Toney turned professional on October 26, 1988, stopping Stephen Lee in the second round in Mount Clemens, Michigan. In his corner was trainer Bill Miller, who worked with him until 1995 and is credited with shaping the shoulder-roll defense that became Toney's signature.

Tragedy marked the early climb. His first manager, Johnny "Ace" Smith, was killed around the time of Toney's seventh professional fight. Toney then hired Jackie Kallen, a former journalist who would become one of the best-known managers in the sport during his rise.

The 20-to-1 Night in Davenport

The breakthrough came on May 10, 1991, at John O'Donnell Stadium in Davenport, Iowa, against IBF middleweight champion Michael Nunn. Toney was a 20-to-1 underdog and, deep into the fight, he was trailing on all three scorecards. In the eleventh round a left hook dropped Nunn, and Toney finished the job in the same round to take the IBF and lineal middleweight titles. The upset made him The Ring's Fighter of the Year for 1991.

His reign was busy and rarely comfortable. He edged Reggie Johnson on a split decision in June 1991 and fought a draw with Mike McCallum that December. In February 1992 he was given a split decision over Dave Tiberi that so many observers found indefensible that U.S. Senator William Roth launched an inquiry into the sport. Toney met McCallum again in December 1992 and won a majority decision.

Super Middleweight Champion

On February 13, 1993, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, he took the IBF super middleweight title from Iran Barkley, whose trainer Eddie Mustafa Muhammad retired him after the ninth round because his eyes had swollen badly. Toney defended against Tony Thornton by unanimous decision in October 1993, stopped Tim Littles in four rounds in March 1994, and knocked out Charles Williams in the twelfth that July.

The Roy Jones Jr. Loss, 1994

By late 1994 Toney was unbeaten and widely ranked among the best fighters in the world. On November 18, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, he met Roy Jones Jr. In the third round Jones dropped him with a quick flash knockdown that followed a showboating feint, and Jones went on to a clear unanimous decision. Toney lost his IBF belt and his perfect record in one night. He blamed the struggle to make weight for his flat performance, a theme that would follow him through the next decade as he drifted upward through the divisions.

Rebirth at Cruiserweight: Jirov, 2003

On April 26, 2003, at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut, Toney challenged unbeaten Kazakh Vassiliy Jirov for the IBF cruiserweight title. Jirov was a relentless, high-volume pressure fighter; Toney met him with counters and body work. With the fight close, Toney floored Jirov in the twelfth and final round. Jirov rose and saw the bell, but Toney took a unanimous decision. The bout was named Fight of the Year, and Toney collected Fighter of the Year honors for the second time, twelve years after the first.

Holyfield and the Heavyweight Leap

Six months later, on October 4, 2003, Toney faced Evander Holyfield at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Holyfield was weeks away from his 41st birthday and had won only two of his previous seven bouts, according to a contemporary wire report carried by The Ironton Tribune, which listed Toney at 217 pounds and Holyfield at 219. After an uncertain opening round, Toney took Holyfield apart with hooks to the body and head. In the ninth a body shot put the former champion down, and his corner stopped the fight at 1:42 of the round. Toney said afterward that he was sorry he had to do that to Holyfield.

Ruiz, 2005: The Win That Was Erased

The prize Toney wanted was a heavyweight title, which would have put him alongside Bob Fitzsimmons and Roy Jones Jr. as men who held world titles at both middleweight and heavyweight. On April 30, 2005, at Madison Square Garden, he challenged WBA champion John Ruiz, dropped him in the seventh round and won a unanimous decision by scores of 116-111, 116-111 and 115-112.

The celebration did not last. A post-fight urine sample came back positive for an anabolic steroid. Sources differ on which one: The Sweet Science, reporting in May 2005, and Wikipedia's article on the fight name nandrolone, while Wikipedia's main Toney biography says stanozolol. The New York State Athletic Commission suspended Toney for 90 days and fined him $10,000. The WBA changed the result to a no-decision, reinstated Ruiz as champion and barred Toney from fighting for its heavyweight title for two years. In its letter, the WBA wrote that it "must vacate your championship ranking and reinstate John Ruiz as the champion." Toney maintained that a doctor had given him the drug while treating an arm injury.

Rahman, Peter and the Long Final Chapter

Toney's last shot at a major heavyweight belt came on March 18, 2006, against WBC champion Hasim Rahman, and ended in a twelve-round majority draw. He then lost twice to the heavy-handed Samuel Peter: a split decision in Los Angeles on September 2, 2006, and a unanimous decision in Hollywood, Florida, on January 6, 2007.

In 2010 he crossed into mixed martial arts. At UFC 118 in Boston on August 28, Randy Couture took him down early and finished him with an arm-triangle choke at 3:19 of the first round. Toney reportedly earned around $500,000, roughly double Couture's purse, and was released by the promotion afterward. A planned mixed-rules bout with Ken Shamrock in 2011 was cancelled.

He kept boxing into his late forties. His final professional bout came on May 13, 2017, when he stopped Mike Sheppard in six rounds. In November 2023, at 55, he boxed a shortened six-round exhibition draw with Donovan "Razor" Ruddock in Kingston, Jamaica.

Record and Legacy

Toney finished with a professional record of 77 wins, 10 losses, 3 draws and 2 no-contests, with 47 knockouts, and he was never stopped in a career that ran from 1988 to 2017. In December 2021 the International Boxing Hall of Fame announced his election alongside Roy Jones Jr., the man who handed him his first defeat, and Miguel Cotto. They were inducted in Canastota, New York, in June 2022.

Sources

• James Toney, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• John Ruiz vs. James Toney, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Roy Jones Jr., James Toney, Miguel Cotto headline class of 2022 Boxing Hall of Fame, ESPN (Mike Coppinger), December 7, 2021
• John Ruiz reinstated as WBA champ, The Sweet Science, May 17, 2005
• Toney KOs Holyfield, The Ironton Tribune, October 6, 2003