UK fight fans may well recall, upon heading into their grudge fight, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank doing a co-appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show. Joining them, via a cable setup, was James Toney. With actor\/wannabe fighter Mickey Rourke sat with him, Toney verbally laid into the two British stars, and, for a while, Benn and Eubank became allies, with both giving \u201cLights Out\u201d their own blend of trash-talk.<\/p>\n
It was great fun, but unfortunately neither Benn nor Eubank ever fought Toney. Maybe you think Toney would have had far too much for either Brit. Maybe not.<\/p>\n
But Byron Mitchell, a great in his own right; a two-time champ who engaged in a classic thriller with Joe Calzaghe, was kind enough to give me his take on who would have won had Toney and Benn had got it on; either at 160 or at 168.<\/p>\n
And Byron, 29-11-1(22) and a former two-time WBA super-middleweight ruler, was also keen to speak about his own career.<\/p>\n
Q: Benn against Toney, would it have been a great fight? Also, did you ever spar Toney? I know you never sparred Benn\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n
Byron Mitchell: \u201cNo, I never sparred Toney, but I was in camp with him. Nigel Benn, I honestly don\u2019t know too much about him, but I did see the Gerald McClellan fight. He [Benn] showed a heck of a heart in that fight. But Toney, I didn\u2019t like him as a person. I always thought he was a bit arrogant. I saw quite a few of his fights. He had skills, no doubt, but he was a trash-talker. Toney, he would have been difficult to fight. Toney fought his own way to the top during his career, with no big-time promoter. He actually fought the top guys, and he earned his way to the top.\u201d<\/p>\n
Q: You were great at 168, champ twice. But Toney, was he better at middleweight? And regarding Benn, you against him would have been a great one!<\/p>\n
B.M: \u201cBenn, again\u2026.. I don\u2019t know too much about him. But against McClellan, yeah, that impressed me [from Benn]. I\u2019d have stopped Benn, I\u2019m pretty sure. But again, he had a big heart, as he showed [in the McClellan fight]. But Benn against Toney? No, Toney, I never saw him as a big puncher, more a respectable puncher, but not a devastating puncher. I just think Toney would have outskilled him, and won via decision \u2013 clear decision, this at either 160 or at 168.\u201d<\/p>\n
Q: Just getting off topic, who do you like today?<\/p>\n
B.M: \u201cI really like David Benavidez<\/a>. I\u2019d have loved to have fought him at super-middleweight. I think I\u2019d have been too strong for him. I\u2019d come out of retirement for that fight! I know he\u2019s a big guy now, though. 168 was my [best] weight.\u201d<\/p>\n Q: We must talk about your great slugfest with Joe Calazghe. I feel, as do so many people, that it was stopped prematurely, this after you had decked him. It was just so much action crammed into less than six minutes!<\/p>\n B.M: \u201cYeah, I should have had a rematch clause. I was going through a terrible time when I fought Calzaghe. I wasn\u2019t mentally great; I was a wreck, actually. I was going through a divorce, and people were saying so many bad things about my wife when I was in camp. I asked Don King to postpone the fight, but he said no chance. I had to fight. I was contracted, and King said, fight or else. I do feel, if I had been in my right frame of mind, I\u2019d have stopped Calzaghe. And for sure, we should have had that rematch.\u201d<\/p>\n Q: Yeah, it could have been a classic if the British ref hadn\u2019t dived in\u2026.<\/p>\n B.M: \u201cYeah, I was still strong. I wasn\u2019t hurt at all. What surprised me about Calzaghe was his fast hands; I didn\u2019t figure he\u2019d be that fast. I honestly think I\u2019d have stopped him had the fight gone on. But put it this way, one of us would have got knocked out if the fight went on the way it should have gone on. Calzaghe had the same referee numerous times when he fought, did he not?\u201d<\/p>\n Q: Home cooking! You could call it that. But thanks again for your time. You fought and defeated some greats.<\/p>\n B.M: \u201cFrankie Liles was perhaps the best I fought, or at least that was one of my best wins; perhaps my best win overall. I had a good career.\u201d<\/p>\n Q: Back to Dream, Fights, how would a Calzaghe-Andre Ward fight have gone?<\/p>\n B.M: \u201cWard, by easy decision. No doubt about that one. And I think Toney would have beat Benn. Me against Toney? I think I would\u2019ve beat Toney, I\u2019d have been too strong. Yeah, I think I\u2019d have beaten him by decision. Nobody stopped Toney.\u201d<\/p>\n Share this article<\/p>\n About the authorJames Slater<\/p>\n James Slater is a senior boxing journalist at Boxing247.com (formerly East Side Boxing) and has covered the sport for more than two decades. Known for his deep expertise, he reports on breaking news, conducts fighter interviews, and delivers authoritative perspective on boxing\u2019s past and present.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Boxing<\/a> \u2022 Boxing News<\/a> \u2022 James Toney Vs. Nigel Benn: Who Wins? Former Two-Time Champ Byron Mitchell Breaks It Down<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK fight fans may well recall, upon heading into their grudge fight, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank doing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-897956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}