FanPost

The perverse charm of Toney vs. Sheppard

Next Saturday night James Toney and Mike Sheppard will fight for the lightly regarded World Boxing Foundation heavyweight title in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

I find the idea of this fight perversely fascinating, more or less like watching an insect fight on YouTube.

James Toney is one of the more talented boxers of his generation, a multi-division world champion and a probable future hall-of-famer. Still, he is almost 49, his last quality win came more than eight years ago (provided that one can consider as such a close and disputable split-decision win over a faded Fres Oquendo), and in fact in his two last outings he has lost against two opponents (Jason Gavern and Charles Ellis) which are barely better than Mike Sheppard (if at all). As an heavyweight, he has more often than not looked obscenely out of shape. His best win at heavyweight is probably against Holyfield, back in 2003, when he came in at a solid (if fleshy) 217 pounds. In his last fight he weighed 233 pounds, and in several fights (like against Damon Reed and Bobby Gunn) he simply looked obese at 240+ pounds.

As to Mike Sheppard, he started his career as a typical club fighter. In his first 13 fights, he compiled a record of 8-4-1, while only fighting twice outside of his native West Virginia and never beating a single opponent with a winning record. After a brief hiatus from boxing, he came back rather as a sort of low level journeyman. He has travelled the USA and abroad collecting stoppage losses at the hands of Denis Boytsov, Ruslan Chagaev, Antonio Tarver, Vinny Maddalone and many others. Against lower level fringe contenders he has sometimes been able to look a bit better, like in his majority decision loss to Nicolai Firtha in Ohio. His biggest win probably came against China Smith in a rematch, in 2015. While China Smith himself is little more than a club fighter, without a single win against a quality opponent, he was 35-4 at the time of their fight and had outpointed Sheppard in their first match, and Sheppard’s second round KO can be considered an upset of sorts. In his last three outings, Sheppard has suffered two stoppage losses against Andzrey Wawrzyk and Sergey Kuzmin, and has recorded a somewhat surprising draw against marginal prospect Jeremiah Karpency. While there is little in Sheppard’s record which reveals any real quality as a fighter, at least the Smith and Karpency fights prove that he is still coming to fight.

In their last three fights, Toney and Sheppard have a cumulative record of 1-4-1, which is scarcely impressive even by the rather relaxed standards of a minor federation like the WBF. In comparison to this one, even the Lucas Browne - James Toney fight for the same WBF heavyweight title which took place in 2013 was far more relevant in the heavyweight scene. At least, Toney was 4 years younger, and with a record of 15-0 Browne was regarded as a somewhat interesting prospect.

Next Saturday night’s fight is interesting for all the wrong reasons; still, it looks competitive and hard to predict. In his best years, Toney would have literally beaten Sheppard with a hand tied behind is back. However, will an old, overweight version of Toney show some flashes of his old talent against a younger (while still himself almost 42), naturally bigger man, which will almost certainly enter the ring in a much better shape?

It will probably not be a great fight, and certainly it is irrelevant in the international heavyweight picture (any true world class contender would, at this moment, beat both Toney and Sheppard without breaking a sweat); still, it will push the opponents to their limits, and that is the reason why it is perversely interesting.




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