James Toney is a likely Hall of Fame boxer who is one of the best trash talkers around. He recently signed on to fight Ken Shamrock in an MMA bout on October 1st. In an interview with East Side Boxing, Toney admitted that he’s turned to MMA because no good boxers will face him. Naturally, Toney made his admission while getting in a jab at David Haye and Wladimir Klitschko who are fighting on July 2nd.
“These guys are clowns!” Toney told East Side Boxing. “You’ve got David “Gaye” and Wladimir “Bitschko,” who are gonna earn millions all because Gaye can talk trash. They call him a great trash-talker, but I’m THE BEST trash-talker on the planet! He [Haye] did some shit with a T-shirt and he talked his way into a million dollar fight! That’s nothing- I called Klitschko’s mom a b**ch and his sister too, and they don’t wanna fight me. How come? I did everything I could to get those two sisters into the ring.”
While trash talking is always an effective way of generating buzz and getting an opponent’s attention, there is one key component to getting big fights: you have to be a competitive fighter. Toney is 42 and no longer good enough to compete with the elite heavyweights in the world. On top of that, it’s difficult to trust a fighter who got busted for using steroids in the past.
Toney may not be good enough to compete with the best fighters anymore, but he can still bring top level trash talk. Because of his entertainment value, we’ll be watching his fight with Shamrock.
