The curtain may have come down on the career of former three-division world champion James Toney (76-10-3, 46 KO’s) on Saturday evening in a one-sided unanimous decision loss to the unknown Charles Ellis (10-3-1, 8 KO’s) at the Chase Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri.
Ellis is a 40-year old club fighter who came into the bout losing two of his last three. Ellis outworked the former champion for a majority of the fight.
Toney got off to a rough start and was getting embarrassed throughout the first-half of the bout. However, Toney came back to be somewhat competitive in the second-half. Although it was an improvement, he was still getting beat to the punch.
Ellis’s height (6’5”) seemed imposing on Toney (5’10”) and it’s the tallest fighter that he’s faced in quite some time. He couldn’t get inside of Ellis’s long reach and kept getting tagged with shots.
If this is the end of the line for James Toney – which we all hope – it’s been one fantastic career. He began his career nearly 27 years ago in 1988 stopping Stephen Lee in the second round of a four-round bout. Little did the fans know who were in attendance in Mount Clemens, Michigan that the man they witnessed pick up his first professional victory would go on to be a world champion.
He picked up his first world title with an 11th round stoppage of Michael Nunn in 1991, and he’s gone on to fight some of boxing’s biggest names including Reggie Johnson, Roy Jones Jr., Montell Griffin, and Evander Holyfield.
For a guy who’s been in 89 professional bouts, it’s pretty incredible to say that Toney has never been knocked out or stopped in his career. Some guys can’t even make it out of their first pro fight without the referee or a punch ending their evening.
With that being said, thank you James Toney and all you’ve done for the sport of boxing.
