The Toney Steroids Debacle
Published by on April 20th, 2008

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By Scoop Malinowski

Just when the heavyweight division was getting interesting. Just when a real champion exploded on the horizon, ready to fight anyone and anywhere. Now we have learned James Toney has allegedly tested positive for taking some kind of steroid. He is supposedly going to be stripped of his hard-fought WBA Heavyweight title.

Why? Why did this have to happen? Here we had a physically limited heavyweight – he’s just about 5-10 with an unheavyweight-like body frame – who basically dominated the well-established John Ruiz with his fighting genius and incomparable mental strength and determination. With his WBA title, Toney was all ready and primed to compete against any man in the world. Toney against any heavyweight out there was going to be guaranteed excitement.

Unfortunately, if this is all true and Toney knowingly used the steroids, the sport has lost one of it’s finest performers. And it is a bit sad. Consider: Toney did not use steroids to beat up on a longshot journeyman contender like Richard Hall. This was a three-time champion allegedly using something illegal to, as he says, help speed the recovery of his biceps and triceps injuries.

And now that it’s in the open, Toney must face the consequences. The likely 90-day suspension could be lights out on his boxing career at the highest level – he is 36. Unfortunately for Toney, there was no cover-up to hide the truth here. Most of the major media did not ignore this story, as they did the big revelation that came out of Indianapolis over a year ago. Toney will probably be fined on top of already losing the WBA title and the future purses he would have earned with successful title defenses. In other words, Toney’s alleged decision to use the steroids will cost him millions of dollars.

How twisted is it that the other high profile former champion who tested positive for steroids use a few years ago, did not lose his title, was not fined, and did not endure the enormous media crackdown that Toney is now?

You can condemn Toney all you want. It’s in vogue these days to come down ha
rd on people like Jason Giambi, Mark McGwire, Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, Fernando Vargas, Barry Bonds. And if you cheat and do use steroids, you have to suffer the consequences.

But Toney’s reasons for needing to use the illegal stuff seem almost acceptable in a way – he accepted the short notice offer to fill the April 30th HBO date at Madison Square Garden when he knew his arm had not healed completely. And this whole situation would have never happened had Chris Byrd accepted the lucrative challenge of Wladimir Klitschko to fight at the Garden on April 30th.

It’s sad. James Toney is a great, great fighter, one who actually talks the talk and walks the walk. Toney is true to his word when he says he’s willing to take on the biggest and the baddest warriors on the planet. Not like some of these other counterfeit beltholders who call out the Klitschkos and defame them as “overrated” on national TV, but then hide away in seclusion from offers to fight Wladimir in the United States – for the biggest purse of his career, with a rematch clause.

So now there will possibly be no more James Toney.

James Toney was a great champion of the sport. But this positive drug test means he will lose out, big time. And so has the sport and its followers. It’s a sad moment in heavyweight history. This era lost a rare and real heavyweight champion who was ready, willing and eager to fight anyone out there.

Now let’s all try to get excited for Rahman vs. Barrett, Byrd vs. Liakhovich, Byrd vs. Williamson or Ruiz vs. the Golota/Brewster winner.