BoxRec

Was Tiberi robbed?

He sure was robbed. Toney was very listless in this fight. His reputation got him the votes from the judges.

This fight was very similar to the first Paez/Dorsey fight and the second Moseley/DLH fight in that people sitting ringside scored it one way while those watching on television scored the opposite way. Not long after I read an article written by a man that had sat ringside for Toney/Tiberi, which he had Toney winning easily, the only controversy being why Tiberi's corner kept sending him out. When he saw the video of the fight he was amazed because he thought Tiberi won on film. In what has since become Toney's trademark, so to speak, he made his opponent miss a lot of punches in busy infighting and countered with hard punches. As to who won the fight consider this: Tiberi was paid $90,000 for the fight (on Wide World of Sports or one of those), a career best payday for him. When all the controversy erupted, Toney's people offered him a rematch on an upcoming pay-per-view card to which Toney was already committed. It was to have been 60 days after the first fight and Tiberi would have been paid $600,000. He turned down the fight saying that in 60 days he would not yet be physically recovered enough fromn the first fight to fight again.
Also, Tiberi swarmed Toney from bell to bell, throweing punches. That became the "book" on how to beat Toney. A lot of fighters (Barkely, Charles Williams, to name two) took that to heart and got pounded for the effort.

Tiberi definitely won the fight, no doubt about it. I had him winning by 117-111 as did judge Frank Brunette, and that was with a point deducted. It was one of the worst decisions of the 90's. AND, the people at the Taj Mahal thought so as well, because when the decision was announced, they began chanting BS BS BS ! which was easily heard on the live broadcast. After the fight when Toney was interviewed, he was surprisingly humble, which is pretty rare for him.

What happened to Toney in that bout ? Well for starters he was coming of a tough 12 round draw with Mike McCallum less than 2 months ago, and I really tend to think he dismissed Tiberi as a guy he could beat with his eyes closed.

If I was a gambler and their had been a rematch, I would have bet heavily on Toney, and still, I thought Tiberi was a fool for not taking the rematch. Had I been his trainer, I wouldn't have been worried about the 2 months, instead I would have reminded my fighter that it's going to be Toney's 4th bout in 6 months, and he's coming off a draw and a controversial split decision, so he should be in even worse shape.

Well said Decagon.
Hey Seamus, I agree with Tiredoldngrey, This fight has been bantered about between me and a lot of friends over the years and I think you and grey have the two popular takes stated pretty well.

I'm just in the Toney camp on this for the reasons Tired mentioned. If he was really sure of himself why not pick up where the last one left off hurt or not hurt? They both had the same amount of time to heal. My guess is that Tiberi just wanted to ride the perception of his "victory over Toney" to his grave. Think about it, it is the highlight of his career. The only thing better would have to have gone in and finished it with a follow up for big money.

And he chose not to. I think it's because he was in that ring and knew damn well who was boss.

But You and grey have taken the two sides and represented them pretty well. I'll never convince my friends otherwise and they won't convince me. And so it goes.

..that may be the oldest tape of a live fight i watched that i still have. instead of trying to untangle that sentence, work on it for a while and you should get what it says. (hey..even scott fitzgerald did some bad writing.maybe barry or box buzz will rewrite it for me.) anyway, i have it around here somewhere and this has me wanting to look for it again. as i recall my feelings at the time.....i thought toney was by far the better fighter but he just kept fooling around and lagging it, still..i thought he win and was surprised at the negative reaction of the crowd. but..as i said, that was long ago and if i can find the tape maybe my viewpoint will change.

by the way...toney is still very much in the headliner class. whatever happened to whats-his-name?