IBF No. 2 Ranked Super Middleweight The Ring No. 8 ranked pound-for-pound fighter Former middleweight champion
Result
Jones Jr. wins via 12 round unanimous decision (119–108, 117–110, 118–109)
James Toney vs. Roy Jones Jr., billed as The Uncivil War, was a professional boxing match held on November 18, 1994, for the IBF super middleweight championship.[1]
Background
In September 1994, promoter Bob Arum officially announced the highly anticipated title fight between undefeated fighters James Toney and Roy Jones Jr.[2] Toney came into the fight as the IBF super middleweight champion, having won the title on February 13, 1993, from Iran Barkley and having since successfully defended the title three times. Jones, the reigning IBF middleweight champion since defeatingBernard Hopkins on May 22, 1993, had defended the middleweight belt only once before vacating the title in order to move up to the super middleweight division and challenge Toney.
The men were considered to be two of the top fighters in the sport.[3] Toney was ranked number two in the pound-for-pound rankings, while Jones was number three. Only then-WBC welterweight champion Pernell Whitaker was ranked ahead of them.
Jones struggled to come down from his initial weight of 180 to the required weight of 168 as mentioned in a 1994 interview by the news company "The Hour" stating "I came from 180 to 168 and it was tough," Jones said. However, despite his weight struggles, Jones dominated nearly the entire fight and won a unanimous decision.
Only one official knockdown occurred during the fight, a left hook from Jones which sent Toney stumbling back into a corner. He nearly fell down, though he was able to keep his balance with the help of the ropes and remained on his feet. Nevertheless, referee Richard Steele ruled it a knockdown, and Toney was forced to take a standing eight count. Steele's reasoning for this decision is because any punch that knocks down a fighter that makes the fighter use the need to hang on the ropes to prevent himself from touching the canvas is sufficient evidence to score that punch as a knockdown punch. It was only the second time that Toney had been knocked down. In his previous 46 fights, only Reggie Johnson had scored a knockdown over Toney. After the knockdown, Jones would continue to dictate the pace of the fight, constantly using his speed to land combinations and avoid Toney's offense.
When the fight ended and went to the judges' scorecards, all three had different scores, all with Jones ahead. Jones won the unanimous decision victory with scores of 119–108, 118–109, and 117–110.[5]
Aftermath
Ring magazine would call Jones' performance the most dominant of any big fight in 20 years. Jones landed 285 of 614 punches (46%) and Toney connected on 157 of 451 (35%). The fight generated 300,000 pay-per-view buys.[6][7]
