James Toney was never knocked out but names the fighter who came closest

Having begun his career at middleweight before campaigning across four additional divisions up to heavyweight, James Toney faced more than his share of big punchers.

Toney moved freely between super-middleweight, light-heavyweight, cruiserweight and eventually heavyweight. Across those divisions he exchanged blows with renowned hitters such as Roy Jones Jr, Iran Barkley, Vassiliy Jirov and Hasim Rahman.

Yet it was back at 160lbs, early in his career, where Toney believes he faced the hardest puncher, pound-for-pound. Speaking to The Ring for their “Best I Faced” series, Toney identified the 25th opponent of his career – a 1991 meeting in Atlantic City.

“Sam Peter is the hardest puncher I’ve fought, but pound-for-pound it’s Sosa because he hurt me the most. I’ll never forget that fight, we fought on an ESPN show in Atlantic City on a Sunday.

“I went at him like I did everyone back then and that mother f***** hit me so hard in the third round I was seeing triple for the next three rounds. He knew how to hit and he was so awkward that I couldn’t time him and he caught me high on the head.”

Toney dropped Sosa in the third round and ultimately edged him on a split decision. Later that same year, ‘Lights Out’ captured his first world title, stopping Michael Nunn in the 11th round to claim the IBF middleweight belt.

Sosa fought 45 times in his career which spanned from 1987 to 2000, winning 34 of those fights. 27 of them came by knockout, displaying the power that Toney discussed.