Inside James Toney’s training camp!
By Ace Freeman (31-May-2008)

From the FightFan archives, read on to get a behind the scenes look at the hilarious and terrifying day Ace Freeman spent after crashing James Toney's 2006 training camp for the first Rahman fight!

“FightFan.com, hey? Who let you in here?” Toney was starting to sound more and more upset with each word. I look over at the security guard who let me in and he looks suddenly afraid. “Uhh, I did JT,” he said, sounding hesitant.

“Give me that camera,” says Toney, snatching it from my hand. “Who told you to take pictures in here?” I’m speechless. Toney looks at the security guard. “Get him out of here.”

“With or without my camera?” I say with some concern brewing.

“Without. You should have thought of that when you started taking pictures without permission.” He quips back.

---

It’s a sunny, mid-February afternoon in Los Angeles as I walk up the steps of the famed Wild Card Gym on Vine Street in Hollywood. It’s my first time visiting Freddie Roach’s renowned gym and I’m excited to see what I might find inside.
At the top of the stairs, I reach a closed door with a sign that reads, “Wild Card closed from 1:00 to 3:30 for private training camp of James Toney. No admittance, no exceptions.” Never one to be discouraged, I walk right in.

I’m met in the entranceway by a large security guard who blocks my path, “Who are you?” he asks.

“My name is Ace and I’m from Fightfan.com, the boxing website. I was hoping to catch some of JT’s camp.” I hand him my card and he quickly studies it.

“All right man, you can come in.” He steps aside and the entire gym unfolds before me.

The Wild Card is smaller than I expected but every bit what I imagined. The walls are covered with boxing photos, articles, posters, old fight cards from Freddie Roach’s fighting days, pictures of Manny Pacquiao, James Toney and other notable Wild Card fighters. A large ring takes up the majority of the room and sits in the middle toward the back wall; to it’s left, an array of cardio machines, in the front, a series of heavy bags, and to the right, a small area for speed bags.

For a small gym, there’s no shortage of action. Owner and trainer Freddie Roach stands on the ring apron coaching a young Filipino fighter in a heated sparring session. Over by the cardio machines I can see young Filipino prospect Rey ‘Boom Boom’ Bautista working out his abs. To my immediate left middleweight Kingsly Ikeke is laying a thunderous beating on a heavy bag.

I stand in tight to the wall and take it all in. Suddenly, I hear an unmistakable voice yelling from the rear right of the room behind the speed bags. I look over and James Toney is sitting in a chair with a television camera pointed right at him. He’s giving an interview but is wearing an earpiece so I can only hear his answers. I catch the tail end but it’s clear he’s discussing his upcoming fight with Hasim Rahman.

“Rahman’s in big trouble,” he said. “The only thing I’m worried about is him showing up. We’re four weeks away and I predict he fakes an injury with two weeks to go. All I care about is him showing up. I’m the current IBA heavyweight champion and soon to be the WBC champion. The WBC belt is a very credible one and Hasim Rahman don’t bring no credibility to the belt. I do.”

Toney wraps up the interview and stands up. His presence in the gym is one of dominance. He carries himself with the confidence and authority of a drill sergeant and has everyone in the gym aware of where he is at all times. He comes out from beside the ring and the sweat is already running. He looks to be a bit soft still but not nearly as stocky as he did at Christmas. I guess his weight to be about 250 pounds - he looks to be in similar shape to when he fought John Ruiz - and this is still several weeks out from the Rahman date.

Toney walks over to his wife and infant son who are seated about 10 feet away from where I’m standing. James Jr. is bouncing playfully on his mother’s lap pointing at his dad and smiling. I pull out my camera and snap a quick photo. Apparently, this is the wrong move. Toney’s attention shifts immediately to me like I had awoken an idle grizzly bear.

“Who the fuck are you?” he yells. The entire gym stops and everyone turns their attention to Toney and me.

“Ace Freeman from FightFan.com.”

“FightFan.com, hey? Who let you in here?” He’s starting to sound more and more upset with each word. I look over at the security guard who let me in and he looks suddenly afraid. “Uhh, I did JT,” he said, sounding hesitant.

“Give me that camera,” says Toney, snatching it from my hand. “Who told you to take pictures in here?” I’m speechless. Toney looks at the security guard. “Get him out of here.”

“With or without my camera?” I say with some concern brewing.

“Without. You should have thought of that when you started taking pictures without permission.” He quips back.

I stand in shock looking at the security guard who just looks back at me blankly. Then Toney starts snapping photos with my camera. He takes a picture of his wife and son and then one of Freddie Roach. He walks back toward me, stares at me with a grimacing look and then brakes out a big smile handing my camera back to me.

“FightFan.com huh? Hey everybody, this guy’s from FightFan.com!” he bellows. “So where you from then?”

“Canada.”

“Canada? Are you gay?” The entire gym explodes in laughter.

“No, I’m not gay, but I was hoping to watch you workout and maybe get an interview.”

“You want an interview? Let me ask Freddie. Hey Freddie, can this guy stay?”

“It’s up to you. This is your camp,” Freddie says.

“Alright then, you’re cool. You can stay and see the whole experience,” he says and struts off towards the ring.

Everyone else goes back to what they were doing and Toney starts to stretch. I sit down a few seats over from Mrs. Toney and James Jr. She looks over and gives me a warm smile probably wondering if I’m still shaken up from Toney’s antics. I look at James Jr. who seems to have a permanent grin on his face and he gives me a big smile and starts laughing. I hold out my fist and he touches his fist to mine, clearly familiar with the greeting. He lets out a big laugh.

A large fighter comes into the gym and sits down next to me to put his gym shoes on. He’s about 6-2, 220 pounds and seems very polite. He asks me if I’m with Toney’s camp. I tell him I’m a writer sitting in to watch the sparring. It turns out he’s Toney’s sparring partner for the day. We talk a bit about how difficult Toney is to hit and he says he’s very slick and difficult to tag cleanly. I tell him that I’d heard Toney likes to trash talk his sparring partners and he laughs and says I haven’t seen anything yet. Today is his first day sparring with the camp; he arrived the night before and hung out with JT and his crew all night. He laces up his shoes and goes to get his hands wrapped.

Wild Card trainer Macka Foley tapes Toney’s hands as he continues to bellow random quips to the whole gym. James Jr. wanders over to his father and begins tugging at the leg of his shorts. James picks him up and sits him on the counter. James looks into his son’s eyes and smiles warmly as James Jr. throws punches playfully at his dad. Toney asks his son who the champ is, and James Jr. giggles and points at his father.

After some mild stretching and more strutting around the gym, Toney does some light bag work and steps into the ring. His sparring partner has already been in there for some time, warming up and moving around the ring. Toney sits on the side of the ring and begins to put on his headgear. I notice that he’s already worked up a good sweat and wonder how many rounds he’ll do. He steps into the ring and is all business.

The first round catches me off guard. The sparring partner is moving well, jabbing and staying away from Toney. Toney seems relatively stationary and is eating a few jabs. He follows his partner around, stalking and not throwing very much. Suddenly his opponent follows up a stiff jab with an overhand right. Toney leans back at an angle and the shot fails to connect with his face. Before he can reel his arm back in, Toney’s right hand is following on target to the jaw. Crack! It’s a brilliant counter-punch. I’ve read about the way Toney slips the right hand and had seen it in several of his fights, but I never really appreciated it until this moment looking on from behind the ropes.

Toney makes a noise of awe in approval and his sparring partner retreats backward. Toney follows him without regard for anything that might be coming in return. He jabs and throws a right hand. They clinch, and Toney faces the ropes. The sparring partner leans on him and throws a left hook and an uppercut but Toney rolls with the punches and returns fire. Much of the round is spent with both men trading punches on the inside and clinching. As the bell for the first round sounds, Toney returns to his corner looking (to my surprise) somewhat tired.

After a shot of water, the sound goes to begin the second round. Toney, who has been relatively quiet up to this point, meets his sparring partner in the middle of the ring. This time, he gets his jab going first and backs his partner up. He continues to stalk with his hands down, looking as though he’s after one shot. His partner circles around him on his bicycle looking apprehensive to stand still. Toney walks after him, swatting away a few jabs and then back to the centre of the ring. The partner, reading the signal, comes to Toney and attacks. He throws a good one-two connecting and then grabs. Toney shoves him off.

“Come on copper, fight me,” he says. (Apparently his sparring partner that day was in fact a police officer) The sparring partner picks up his attack but continues to grab after he throws. Each time, Toney shoves him off. “Come on copper, hit me.” As he stops to talk he leaves himself open and a very hard and well-placed right hand slams into Toney’s jaw. “Oooooooo, I like it,” he says and goes back to work.

Toney continues to stalk after his retreating partner with both hands at his side. He cuts off the ring very well as he chases after his larger sparring partner. More often than not he lands telling counter shots off everything his partner throws.
With each round that goes by, Toney looks stronger and stronger (making my earlier notion that he looked tired seem unfounded) as his sparring partner appears more and more desperate to stay away. The more this happened, the more Toney would talk, and the more frustrated he would become.

“I don’t respect you,” he hisses as he slips another shot. “I ain’t got respect for nobody. You all want to see me abuse a police officer? Come on copper, fight me! How come all cops are fags? You’re not sore already, are you?”

By now his sparring partner appears to be uncomfortable; it looks like his arm may be bothering him. Toney is clearly frustrated at his partner’s disinterest in standing and trading punches with him. It seems understandable to me - if I was in his shoes, I’d be reluctant too. Every time he stands still, Toney rocks him with hard, stinging shots that he can’t stop and every time he tries to throw back, he’s countered.

Suddenly, Toney stops and stands still in the centre of the ring. “Come on copper, that’s it, I ain’t going nowhere, I’m standing right here. Come and fight me copper.” The sparring partner takes a deep breath and apprehensively moves forward. They trade punches and once again Toney slips and counters crisply.

“Someone call 911. We got an officer in trouble.” Everyone in the gym is laughing.

A well dressed, large of stature gentleman at ringside looks on enjoying every minute. As Toney and his partner work along the ropes in front of him, the forth punch in one of the combinations Toney throws comes out of the ring and catches the unsuspecting man right in the bread basket. He hunches over and again the onlookers let out a roaring laugh.

As the forth round begins, Toney is clearly fed up with his partner’s reluctance to engage. “Come on faggot, fight me. You hang with me all last night and then you come here and aren’t going to work? Fight me faggot or I’m going to send your ass out of here.”

Toney’s disposition begins to change and he really picks up the pace. The sparring partner, clearly outclassed, holds on as best he can obviously in some discomfort from both the punches and the words. Both worsen with each passing minute. Toney begins arguing with two men from his camp about the lack of interest his sparring partner is showing all the while continuing with the one-sided session in the ring.

“This mother fucker comes hanging out with us last night and now he don’t want to fight me. Not on my dime. I’m telling you right now, not on my dime.”
Mrs. Toney yells out that he should be concentrating on working. “I don’t need to hear from you. I’m the man here,” he yells back. Seeming as though she had better things to do than listen to her husband ham it up with his villain routine before all the eager onlookers, Mrs. Toney collected James Jr., said goodbye to a few friends and left the gym with her lovely smile in tact.

Now in the fifth round of sparring, the seriousness in and out of the ring has all the onlookers watching in awkward silence. Toney has amazingly grown stronger and more active with each round. While his sparring partner looks like it’s all pride that’s allowing his battered body and ego to continue, he presses on while the verbal and physical beating continues.

“I’m the baddest man in the world. No one can do what I do. Ain’t nobody on the planet got the skills I do. I ain’t got respect for anyone. You need to bring it copper, you’re a little faggot and I ain’t got no respect for you. I’m gonna send you home to your ugly wife.”

“I love it when people are mad at me,” he says as he pounds his man against the ropes. “I’m one of those old school niggaz. A real gangster. I’m rich.” The talk went back and forth between glorifying himself and emasculating his sparring partner. All the while, the onlookers remained silent; no one wanted to draw Toney’s attention.

After the end of the sixth round, Toney takes off his headgear and steps out of the ring. The sparring partner exits the ring in obvious discomfort. While he was game the entire time and showed a great deal of resiliency in with one of the best fighters on the planet, you could literally see him wilting mentally and physically as each round went by. I had heard stories of Toney sparring, but this episode made me think that if this was a typical day of sparring it must be a very difficult task to stand up to that on a week-to-week basis. The sparring partner sat down and began to ice his arm.

Slowly those present began to resume their business. Toney had Macka Foley adjust the speed bag to his height and briefly hit it before deciding to call it a day. Still in a sour mood over not having been engaged in enough of a fight, he began to walk around shouting to people at random. Between these rants, I overheard him bellow, “They ought to make me president. The first thing I’d do is kick out all the Mexicans.” In a gym full of Mexican fighters, he drew a lot of laughs. One Mexican fighter in particular liked the idea of Toney as president and asked that he be hooked up with a green card.

Toney turned around when he saw the door opening and three young Latino men entered the gym. Before the security guard could get over to them to ask who they were, Toney goes on the offensive. “Who are these Arabs?” he quips as everyone in earshot bursts into laughter. They introduce themselves and begin talking with Toney. He laughs with them, signs some autographs and poses for a photo.

He wanders around a bit longer, yelling all the while, and works his way to the shower. As the door slams shut, he continues yelling to himself the entire time he’s in the shower. I look around as life at the Wild Card Gym resumes. Two young fighters are in the ring sparring away. A young Mexican is pounding away at a heavy bag while the speed bags drone like humming birds. All this continues on while James Toney is yelling to himself in the shower about how he’s the greatest fighter in the world. That might be a very subjective notion, but I defy anyone reading this to go into the Wild Card Gym and try to tell him otherwise.

Related articles:

• Feature Photo: Toney and Thompson size up!
• Toney earns third-round TKO over Hasim Rahman!
• Scale Watch: Toney and Rahman weigh in!
• Toney-Rahman II: The loser retires!
• Toney and Rahman’s ‘Last Chance!’
• Toney-Rahman II: ‘Best Damn’ Rematch!
• RAPID FIRE: James ‘Lights Out’ Toney