James Toney believes that there is only one man in history who can be considered even better than himself.

Toney is a three-weight world champion who has earned world honors in the middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight divisions during his nearly 30-year career.

He also competed in the heavyweight division, where he once defeated Evander Holyfield, and later won the WBA heavyweight title with a victory over John Ruiz, but was later ruled a no contest after failing a drug test.

When it comes to the greatest fighter of all time debate, he is another heavyweight that is often mentioned by many boxing fans, and one of the legends is Muhammad Ali.

Toney, however, disagrees with this assessment, insisting on WiseNuts that he ranks as the second greatest of all time, with Sugar Ray Robinson taking the top spot.

“I’m an Ali fan myself, but I’m sorry, he’s not the greatest fighter of all time [Sugar] Second place Ray Robinson and James Toney, period. If you look at how we did it, we did it the right way… I fought, Ray Robinson, we fought. Where is he from? My hometown, Detroit. We do it like no one else.”

Robinson’s achievements speak for themselvesholding the world welterweight title for five years, from 1946 to 1951, during which he recorded a remarkable 91-fight unbeaten streak.

At one point, he had 129 wins in 132 fights, 85 of them by knockout. He is also a five-time world middleweight champion, finally hanging up his gloves in 1965, winning 174 of his 201 fights.

Floyd Mayweather will face Greek kickboxing champion Mike Zambidis on Saturday, June 27 at the Telekom Center Athens inside the OAKA Olympic Convoluted, headlining Battle of the Legends, an 18-fight card featuring boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, MMA and freestyle wrestling. The platform announced Wednesday that the entire card will be streamed live globally on DAZN on pay-per-view, and the event will be available free to Ultimate subscribers.

The fight was announced in May as a full-contact exhibition, which was confirmed by the promoters at a press conference in Las Vegas. Mayweather, 49, retired from professional boxing in 2017 with a 50-0 record, 15 major world titles in five weight classes ranging from super featherweight to airy middleweight, and a bronze medal at the 1996 Olympics. Since leaving the professional ranks, he has participated in a number of international exhibitions.

According to event organizers, Zambidis, an 18-time world kickboxing champion, set a career record of 180 fights, including 158 victories and 87 knockouts. The Athens native built his reputation at international competitions and K-1 events in Japan before retiring from regular competition.

Main and featured fights

In the co-main event, Portuguese Octavio Pudivitr will face Colombian Roamer Alexis Angulo for the silver WBC International championship.

The card also features the professional boxing debut of Ihor Potieria, the first Ukrainian athlete to compete in the UFC, who will face Antonio Zepeda of Mayweather’s TMT team. The second TMT fighter, undefeated Canadian Joseph Brown, will face Greek champion Leonidas Sopranidis.

Boxing card

The boxing portion of the card features Greek youth champion Alexandros Beltekos against gold medalist Dionysis Stroubis, Michalis Tsamalidis against Charilis Malichoudis and three-time Greek champion Odysseas Tsakouridis against undefeated WBF International champion Gelian Rojkou.

In women’s boxing, four-time Greek champion and three-time European champion Anna Maria Tryfylli will face Serbian professional Sara Marjanovic. At the heavyweight gala, undefeated Greek prospect Konstantinos Plateias will face Michael Essomba from Cameroon.

Kickboxing, MMA, Muay Thai and wrestling

In kickboxing, Christos Avramidis fights with Nikos Tavladakis, and Valentinos Kyriakidis challenges the Iranian champion Omid Nosrati, one of the top fighters of the WAKO organization.

In MMA, Kostas Kolokythas will face the undefeated MVP of the Hellenic MMA Federation, Aris Koutsodimos.

Two WMC world title fights are part of the Muay Thai card. European Games and European Championships medalist Kyriakos Bakirtzis will face Charli Daines, while Thai champion Parunai Janchira will meet two-time IFMA World Champion and two-time World Games gold medalist Laura Fernanda Burgos Lopez in the women’s main event.

The card also features a freestyle wrestling bout between Olympic medalist Dauren Kurugliev and world champion Giorgos Kougioumtsidis.

Broadcast and tickets

The pay-per-view service is available for purchase on the streaming platform and tickets can be purchased on More.com. The Athens Telekom Center is located within the OAKA Olympic Convoluted, which hosted the 2004 Summer Games.

“AJ boxing, I think Fury will probably single him out,” Yarde told talkSPORT Boxing.

Yarde, however, believes the outcome will change dramatically if Joshua returns to the mindset that helped him overwhelm opponents early in his career.

“But if AJ gets that coarse and tough back to where he is, he’s going to want to fight and just take shots, “If he hurts Fury like Usyk did, he will finish him off.” Yarde said.

Yarde’s comments reflect a debate that has raged around Joshua for years. The Olympic gold medalist built his reputation on explosive knockouts, but after a upset loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019 it took a more measured approach.

The lightweight heavyweight contender admitted that his opinion on the Joshua-Fury fight has evolved over time.

“Five years ago, or even six, seven years ago, I was riding with AJ around this time, you know, right after his fight with Klitschko, and he was riding on this steam train,” Yarde said.

The long-debated clash between Joshua and Fury remains one of the biggest fights available in British boxing. Joshua is scheduled to return to fight Kristian Prenga on July 25, while Fury is expected to resume his career later this year after announcing his return.

If both are victorious, calls for the heavyweight rivals to finally settle their differences in the ring will likely intensify.