The Fighting Spirit Hasn’t Left Toney

He stood up in a San Fernando Valley restaurant crowded with noontime customers, whipped off his shirt and flexed his muscles.

It was the kind of behavior one might expect from a novice fighter who isn’t quite sure how to get attention.

James Toney is no novice. He has been a professional fighter for 14 years. He has a 64-4-2 record with 41 knockouts. He won the International Boxing Federation’s middleweight title and successfully defended it six times. He won the IBF super-middleweight crown and successfully defended it three times. He has beaten Iran Barkley, Michael Nunn, Reggie Johnson, Steve Little and Doug DeWitt. He beat Mike McCallum twice. He is a former Ring magazine fighter of the year.

Yet, at 33, Toney still feels he has to prove himself.

He insists he will do precisely that today when he again bares his chest, steps into the ring at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula and fights Jason Robinson (16-2, 10) in an IBF cruiserweight title-elimination match.

The winner becomes the mandatory challenger for IBF champion Vassily Jirov.

Toney, who in his career has experienced weight problems, management problems, problems with his work ethic, knows his professed resolve will invite more yawns than yahoos. He knows his story has been told by every fighter who ever vowed to come back, and that it rarely has a happy ending.

“I like the doubters,” Toney said. “It makes me work even harder. When you go through a phase, you go through it for a reason. It tests your fortitude. This is the future. This is my last chance. I want to leave my legacy behind as a great fighter.”

Toney has a new backer in his corner, one who can relate to his comeback. Promoter Dan Goossen is also starting over after an ugly split with America Presents, the promotional organization that collapsed under the weight of financial problems.

Goossen, who operated out of Denver and then Las Vegas, has returned to his roots. A San Fernando Valley product, he has formed Goossen Tutor Promotions in Sherman Oaks.

Toney is the biggest name Goossen has landed thus far, so today’s fight is also a key to Goossen’s future.

“At a young age, James made a lot of money and it was tough to keep his focus,” Goossen said. “But his [comeback] is not something we are selling, but something we are doing. When he was over 200 pounds, we didn’t even want to send out pictures of him looking like that, but now he’ll probably come in for the fight under 190.

“After Sunday, we are going to go after Jirov and get the title back, but we are not going to call out the names of the people James wants to fight. If we did, they would run anyway.”

Smokin’ Like Joe

The biggest acclaim Toney has received recently was for his victory over Muhammad Ali.

OK, so it was Will Smith playing Ali.

Toney played Joe Frazier in last year’s “Ali” movie and proved he could not only imitate Frazier’s style, but could effectively handle a few lines of dialogue. Toney has a powerful scene in a car where, as Frazier, he offers the down-on-his-luck Ali a few dollars.

One who wasn’t impressed with Toney’s performance, however, was Frazier.

“He said I didn’t look like him,” Toney said. “That’s fine with me. Joe Frazier is an ugly man.”

In a grueling scene, Toney and Smith recreated the dramatic moment when Frazier floored Ali with a left hook at the end of their 1971 fight. They went through eight takes before director Michael Mann was satisfied.

“I really caught him one time,” said Toney of Smith. “I didn’t mean to. Will told me, ‘Man, I’d hate to be on the end of your punches every day.’ ”

Toney hopes Robinson will be saying the same thing today.

Feeling No Pain

Wednesday, a day after his private plane had skidded off a runway in Big Bear and come to rest in a field, engulfed in flames, promoter Bob Arum awoke at his Las Vegas home without any lingering effects of the harrowing experience.

The six others on board also escaped injury after exiting through a wall of flames.

The first thing Arum did the morning after was attend services at his synagogue to give thanks.

He also showed his sense of humor was unscathed, saying: “Someone told me that if I had hair like Don King, I wouldn’t have made it out of there without getting burned.”

Quick Jabs

Mike Tyson hopes to fight either World Boxing Assn. champion John Ruiz or Clifford Etienne in November.... In the semi-main event on the Toney-Robinson card, IBF junior-lightweight champion Steve Forbes (20-1, 5) will defend against David Santos (42-4, 27). Tickets for the card are priced from $45 to $125. The first bout is at 2:15 p.m. with the main event at 3. That fight will be shown tape-delayed on Fox Sports Net.