Youngstown’s Toney eager for title fight
YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown native Victor Toney grew up in a boxing gym and over the course of his 10-year boxing career, he’s waited for his time to shine.
That time is now.
Saturday night, Toney, who holds a professional boxing record of 6-2-1 with five knockouts, will have the opportunity to wrap his first title belt around his waist when he squares up with Samuel Wildenhaus (Kettering, OH) for the World Boxing Foundation International Silver super welterweight belt at Parkersburg South High School in Parkersburg, W.Va.
“My time is now,” Toney said outside of the Youngstown/Salem boxing gym in Boardman, where he’s trained by Alecia and Rocky DeFrank. “The best Vic Toney is here right now, and every fight I’m going to get better and better. So, this fight, I’m going to implement the best things I’ve been working on and I’m going to bring this title home.”
If Toney comes home with a victory this weekend, he could be the first boxer since Ken “The Cobra” Sigurani to win a WBF title and having the opportunity to do so is a dream come true for the Chaney grad.
“I mean, it’s the WBF, it’s my first belt. It’s like I’m living a dream,” Toney said. “I’m trying to keep my composure, not get too excited. I don’t want to exert too much energy overthinking it. I just want to focus on my craft, focusing on my do’s and don’t and just focusing on putting on a great show and bringing this belt home.”
Wildenhaus is 5-2-1 in his professional career and is coming off a TKO victory over Turner Williams (4-13) at the beginning of September. He’s also won three of his last four bouts, but Toney believes he knows what it will take to get the job done.
“I gotta work the jab, keep it in his face, keep him off of his lead foot because he’s a short, stocky, pressure fighter that throws a lot of punches,” Toney said. “So if I keep that jab in his face, keep him guessing when he wants to come in and I’m mixing in my combinations within the jab and using the ring and make him run around chasing me, he’ll run into something.”
This opportunity has been a long time coming for Toney. Both his father and uncle were boxers, so Toney spent a lot of his childhood around the gym watching and learning. His dad would teach him certain things, and then Toney would see them being implemented by boxers on live television.
As Toney got older he started implementing those teachings on his own, but he also started drifting away from the sport and more into football, basketball and track.
An ACL injury during high school somewhat derailed those dreams, but once Toney graduated, he had his eyes set on trying to walk on to the football team at Youngstown State.
Until he had a revelation.
“That year Floyd Mayweather was the highest paid athlete and in that same exact year, Kelly Pavlik won the middleweight world title,” Toney said. “So I was like, I’m going to go to the boxing gym.”
Since then, Toney has been putting in the work in order to climb up the ranks, and he’s coming off arguably one of his biggest fights yet.
On Aug. 13, Toney went the distance against Troy Isley, who was a bronze medalist in the 2020 Olympics. Isley won the six-round bout, which took place at the Resorts World Casino in Las Vegas and was streamed on ESPN+, by unanimous decision, but Toney pushed him to the edge and became Isley’s first opponent since January to force a decision.
Now, he’s hoping to build off of that showing.
“Performing against an Olympian, it’s like anybody under that type of caliber, it definitely gives me a little bit of edge mentally,” Toney said. “I don’t underestimate anybody, so it’s like I’m just licking my chops. I’m definitely sharpening up all the tools in my bag to make sure that night that I peak.”