Where the fuck has Sinister been these days?
Anyway, the Philly Shell is something I do for shits and giggles in hands only sparring. I've actually gotten reasonably good at it and can use it against people who match me in skill. What its taught me is that rolling your shoulder doesn't necessarily have to be done out of the Philly Shell stance, it can be done with your hands up. Rolling your shoulder to deflect punches is much better than taking it on the glove especially in mma where the gloves are smaller and will hurt more when they crash into your face. It also loads up the right hand beautifully.
Also whats all this nonsense about it requiring special athleticism? James Tony was never a particularly athletic fighter and always had pretty slow feet. Its his positioning not his speed that allows him to fight like that.
1)not sure, maybe he is training for an actual fight; he was doing work as a sparring guy and said there might be a chance he would be prepping for a fight, only thing i can think of..unless its something else.
2)toney isn't any roy jones jr type; but he had very good timing, coordination, reaction time and handspeed...above average at least, probably waaay above avg honestly.