that's not what happened at all. James Toney was spouting his mouth off to pretty much anyone who will listen and was jawing about how MMA sucks and how he could beat ANY of the heavyweights in the UFC. He said any of them. Then he started talking about how he was training a little bit with Andrei Arlovski and how he was handling him without trouble. Then he stepped that up by pretty much stalking Dana white from UFC event to UFC event until he was able to sit down with Dana and talk a contract out of him for multiple fights. So he gets to get his ass kicked multiple times until the contract is up. THAT's how that started.
Not too happy about this being billed as pitting the best of boxing against the best of MMA, especially in an MMA fight. The least they could do if they're going down that path is get a boxer in his prime, after all the MMA fighter is fighting his type of fight, so him being over the hill doesn't matter nearly as much as a boxer being both out of his element AND over the hill. As they would say in boxing, Toney has a punchers chance and not much else so he better hope that he has some pop using those 4 oz gloves.
Randy has a boxing background. If Toney has the same amount of wrestling experience as Randy has boxing then I wouldn't think is too bad a fight.
The main thing that MMA has shown is that being good at grappling and takedowns is more important than being good with punches, so a "grappler's chance" is actually a lot better than a "puncher's chance". Couture has been wrestling against the best in the world for twenty plus years. Toney has been grappling with amateurs for a few months. It doesn't matter if Couture wants to take him down from a greco clinch or shoot a single, he's going to do it with ease and then pound on Toney. There's no way that Toney is going to stay upright and there's no way he does anything but get beat up on the ground. The end. As for other points made in this thread, I'd take Mercer over Toney in an MMA match. Bigger, better boxing style for MMA.
james toney is a badass, strong as hell, hard hitting, skills, iron chin.. im ok with representing the sport as long as he cross trains. people are assholes and shouldnt be tearing him down, he's doing some badass ****. who would you want to represent boxing? paul williams? mikkel kessler?
I disagree with this part: The main thing that MMA has shown is that being good at grappling and takedowns is more important than being good with punches, so a "grappler's chance" is actually a lot better than a "puncher's chance". I agree that Couture have the advantage here Couture trains grappling boxing and muay thai for years and couture began to train grappling some mouths ago but a fight is a fight, everything can happen
That's very 1993 of you. Look at the trends of who as actually won mma fights and how and you'll see that if you're going to be good at one thing far more than something else you're much MUCH more likely to be successful if that one thing is wrestling. Wrestling movements use your whole body against large and slow moving targets of your opponent. They're much more high percentage techniques than trying to land punches against the small and moving head of your opponent while keeping your hips out of range for takedowns. You can argue that mma matches aren't really like "real" fights with no rules, but you absolutely can't argue with the overwhelming evidence that in mma matches grappling techniques are much more important than punching techniques. This is coming from someone who is not all that great at wrestling and is much better at boxing and such. I really wish that the opposite was true, but if you're at all honest you'll see that it's just not.
sorry I said that thinking you were talking about the stand-up fighting and not just boxing my lack of attention
Probably guys more like Hatton or Mosely who are built better for grappling. I think in his day Big George could have been GREAT at mma.
Name anyone who has done well in the ufc with "a little ground training". It doesn't happen. Raymond Daniels, an undefeated kickboxing superstar is way more well rounded as a striker than VK and he got grapple****ed in his lone mma fight by a mediocre guy and didn't even get off a punch or kick. http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Jer...nd_Daniels_Strikeforce_1?vid=10000575&tid=100
So you are saying MMA is all about wrestling? Then why call it MMA if someone with a striking background (Kickboxing, Karate, Muay Thai) doesn't have a chance?