I know all of those guys. I meant in the stand-up category. Like I said, I am an MMA fan also though not as dedicated. Toney's "strength" is in his stand up. With a 4 ounce glove you need timing not raw speed. A jab is damn near a KO punch.Toney was ALWAYS a master of timing and accuracy with great speed. I love Wanderlei Silva, but his striking was ALWAYS HORRIBLY flawed, though quite effective. Wide punches squared up with his chin out. That was obvious back in his prime PRIDE days. This shows the progression of MMA striking. Showing a guy sparking out this shell of a man ain't saying much. Belfort has nice hands, but he ain't James Toney. Also, UFC has been a bit quicker to break and stand guys up. Dude, for the record, I think Toney is going to get the brakes beaten off of him. Grounded and pounded to a pulp.
"Marijuanna? You are addicted to Marijuanna...I suck dick for Cocaine that's an addiction, you ever suck dick for Marijuanna?" -Bob Sagat Half Baked
tony has a chance to beat couture in an mma fight whereas couture wouldnt have a snowballs chance in hell to beat tony in a ring.
I somewhat understand what you're saying but I would rate the chances of Toney beating Couture in a MMA fight as relatively the same as Couture winning a boxing match. I don't see how you arrive at the conclusion that Toney has a chance of winning this fight.
Then he immediately gets thrown into the mix as a legit fighter. If he lands a punch then people will still expect him to lose. If he shows some TD defence, kicks etc then people will be interested. If Toney just throws hands he is stupid. He has 2 real options, learn how to fight like Liddell OR learn how to do MMA as a whole. I'm intrigued to see his approach. If he isn't in shape then I think I probably want to see him brutalised.
Rightttt...because the only prospective combative athletes are from boxing, right? Get a clue...boxing isn't the only game in town. And you may need to rethink that whole bit about "by pulling in washed up boxers..." Want to venture a guess who wanted what? I'll give you a hint...Dana White didn't ask for anything... And...Go!
Actually here you'd be incorrect, to a degree. Yes, Toney has a chance to be Couture in MMA (assuming he's just using boxing, which he won't be). And it will be a greater chance then Couture would have of beating him in a pure boxing match. However, to say Couture would have zero chance is not really reasonable. He'd have a punchers chance and it's possible, but very, very unlikely. Seriously unlikely, but not impossible.
Herschel has clout given his "name" in the sporting world. However it's not without combative merit. He's trained for years in traditional martial arts and wanted to test himself in mixed combative athletes. Would he have gone straight to the UFC? We'll never know, but I'd say it's highly unlikely, if not impossible. (And I know exactly what you're going to say...Brock Lesnar, right? Well, Brock has over 25-30 YEARS of relative experience. Wrestling is, in my opinion, the single best base to have to translate to MMA. And he wasn't only good at it, the man was the BEST at it and is a freak athlete, freakishly strong, freakishly fast and picks things up very, very fast...and dedicated to learning the nuances and becoming a complete MMAist) And as for match making? They actually do a very, very good job. Sure they'll have the rare clear mismatch, but what's unbelievably mismatched here? An elite level boxers vs. an elite level wrestler? Sure one has much more MMA experience but Toney asked for it. He could very well have gotten himself experience and worked his way up from relatively inexperienced (relative to Couture) guys to the point where he'd be more comfortable with Couture. He should be thanking his lucky stars that he's not fighting Lesnar...
