It was announced that heavyweight boxing champion “Lights Out” James Toney (0-0) has signed a five-fight deal with the UFC. The latest is that the contract is the first ever non-exclusive contract that the UFC has done. The signing of Toney can be looked at as a freak show, a shot to beat Strikeforce to the punch or a vehicle to prove that MMA is greater than boxing but no matter how you view it the important question is what will this do for the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA).
James Toney is a boxer who has had some issues in the past with steroids, weight and has been known to be quite an odd character. Him getting the chance to enter the Octagon has freak show written all over it and the battle with Strikeforce could be the reason that Dana has sunk to such a low when he usually looks down on other promotions that pull such a stunt.
Dana told Yahoo Sports writer Kevin Iole that he was told that Strikeforce had been in talks with Toney in order to negotiate a huge fight between Toney and Herschel Walker (1-0). This fight would have given Strikeforce huge numbers on CBS or even possibly on the first ever Strikeforce pay-per-view event. Allowing Scott Coker and Strikeforce to put on a fight between those two would have drawn in the traditional sports media which by and large has ignored MMA. I will be the first to admit I laughed at the thought of Walker signing with Strikeforce however the press it brought to MMA was quite amazing. ESPN was all over it only because Walker is one of the beloved heroes from one of the older traditional sports. Now this media will be forced to cover the UFC for James’ first fight inside the octagon. Former boxing champion versus MMA fighter in a battle to determine once and for all which is the best combat sport.
Mr. White has always been a fan of boxing but the sport he works in has taken a beating by the old guard of boxing. This seems to be a very credible reason for the non-exclusive contract they offered to Toney. He is allowed to box and fight inside the Octagon. The UFC had a chance to sign arguably the best MMA fighter in the world in Fighters.com top-ranked “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (31-1) and one of the requests he made was for a non-exclusive contract so he could compete in combat Sambo. Dana White was not going to allow that because if Fedor would have suffered an injury while competing outside the Octagon it would hurt his company and the ability to promote fights that fans have wanted to see for years now.
James Toney being able to still box leads me to believe that they are setting Toney up for failure to make a point. Rumors are flying that Toney will fight Kimbo Slice (4-1) in his first fight since Kimbo was supposed to debuting on pay-per-view at UFC 113 but that fight is not on the official UFC 113 card at UFC.com. I know this would be a highly marketable fight between the street brawler king and the boxing legend so to speak but I feel like they would ruining any shot at further promoting Kimbo after this fight. He has had trouble with strikers that throw clean straight punches and that is exactly what Toney does. I would think the UFC would put Toney in against a man with good stand up, great kicks and a high level wrestling background.
No matter who Toney first faces inside the Octagon you have to wonder what this will do for the sport of MMA. With the media circus we saw surrounding Strikeforce and Herschel Walker one would have to believe that this will be great for MMA and the UFC in particular. If Toney loses his first fight Dana White can say that this goes to show why MMA is the best combat sport in the world with the most well-rounded athletes. Now if Toney were to win his debut, this could set up a much larger fight for Toney in the UFC if he did not parlay the win into a another shot at the heavyweight title on boxing. It does not matter how you look at it. I fully believe it is a freak show fight but I know that it is going to be good for MMA as a whole and thus I can’t com plain to much.
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What would happen if you took a 41 year old former UFC fighter who has a record of 3-2 in the past 5 years, and asked him to fight a BOXING match against Klistscko or some top 25 contender? ANSWER- the same thing that will happen when Toney fights in the UFC. And the sad state of UFC is that Toney will make PPV and get a shot at a top 25 UFC fighter even thought Toney has no experience in the sport. Did you see what happened when Arlovski, a UFC champ NOT past his prime, tried to box? He cannot beat average club boxers and would never rank on PPV or regular televised boxing because his boxing is so poor. But this is good for MMA because Dana White can sell PPV for freakshow factor, since many UFC fans who sit along side serious athletes are non-athletes who understand little about the sport and skills (wrestling, JJ, Judo, karate, boxing) and just like a quick, bloody KO, submission or other lopsided ending. But nobody likes a blatant mismatch, so you can mask a mismatch by saying look here- we have a former world champ boxer with an incredibly great record…boxed against the best etc. But in reality, Toney is now 41 years old, has a record of 3-2 in the past five years, and is physically way past his prime. But the illusion is still there for Dana– so when Toney loses he can say boxing is not as good as MMA in an effort to sell more PPV. It shows the lack of talent pool and competitiveness for UFC. Some of their guys are incredible, world-class athletes but there are so few of them that they need to find opponents for title fights from among guys who never fought a day in their life except 4 years of high school wrestling. Some of these UFC guys never even wrestled, some took strip-mall “martial arts” for two years and they end up on TV. And Dana wants you to pay $45 to see them. UFC is part sport and mostly showbiz. Sad for the real athletes in UFC, but they follow the money and who blames them.
This is great for MMA and for James Toney, not so sure for boxing. It’s not a freakshow because James Toney is a champion fighter coming into a fighting sport. He’s not an old football or baseball player, he is a well decorated champion fighter. If he fights Kimbo it will be the end of Kimbo’s career with the UFC which is probably what Dana wants anyway. Five fight deal means Dana is banking on Toney and not Kimbo. And for anyone out there that thinks James “Lights Out” Toney will lose his first UFC fight, is crazy! Ask Tim Sylvia what it’s like to be in there with a champion boxer. All fights start standing up and whoever fights Toney first will have to get close enough to him to take him down. Which with his body type is not going to be easy. Once they are close they will feel what a real punch feels like. MMA fighters do not train for punching like a boxer does. NOT EVEN CLOSE! And to have hardly any padding on the gloves compared to boxing gloves, this fight will be a quick KO.
Tony’s fighting style hasn’t incorporated takedown defense, as boxing doesn’t require it. His lifetime of fighting experience won’t help him sprawl, or work from the guard, and other common mma scenarios….and at 41, I’m not sure his knees will be up to taking leg kicks, or defeating tackles, or even good ol’ GnP.
Plenty of relatively high-pedigree boxers have been dismantled in MMA, because, it’s not boxing. The gloves, angles, footwork, clinch, timing, everything is different except it involves punching, and a timer.
Kimbo is primarily a striker, but I think he’ll be training to take Tony down, and Gnp or sub. Kimura or TKO in the 1st round. Victor being Kimbo.