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Who turned out the lights?
13 Jul 2010
By Ben Cartlidge
It took very little time for the fight media to brand Randy Couture vs. James Toney as a ‘freak show’ fight. Simply from a cosmetic point of view you have an Olympic calibre athlete and multiple UFC champion in Randy Couture and a multiple weight, multiple time boxing champion in James Toney. On the face of things it seems harsh that fans are already putting this fight on the same level as Hong Man Choi vs. Jose Canseco. However, a closer look behind all the trash talking reveals just why the mma community has already written their verdict on James Toney.
The issues that fans have with Toney are his disrespectful attitude towards the greats of mixed martial arts and his overall arrogant demeanour. It’s quite clear that the average mma fan, and also Dana White, is hoping that Randy Couture folds up Toney like an IKEA table.
“A legend, a guy with twelve losses is a legend? Ain’t that a bitch?” James Toney
The real mystery to me is what Toney, at 42 years old, is hoping to achieve from this venture. It’d be a cynical journalistic act for me to suggest that Toney only has a pay cheque to pick up from this fight but I’d like to think I could be forgiven for not seeing much else here. I respect the fact that Toney wants to compete in the UFC and test his skills against the best fighters on the planet but the fact remains that, in Randy Couture, he’ll be facing someone with world class wrestling, incredibly underrated submissions and a wealth of experience at the highest level. James Toney has talked his way into a phenomenally tough first encounter, it remains to be seen whether he’ll be able to fight his way out of it.
“I told Dana White when I first came to the UFC, I didn’t want any bums. I didn’t want any undercard fighters, I wanted the best. I wanted Brock Lesnar.” James Toney
The claims that Toney wanted to fight Brock Lesnar amazed the whole mma community for several reasons. One of the biggest being that Toney has fought over a vast selection of weight categories but is not a big heavyweight by any means; generally walking at 225lbs. Many fans refused to believe the Lesnar claims were true but Toney appeared on several media outlets stating how much he wanted to fight Brock. The question must be asked at this point, just how much self belief does James Toney have? Only a fool would overlook what Toney has achieved in over three decades of a glittering boxing career. However, it strikes me that only a bigger fool would call out a leviathan like Brock Lesnar without a combination of Fabricio Werdum’s BJJ, Alistair Overeeem’s striking, Cain Velasquez’s conditioning and Ken’s flaming dragon punch.
When breaking down the mechanics of this fight it becomes even more apparent why Randy is such a heavy favourite. Couture’s diversity as a fighter presents him with a much larger set of opportunities to be successful. Toney has the chance to catch Couture with a big punch but, at a risk of sounding blunt, that’s all he has. Even when looking at Toney’s stand up it isn’t as black and white as you might think. Toney does have knock out power but when you factor in the clinch game, sprawling and leg kicks it becomes clear that he won’t always be afforded the opportunity to utilise his punches as he would in a boxing match. It’s a lot easier to hit and not get hit when you’ve only got to worry about one set of attacks. It’s not dissimilar to the way that pure BJJ fighters have struggled to continue hitting jaw dropping submissions in mma when more variables are added to the equation.
Randy Couture has, as always, remained as professional about the task in hand. He clearly respects the skills of Toney but at the same time is aware that he has a much wider array of skills to draw from. Couture also clearly realises of the repercussions that such a high profile bout carries.
“There have been a lot of boxers challenging mma but he’s the first one to step up and sign on the dotted line. It’s an interesting fight and it’s going to bring a lot of crossover fans from the boxing community into mixed martial arts.” Randy Couture
The sport of mixed martial arts has not been so glaringly discipline against discipline for a long time. Gone are the days of ring girls carrying boards that say “Karate”, “Grappling” or even “Pit Fighting”. It took legends like Couture, Liddell, Rutten and Hughes to pave the way for the mainstream evolution of mma.
In many ways this fight represents an exercise for the UFC. James Toney presents a unique opportunity for the mixed martial arts community to prove its claim to be the most complete combat sport in the world. If Couture is successful and grinds out James Toney, who knows how many more boxers will be willing to step up to defend the honour of their sport?
The only certainty in mma is that nothing is certain in 4oz gloves. Couture vs. Toney provides the fight public with an interesting contest and the potential for a truly spectacular post fight press conference. In summing up this fight I’ll leave with one thought, if you had to pick a winner between Ryu and Balrog who would you choose?
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