After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that- Win, Lose or Draw Toney will be fighting a decent if not great fighter and will be tested. This isn’t for charity and his opponent wont be a push over… Toney is a man whom fights for a living who thinks he can succeed in a different combat sport than he’s trained in. This really isn’t a big deal… the man still fights it’s not like they signed Mike Tyson or another dormant fighter, they signed a guy who is the current NABO and IBA Heavyweight champion. Weather or not those belts are significant or not – those belts means the man can still fight for a living and can still draw a crowd.

I don’t see the problem with Toney getting signed. What’s the worst that can happen? He gets hurt? The guy is at least coming from a combat sport background. He knows how to take a real punch, and it doesn’t take much time to teach someone when to tap. So, he’ll get his ass kicked and Dana will be able to say “See, I told you you couldn’t hack it in MMA,” also sending a message to the other boxers talking shit about how they could come in and destroy any MMA fighter.

Like people have said already, I think it’s pretty obvious what Dana is doing here. At the same time he gets to shut up a loud mouthed boxer, and make a pretty decent payday for the UFC. If the guy is healthy and gets cleared to fight, I don’t get where the issue is.

Imo, that’s not his biggest vulnerability. He always has a puncher’s chance, and if he catches a grappler coming in, a ko is a very real possibility. His biggest disadvantage will be against strikers with decent muy thai or kickboxing. They’ll kick the piss out of his legs, taking away his mobility and his power. You can’t learn that or how to stop it in just a few months, either.

Rece Rock: Five Ounces of Pain

I’m not really surprised he’s taking this seriously, he’s not a dumb man. He’s been to several MMA events and has seen what the sport brings to the table so he knows where his holes are. Unless they pair him up with someone that’s gonna try and stand and box with him he’s gonna be way out of his element. Young fighters that are still easily trainable have issues moving from one combat sport to another and in most cases it takes years before they fully arrive, so I have to think that Toney is going to have problems transitioning from a 100% boxer to a MMA. Completely ignoring the ground game, the MMA standup game is vastly different. He’s never been in a fight where someone kicked him in the legs or liver. Throw in the wrestling and BJJ and he’s got a solid 5 years at least before he’s a well rounded fighter.

“Juanito Ibarra, a 30-year veteran of boxing and MMA who once trained champions Oscar De La Hoya and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, is training Toney in his Southern California MMA gym.”

“In the coming weeks, he expects to bring in several well-known fighters to coach Toney in wrestling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, though he declined to give any names.”

Interesting… Toney may be taking this serious, let’s see what happens.

crane_style: I’m gonna go out on a limb here and predict Randy Couture vs. Tooney. Another battle of “legends”?  

Ha! The Natural just said he wants Tooney first on twitter. Remember, you read it here first.

Rich S.: If Kimbo worked his ground game he could win..
But if he stood with Toney, he would get laid out..
I don’t care how old or flabby he is (ok, to an extent), a boxer’s going to beat a MMAist when it comes to standup.. every single time.. They just hit wayyyy harder and take hits better..  

I’ll agree that boxers, on average, hit harder than mma fighters, from a boxing stance.

However, boxers tend to stay in a more balanced stance and don’t load up with the big “fastball” punches the way mma fighters do, so sometimes the mma fighters throw harder.

And as far as chin goes, I don’t think you can generalize like that. The huge size difference between boxing and mma gloves means that mma fighters are more likely to get a flash knock out, not that their chins are weaker.

I’ll make a prediction right now: James Toney, who hasn’t been in fighting shape since ‘Nam, will become the first mixed martial artist to get a bra endorsement.

Also don’t discount the genuis of this move. With James Toney you bring in boxing fans who believe there’s nothing elite about MMA. More exposure for the sport

edub:
Yea one of the garbage ass belts they give out in boxing nowadays.The guy isn’t even a top 20 HW anymore.  

edub:
Yea one of the garbage ass belts they give out in boxing nowadays.The guy isn’t even a top 20 HW anymore.  

He was the crusierweight, middleweight, super middleweight, and heavyweight champion. The fact you can say anything he’s done is remotely close to being considered garbage says more about you than I will ever have to.

Shit….that actually sounds like something I wouldn’t mind seeing.

themml: Brock got in a ring first, not a cage  

You seem to have forgotten that Brock was only 31 and had at least one MMA bout under his belt when he was signed. He was also a NCAA wrestling champ and wrestling has traditionaly translated directly into MMA in a cage better than boxing has.

I think the UFC is probably doing this as a publicity stunt and intends on giving Toney either a can to KO and then giving him some legend to destroy him, or they’ll just give him the legend to begin with and try to make a statement to the boxing world as a whole. Any way it goes, Toney isn’t going to go anywhere in MMA, but it could be fun for the short time it lasts.