By Jamal Dicky
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Yes another over the hill boxer is interested in MMA the list so far includes HIV positive Tommy Morrison, Ray Mercer, Ricardo Mayorga, Shannon Briggs and now the slick fat man James Toney wants to get in the Octagon.
After the Rashad Evans-Thiago Silva UFC 108 event, 41 year old former world champion boxer James “Lights Out” Toney confronted UFC president Dana White about letting him fight in the UFC.
AOL FanHouse’s Ariel Helwani was doing an interview with Dana White when James Toney stepped in with his trademark trash talking watch the altercation for yourself:
As much as I like James Toney and I am not much of a UFC fan, I watch the fights from time to time but Playa those guys would beat your ass up in that cage.
It’s like a legalized street fight, most of the guys have sorry boxing and striking but you don’t need to even know how to throw a proper punch to be successful in the UFC if you can grapple well and take the fight down avoiding punishment.
I don’t think UFC or mixed martial arts is better than boxing at all, boxing is my first love and I will always be a big time fan of the sweet science but you gotta call it like you see it and James Toney would not be able to hang with those younger stronger grapplers.
I am not saying boxers couldn’t cut it in the UFC, it’s just that James Toney’s style of boxing won’t transfer well into MMA and he is past his prime.
James fights in the pocket and has slow feet, he doesn’t run around he stays there slipping and countering with his shoulder roll defense.
That style works well in the boxing ring but man if you just stood like that in the cage you think any of these UFC fighters would be dumb enough to try and trade hands with you? Hell no, they would either kick your legs or shoot in for a take down and try to submit you or mount you and ground and pound you.
The type of boxers who would have a better style suited for MMA are guys like Zab Judah or Manny Pacquiao, explosive guys with fast hands and feet.
If you look at all the strikers who do well in UFC; Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida and Chuck Liddell they all have good footwork and move around a lot avoiding takedowns with a wrestler sprawl.
James is not a mover the man likes to fight toe to toe in the middle and slip punches to counter you with his feet planted, he won’t have time to sprawl to avoid the take down with his slow legs.
If James Toney does fight in the UFC the only fight I wanna see him in would be against street fighter Kimbo Slice.
That fight would probably break all UFC ppv records, Kimbo Slice has one of the biggest fan bases around and James Toney can talk trash like no other.
Kimbo and James Toney would be a good match up cause both guys are strikers. I know James Toney won’t go on his bicycle like Houston Alexander did against Kimbo in what was one of the most boring fights in the history of combative sports.
The only way it would suck is if Kimbo took Toney down like he did to Ray Mercer and choke him out instead of fighting on the feet in an action packed fight.
I don’t wanna see Toney against Brock Lesnar or Randy Couture or any of those other wrestlers who will automatically tie up and lay on top of him like a blanket and punch him in a boring event.
It could all backfire though, boxing and MMA could suffer if Dana White puts James Toney in the UFC.
If James Toney wins by a KO people will say a washed up boxer beat up a UFC fighter and UFC sucks. If James Toney gets beat up and submitted people will say big deal you beat up on an old washed up boxer or boxers can’t fight.
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