BJ Penn fight Diego Sanchez entirely with striking is an example. Chuck Liddell is another.

Unfortunatly, Toney isn’t going to find any UFC fighters that want to stand and, bang with him. They’ll use grappling, the UFC marks will proclaim MMA superiority and, the promotional farce will continue.

“The following questions about age are, to me, irrelevant, given Mercer’s obvious size advantage and the fact that he was a late starter in boxing (not to mention less active).”

You can’t even believe this garbage your self. Go to Queensberry-rules, bad left hook, boxing bulletin, or any reputable blog and try to defend Ray Mercer as a 48 year old getting into mma against James Toney(2X named ring magazine fighter of the year). You would get killed, and rightly so because it is a terrible argument. While less active as you say he is he had more fights than toney counting up amateur and pro records.

Toney defended the belt you talk about agaisnt Ruiz but thats when he was busted for steroids.

“Size is a key element in MMA, moreso than boxing, as Bob Sapp’s limited experience should be a reminder of for all time. So yeah; No different.”

Sapp never won a title. He did well against guys that he dwarfed but that was also during the infancy of mma. When opponents started to actually train he started to get beat. Size might not matter as much in the lower weight classes in boxing but hw it still does. Why do you think the klitschkos rule the division?

Where in my response did I say it wasn’t a freak show. Then again you could name half the fights occuring in mma these days freak show fights.

I never minded them in PRIDE and K-1, and I don’t mind them now.

I don’t know much about Toney’s credentials, but logically, it HAS to be a freak show signing because if Toney were still considered a legitimate competitive boxer, he wouldn’t be in the UFC. He’d be boxing in PPVs for bigger money.

Ed. — I wonder if his elbow injury will flare up again.

I don’t think he’s ever actually defended the IBA title; he won that against Rydell Booker years and years ago. Its a totally irrelevant belt. It means less in boxing than the ISCF belt does in MMA.

Mercer was a legitimate HW? Your serious?

Ray Mercer is actually a heavyweight. Started in the amateurs as one, was a heavyweight his entire career. James Toney is not. The following questions about age are, to me, irrelevant, given Mercer’s obvious size advantage and the fact that he was a late starter in boxing (not to mention less active). Size is a key element in MMA, moreso than boxing, as Bob Sapp’s limited experience should be a reminder of for all time. So yeah; No different.

No one is deluded why it makes sense to sign Toney; People will pay to watch Toney once they see him do interviews about MMA as a sport and about whoever his opponent is. They will rush to do so, in fact. Does that make it not a freakshow? Please.

There seems to be some confusion as to whether or not Kimbo/Mitrione was ever posted on the UFC’s website…can anyone clear it up?

James Toney may be over the hill, but he is still one of the better boxers to come to MMA.

Since I dont yet know how much MMA training he’s done, I’m not going to comment on how he will fare. I will say that I wouldnt be surprised if a few people here are surprised by his performance.

“I could do it, make it huge, make money, but I could have done a fight like this when we were bleeding money [in the early 2000s],” White said. “The fight would make some money, but it hurts MMA in the long term. We don’t do that because we love the sport. That’s a Pride or K-1 matchup. It’s not what we do.” – Dana White