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James Toney shows up at UFC 108, wants to fight for UFC
By Zach Arnold | January 6, 2010
Yes, the same James Toney who failed a steroid test for horse steroids, showed up in Las Vegas to make his intentions clear. Toney really believes he has a shot.
Toney has been following UFC management around to try to get a booking. Last December when UFC had their event in Memphis at the FedEx Forum, Toney claimed he would look for White and meet up with him.
Update (1/5): The Sweet Science has further details on the meeting between White and Toney. White sounds like a man who wants to do this. He should not fall into The Toney Trap.
Update (1/6): I don’t care if it’s real or fake, amusing:
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 38 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Will he go for the headbutt like he did against Hasim Rahman?
^ I remember Holyfield headbutting the shit out of Rahman.
As for Toney in the UFC, surely not. It would be a farce and a ……. wait, maybe they’ll exploit a Toney vs. Kimbo fight.
I hope not, but I can see it happening.
Dana says he’s willing to work out a deal with him (which of course could also mean offering him a purposely low offer just to say you tried.) He has some unimportant Heavyweight belts, so a match up with Kimbo would be perfect for the UFC since he could give him the Mercer treatment and they can point to this as the big example of MMA > boxing that will fool the UFC fans who don’t know anything about boxing and at the same time give Kimbo something a little less pathetic than fighting UFC wash outs brought back in on 1 fight deals.
Can Kimbo beat James Toney?
For better or for worse, yes on paper anyway. Toney is 40 years old, never grappled in his life, and while Kimbo is hardly an ADCC winner he knows enough to takedown a middle aged novice.
For planning purposes, at least Toney doesn’t have the type of KO power that Mercer has to spoil things for them.
Toney is ridiculously strong and sweats like no other human. Good luck getting a good grip on him.
Toney would probably beat Kimbo’s ass good, but there really aren’t many on the UFC roster who’d have a tough time with him, provided they could get a grip on his profusely sweaty body.
I think Kimbo could beat Toney the same way he beat Mercer. Don’t even think about exchanging with guy and just rush in and clinch. From there, hit him with some elbows/knees, Kimboplex him, and catch him in a guillotine when he tries to stand back up.
For the record, I wouldn’t mind seeing Kimbo versus Toney as the first fight of a future UFN. Dana could start marketing Kimbo as the ‘boxing killa’. If you are going to keep Kimbo around, you might as well give him a freakshow matchup or two.
Of course, this is probably a non-issue, as Toney is probably looking for a seven-digit guarantee and there is now way Zuffa will pay him that much.
If we see Kimbo vs. Toney, it’ll be as a co-main event.
That as a co-main event plus a stellar main event = a HUGE PPV show.
All imo, of course. 🙂 It’s entirely possible that I’m so far off-base that I am making myself look dumber than normal.
I have a hard time seeing Kimbo beating anybody really.
As for Toney…. His boxing style really wouldn’t work well in MMA. He likes to get close to the ropes and avoid strikes and counter. His feet are so planted on the ground that against a guy trying to grapple with him, he would be taken down almost instantly.
I think this entire conversation is one big never going to happen hypothetical anyway because once Toney had to do grappling training he would quit. The guy hasn’t trained hard or come into shape for a fight in ages and I can’t see him handling the sort of training that a major MMA match would require.
Rp
http://www.sherdog.com/videos/recent/White-All-Smiles-After-UFC-108-Delivers-2144
Dana White being interviewed by Sherdog.
The last part of the interview talks about Dana White still being in talks with M-1 and how there are basically many ways to cut a deal. He mentions both Fedor and Mousasi by name.
He admits Mousasi is good, but doesn’t know how good he will do in the UFC because of how deep the UFC LHW division is and how shallow his competition is outside of the UFC…
Whatever happened to “The UFC doesn’t run freakshows,” true believers?
If Kimbo stood and traded, Toney obviously wins. If Kimbo goes for a takedown, Kimbo wins. If this goes like I expect it to, Toney probably fights very defensively and loses by guillotine, collecting a large bonus afterwards.
Honestly, why not let him fight? It’s really no different than Brock Lesnar or Kimbo Slice wherein if he loses and gets exposed, you can always say “We gave him a chance and he didn’t have what it takes. MMA guys are better than boxers/wrestlers/etc…” and if he wins, you get a potentially bankable new star. I doubt James Toney has the type of drawing power of a Kimbo or Brock, but he does have a very outgoing and entertaining personality.
Granted I’m a big fan of the guy as a boxer so my judgment may be a little clouded.
They can let him fight. It will probably sell. Toney talks a lot of trash, which is good for Countdown programs and hyping up MMA against boxing. My perspective is that he’s a 40 year old, washed up ex-boxer who claims he uses roids to supplement his body with testosterone it won’t make any more due to brain damage. I’m not even mentioning how broke he is or how little he’s actually trained. Its a freakshow bout with a high possibility of being lousy; Are there any pro wrestlers out there Kimbo can fight after he beats Lights Out? That interests me more.
The main advantage of having Kimbo fight him is if Toney shocks the world by actually winning an MMA fight UFC has the out of saying “it’s just Kimbo, not a legit top 10 heavyweight” whereas if he knocked out one of their legit HWs it would be incredibly humiliating.
That said he’s going to need at least a year of grappling training to make the commission happy (well, unless it’s his buddies in California) otherwise they’d call any fight a mismatch. So believing he’s going to put in that much effort for that long for UFC’s maximum of $250,000 when he’ll have to turn down boxing paydays while training is pretty far fetched when you think about it.
I really hope they don’t do Kimbo vs. Toney. I’m not sure I would call it a freakshow fight, but it’s certainly not something credible…
“So believing he’s going to put in that much effort for that long for UFC’s maximum of $250,000 when he’ll have to turn down boxing paydays while training is pretty far fetched when you think about it.”
Actually not that far-fetched I suppose. I doubt at this point in his career Toney can fetch $250k from anyone and he isn’t exactly getting a lot of offers at this point.
He’s not good enough to warrant a fight with The Klitschkos or David Haye and he’s just dangerous enough that promoters of youngers fighters are avoiding him because he could be a difficult task and their guys won’t get much credit for beating him.
There was only so many Rahman, Oquendo, Holyfield fights for him out there and he appears to have exhausted all of those avenues.
So to Toney, a $250k payday would probably be better than he can do in Boxing at the moment.
The problem is he’s never been all that dedicated to training and I don’t see him doing a significant amount of it for this. Let’s face it he’s going to need to train his ass off if he doesn’t want to be just another in a long line of boxers that tried MMA and got whooped on the ground. And that’s not Toney’s style. I think that is the more significant roadblock for him.
Rp
Well, if Kimbo/Toney isn’t a “freakshow”, then how could Sapp/Akebono have been? Sapp beat Hoost twice: More legitimate than anything Kimbo’s done in MMA. Akebono was a combat sport champion from another discipline coming over for his debut. Its a definitive freakshow, and one I hope to god the UFC doesn’t make. Honestly though, what better option is there with Kimbo?
Actually not that far-fetched I suppose. I doubt at this point in his career Toney can fetch $250k from anyone and he isn’t exactly getting a lot of offers at this point.
Exactly. His last fight was deep on an undercard, and I’m guessing Goosen gave up on him awhile ago. There’s a few guys like this: Shannon Briggs will fight on your indian reservation whenever. Hasim Rahman will fight any man in a cage, probably for about 6 figures and on very little notice. Look at Ricardo Mayorga: If he had a boxing match of any value to look at, you think he’d be in there with Din Thomas in a second tier promotion?
True that Alan – King Kong vs. Godzilla wasn’t a freakshow fight either
“True that Alan – King Kong vs. Godzilla wasn’t a freakshow fight either”
Agreed….although Mothra was pushing it.
I like what Dana is doing lately – bringing old farts (Coleman, Rezno) and freakshows (Kimbo, Toney)…
Can’t wait for comebacks of Ken Shamrock and Tank Abott (for UFC Interim HW title)!
It’s not just that the UFC payoff would be low, it’s that he’ll have to give up all boxing income for a year since he can’t risk losing a boxing match while waiting to debut for the UFC in the year or so he’d be having to learn grappling. And plus I’m sure they put no-compete clauses in there to protect their investment. Unless he’s better off financially than I think he is (and I doubt he’d continue fighting at his age in his position if he had a bunch of money) it’s not going to be worth his time or financial losses unless UFC gives him a bunch of guaranteed money and they don’t do that.
If Dana turned down RJJ, then I don’t see how he can give a washed up, irrelevant, 2x cheater a shot in the Octagon. If he did fight in the UFC it def should not be in the main event and would not be that big of a deal. Maybe 12 years ago, maybe as recent as 2003. But not now. That’s my take, anyway.
It’s not just that the UFC payoff would be low, it’s that he’ll have to give up all boxing income for a year since he can’t risk losing a boxing match while waiting to debut for the UFC in the year or so he’d be having to learn grappling.
You think they would really spend all that time waiting for a major commission to approve the fight instead of just heading to the Seminole’s land in Florida and doing the event at the Hard Rock? Or running the fight in a weak commission state like Memphis?
If Dana turned down RJJ, then I don’t see how he can give a washed up, irrelevant, 2x cheater a shot in the Octagon.
Dana turned down RJJ because RJJ wanted millions. Toney will not want millions.
I am against Toney in the UFC…. But the NSAC would approve a fight between him and Kimbo…
“Dana turned down RJJ because RJJ wanted millions. Toney will not want millions.”
Whatever. If Toney gets in the Octagon it will still go against all those times when Dana bleated on about how he didn’t want to go down the PRIDE, K-1 route, make a mockery of MMA etc.
Dana’s face tells the story in the video. He don’t want any part of James Toney.
Slightly off topic here, but I guess it could be considered related, from BE
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2010/1/4/1233338/randy-couture-divorce-attorney
Zach, James Toney is a hard puncher? Does “Crazy” well? James never carried his punch up with him past super middleweight. He’s not playing crazy, he is crazy. He threatened to kill his original manager and pulled a gun on her, sacked the Wild Card Gym on multiple occasions, etc etc etc.
Toney never loads up on any one punch. I’m absolutely positive that he has one-punch knockout power, but he goes into work mode in all of his fights. He settles in and puts in some rounds.
And the man IS crazy. He’s nuts and I wish he’d go away and get whatever he needs to help him live his life.
Toney has one punch KO power in lower weight classes, but he’s had all the chances in the world to use it at cruiser and heavy and never did. Doesn’t matter if it was a journeyman like Adolpho Washington or a aged champ like Holyfield: If he gets a stoppage, its a death by a thousand cuts, not a single slash. With 4 oz gloves and Kimbo’s crappy chin though, who knows. Remember when Kimbo was KOed by a jab as Petruzelli moved backwards? I’m guessing Toney could punch at least that hard.
Toney is likely a sociopathic guy with seriously violent tendencies. I don’t think he has an exit plan from fighting.
Also, how long until Herb compares Toney going to MMA to being like boxers of the past being involved in wrestling after their best days?
“Toney is likely a sociopathic guy with seriously violent tendencies. I don’t think he has an exit plan from fighting”
I’m just some internet schlub sitting here posting, but I’d bet money that you’re 100% correct. I can’t imagine what he’ll do when/if he fights in the UFC and gets taken down and humiliated.
After watching the video, and listening to the tone of voice, from White and Toney, I believe White was humoring him. You don’t want a guy with a track record like Toney’s going psycho on you, even with video to back it up.
Toney is plainly finished as a boxer, so he figures MMA is the way to feather his nest, and maybe even win a fight or two.
His mental and physical states are unknown quantities right now; White would be mad to put this guy in the octoagon with anyone. He’s not stable, and there’s no guarantee that Toney could defend himself properly at this point, or even a year from now with training.
This is one freakshow that UFC does not need. Send “Lights Out” to the WWE; I’m sure they can find something for him to do.
God damn it…
http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_ylt=AoD3SlXWXxwU2fd6ARmq65hShgM6?slug=ki-fightoff010610&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Pac-man vs. PBF is OFF. Way to fuck up a sure thing boys. Glad to see you hate money gents.
“have you ever been leg-kicked, do you have a takedown-defence, can you wrestle..?”. nice aptitude check. i would like to see him, although it´ll be a freakshow..
i have a perfect match-up: james toney vs riddick bowe