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Talk Radio: Is Batista vs. a car mechanic more competitive than James Toney vs. Randy Couture?
By Zach Arnold | June 22, 2010
From Observer radio last night, I needed a laugh and this made me laugh.
DAVE MELTZER: “Injury prone, for sure.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Old.”
DAVE MELTZER: “Old.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “This is not Herschel Walker old, this is Dave Batista years-on-the-road old.”
DAVE MELTZER: “And here’s the other thing, too. Even though he’s not as old as Herschel Walker, he also’s been through you know what about 8 years of WWE?”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “The road’s owned him.”
DAVE MELTZER: “You know, that’s um, just between everything that you go through in WWE, that’s a tough haul. You know, I mean, he shouldn’t be fighting but they could find someone for him to beat him.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “They could find a stiff that he could beat.”
DAVE MELTZER: “They could find a car mechanic. He’s still a big, strong guy. I mean I remember when they had that fight with those kickboxers that started fighting the wrestlers and everything and you know and Dave you know granted he was twice the size of the guy but he neutralized some kickboxers you know in a bar fight pretty easily, so, you know, I mean…”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “He also got his ass kicked by Booker T.”
DAVE MELTZER: “True, but… looking at you know if I was going to look for someone to you know lose to him I would think that it would be someone far less athletic than Booker T.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Yeah.”
DAVE MELTZER: “I mean, you know, I’m not saying you know, again, not a professional, you know, you can’t have a professional fighter losing to him, but you can find a car mechanic pretty easily who would lose to him and they’ve done that in boxing all the time.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “All right, I guess so. I mean… I… I don’t know. Is a car mechanic really going to get licensed to fight Dave Batista at the same time?”
DAVE MELTZER: “Well, it’s a fair fight, two 0-0 guys.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “I guess. I guess.”
DAVE MELTZER: “I mean, hey, James Toney’s fighting Randy Couture, that’s a lot of worse.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Well, that’s true, that’s a… that is a far bigger mismatch than Dave vs. a car mechanic.”
DAVE MELTZER: “Yeah.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “I will say that.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Oh c’mon…even they can’t believe what they’re saying at the end of this. As shot and mma newbish as Toney is – he was a professional combat sport athlete at one point.
I guess if their angle is that Dave Batista has zero experience and the car mechanic has zero experience then it’s not a “mismatch”, but if that’s what it takes to get a Dave Batista mma fight I’m not interested. Actually, check that, I’m not interested period.
I agree totally with their conclusion. Toney is a total nohoper with Couture. Meanwhile, pretty much anyone who has been training for some period of time is a legit opponent and threat for a guy like Batista.
James Toney is 41 and thinks he knows how to do side check kicks. The only reason it isn’t a huge mismatch is because Couture is really really old.
Car mechanic? Well, Batista isn’t ready for busboys yet, so I guess a car mechanic has to come first.
Toney was a world class fighter; he could knock Couture out with 1 punch. The comparison is entirely ridiculous. Besides, how many car mechanics could survive the Batista Bomb?
Bunch of UFC haters. Couture/Toney is the best fight this year!! You should understand that White knows best!! Lol
I’m actually upset that this fight is getting co-main event status above Florian/Maynard.
Toney has a punchers chance. That’s about it. I think he will either KO Couture in under 2 minutes or quickly fade.
So a future hall of fame boxer is being compared to a car mechanic? Thats unfair. Toney is younger, faster, stronger, has been in more fights, has a better chin, and better stand up. All Randy has is MMA experience.
There is no way Toney is stronger. He’s a chubby 205 who needs the use of steroids to be even remotely sculpted. Toney is a few inches shorter than Randy too.
“MMA Experience” is pretty important in the context of an MMA fight.
“All Randy has is MMA experience.”
LOLOLOL They’re fighting in MMA!!!
I don’t think this is being clear to most people. Toney is not at all competitive with Randy Couture because he lacks any serious, lengthy training in any aspect of MMA except for western boxing. IE he’s never turned his hips over for a kick, never sprawled, never rolled for a kneebar, never even tried to ride out a fight in top control. None of this has ever been done in competition, much less been trained for any distinctly worthwhile period of time. This while he’s taken a ton of abuse to his brain from being in boxing (something he has admitted on camera has caused damage). Randy doesn’t have anywhere near the same amount of damage, even if he supposedly doesn’t spar with headgear. All the advantages in the realm of MMA say that Randy Couture wins and wins with relative ease. He’s older on paper, but probably “younger” physically thanks to taking care of his body for his many years and better trained as an MMA fighter.
Meanwhile, this brings us to the question of a car mechanic (i.e. part time fighter) vs. Batista. Batista has never actually fought anyone in the context of sport. He has never actually trained to fight. While muscular, this is generally meaningless in the context of MMA. Any fighter who gets in the ring with Batista is a legitimate 50/50 threat to him. Anyone with a pulse.
I get the gist of their argument, and yes, I agree the “mismatch” between Batista vs. random car mechanic is almost definitely going to be much far less than the Toney vs. Couture fight.
But using the example of one freak fight to justify or rationalize the other is pretty silly. Basically I don’t even know why the Toney-Couture fight was even brought into the conversation, but I digress.
I propose big ol Dave against Josh Barnett.
They don’t have to go as low as a car mechanic with zero experience they could bring in someone like Greg Nagy.
Even in that short transcript Meltzer still managed to get in twelve “you know”‘s
News came out that Batista and Strikeforce can’t agree on the money. The contract is typed out, and they agree on most of the terms, but can’t agree on the money. Big surprise! Here’s a pro rassler (I love pro wrestling btw) who probably believes his own bullshit (that he’s a big bad fighter who can whip most peoples’ asses), wants to get into MMA, and also thinks he’s worth more than he really is. Oh, and he will pull a Cung Le via taking movie and tv roles, so he probably won’t fight much. Good lord, what’s the point? And you know if Coker ponies up the cash that Batista wants (or even close to it) then many fighters who deserve “Batista money”, and won’t get two thirds of what Batista will get, will then bitch and moan and try to get out of their contracts and go to UFC. Batista is NOT worth it. I’m surprised he didn’t have a muscle tear trying to sign the dotted line….