Couture vs Toney – Super Freaky?

Randy Couture is rumored to be fighting James Toney at UFC 118 in Boston, MA

When MMAJunkie.com broke the news that former boxing champion, James “Lights Out” Toney, and UFC Hall of Famer, Randy Couture, could be squaring off against one another at UFC 118, a cry echoed across the MMA blogs and message boards that Dana White had gone the freak show route, after years of condemning other organizations for doing the same.

Elite XC and Strikeforce were both heavily criticized by Dana White for showcasing Kimbo Slice and Herschel Walker respectively. White called Slice a “freakshow,” and said of Walker’s presence on Strikeforce, "I think it's ridiculous…We're anti-dumb competition. Doing stupid things like this, putting a 50-year-old guy in the Octagon for the first time, and then going out there putting out press releases like it's a big deal because you signed a 50-year-old Herschel Walker? Are you serious?"

Find great unique MMA style t-shirts & clothing online from Intimidation Clothing!

Is Dana White being a hypocrite? Condemning the freak show behind one curtain, and promoting it behind another?

The fight between James Toney and Randy Couture isn’t official yet; so all the cries may be for naught. But even still, the fight is being discussed seriously and barring negotiations and/or public outcry it could be the co-main eventof UFC 118 alongside the lightweight title rematch between Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn.

And I hope it is.

Call it a freak show if you desire, call Dana White a hypocrite if you wish, but I say neither are true. The difference between James Toney and Kimbo Slice is that Slice was beating up local backyard brawlers while Toney was turning the lights out on professional boxing champions. And in the case of Herschel Walker, while a terrific athlete, he never fought in a backyard or a professional boxing ring his entire life. His fight with Greg Nagy at Strikeforce: Miami in January was truly worthy of the freak show moniker. I won’t lie, it was fun to watch, but so are most freak shows.

Why is there a difference between Shinya Aoki and James Toney? Why is it okay for a fighter to excel in only one dimension if that dimension is jiu-jitsu, but not boxing? By signing with the UFC, James Toney, even at the tender age of 41, (an age which fellow boxer, Bernard Hopkins, achieved some of the greatest things in his career), is the best boxer in MMA. That alone makes his fight with Randy Couture any less of a freak show than say, Shinya Aoki vs. BJ Penn.

White is capitalizing on the spectacle of “boxer vs. mixed martial artist”, but last time I checked, boxing was an aspect of MMA. Yes, Toney isn’t ready for the wrestling of Couture, but Couture isn’t ready for the boxing of Toney. No one yelled freak show when Brock Lesnar was fighting Couture in only his third MMA fight, and for the heavyweight title nonetheless, even though Lesnar was a one-dimensional fighter much like Toney. It’s true that wrestling is the most important foundation for a mixed martial artist, but it’s still only one dimension of a three dimensional sport.

> Look to Pro Fighting Fans for the UFC 118 fight card & results and be sure to check out the expanded selection of UFC apparel, hats & merchandise available online!

If Toney can learn a decent sprawl from trainer, Juanito Ibarra, former trainer of Rampage Jackson, and keep the fight on the feet for just three minutes, the length of a round in boxing, he can end the fight. All he needs is one shot.

Couture vs. Toney initially may seem, as Rick James once sang, “super freaky,” the kind of fight you don’t show mother, or any friend you’re trying to introduce to the sport for that matter, but the night of the fight, when Toney is staring down Couture from across the Octagon with his devastating hands wrapped in 4oz MMA gloves instead of the typical 12oz boxing gloves, Couture will be the first to tell you, Toney’s no freak show.

The fight is far less of a mismatch than Couture vs. Coleman was, and Coleman, although having fought in MMA for 14 years, was far more of a freak show opponent than Toney is. So before we start calling Dana White the modern day P.T. Barnum, and acting all righteous with our mixed martial arts, give James Toney a shot, he may just turn the lights out on a UFC Hall-of-Famer.

By Jeffrey Concerto
ProFighting-fans.com MMA Staff Writer