Why is boxing called “The Sweet Science”? Because it’s just slap-fighting with big fluffy mittens. Tonight we will see a demonstration about how boxing doesn’t prepare you for real-world fighting at UFC 118 when champion boxer James Toney gets a beating from a guy who knows how to fight for real, Randy Couture.
Normally, the UFC does not put on this kind of circus act. And that’s a good thing. But since boxing is a competitor to MMA for pay-per-view dollars, I think Dana White probably sees this as a great way to embarrass boxing and take market share.
Update: Well, I was right. Toney didn’t land a single punch, and was instantly taken-down, mounted, pummeled, and choked out.
Couture said he hopes more boxers get into MMA. I can’t fault Couture for such a statement. UFC appears to covet the regime around boxing. They can’t admit that though. Instead the handlers rely on ill prepared crossovers. Dopes that train for 9 months to the exclusion of the sport they claim to be representing as against MMA.
MMA PROMOTION & ECONOMICS:
Grassroots:
MMA lacks promotion. Boxing is a hard sell to mothers and fathers as it is; now let’s try convincing them to start an art that the ultimate day of deployment will result in a 50% chance of their kid getting a brain contusion or broken bone somewhere. Little spartan children made sense when the society physically fault like hell. A parent could get in behind seeing their dolls’ blood dribble.
Risk/Reward:
See 50% result above. The fighter would have to be paid rather handsomly relative to all major sports for this risk. No training from youth results in major adult training, presumably with pay, to reduce the risk factor. Economically by the time a fighter arrived well prepared his return would be huge.
GET USED TO GIMMICKS:
Putin has beat us to the “punch.” Promoters go to Russia. Taunt us from there. Or stay here and prey upon broke boxers instead of doing the heavy lifting and backing MMA gyms and reserving and preserving the talent until the ULTIMATE FIGHT.
In my humble “grasshopper” opinion.
Matt:
Also, Ibarro said this about one of his fighters:
“I think Vitor has all the talent in the world to be the best but he’s made some bad choices and usually they surround money. So that’s why he’s not one of the best in the world.”
Did Ibarro think Toney could have won – even under his excellent tutelage?
Ha, when I first read the title I thought James was a bear.
Mitch-
I’m not sure how much you follow MMA, but based on your comments, I’d have to assume that you don’t follow it all that closely. While I agree that the UFC does covet boxing’s popularity, why shouldn’t it? Boxing has been the dominant combat sport across most of the globe for over a century. It’s only logical that the UFC would want to grow its own popularity.
And let’s not forget that Toney chased Dana White (the UFC president) all over the world and talked a whole lot of trash in order to get his shot in the UFC. In other words, it took some arm-twisting by Toney to get this spectacle to happen. It wasn’t like the UFC went out and looked for this fight (although the UFC did promote the heck out of it once it was going to happen).
What I don’t get is that you refer to Toney as a dope that trains “for 9 months to the exclusion of the sport they claim to be representing as against MMA.” I’m not sure what you expected Toney to do. Should he have continued to train solely in the art of boxing? That strategy would have been even worse than the one he employed (getting taken down, punched in the face repeatedly, and nearly choked unconscious before quitting).
MMA might be a hard sell to mothers and fathers. But the beauty of MMA is that most MMA fighters learn and master an individual aspect of MMA (wrestling, boxing, jiu-jitsu, jumuai thai, etc) and the natural progression takes them to MMA. It isn’t as if most fighters start out training as kids for MMA.
Lastly, I’m not sure where you get your 50% statistic, but I assume you pulled it out of thin air. If your 50% statistic applies to an individual fight, the odds of a broken bone or brain contusion are very small. If your 50% statistic applies to a broken bone in the hand over a fighter’s entire career, 50% is likely an underestimate. But other types of breaks (or a brain contusion) are extremely rare. A person is much more likely to suffer one of these injuries (or one just as serious) playing a sport like football, but this hasn’t hurt its popularity.
Yeah just watched it last night… I was expecting Randy Coutures easy victory but did also expect that James Tony would at least throw couple of punches.. ( Come down swinging if you will)… But Nothing.. He was taken down almost emediately and once he was on his back, he was virtually playing “dead man” No defense, no resistance , no action what so ever..
On the opposite side, Randy executed his game plan beautifly and pass his test with flying colors
I also noticed that when Chael Sonner trash talked about Anderson Silvam, he backed every singe word he saing about him, while James Tony didnt back up anything…
Now lets see if any other pro boxer decides to come and try MMA.. Since some of them were severly trashing MMA , they are more then welcome to try it like James Tony did…