James Toney to try his hand at MMA ?!

[Jimanuel Boogustus]

i havent really seen anyone be succesful in mma by being slick and elusive

Do ya watch much MMA bud , Ok i'll give ya just a few examples of being a slick and elusive MMA artist:-

Anderson Silva - rarely gets hit, cannot remember one fight of his when he has been cut or even slightly marked up. Pretty much dominates his opponents. Dan Henderson being his toughest match to date. UFC Middleweight Champ

BJ Penn - Did ya see his last fight against Diego Sanchez ? Not one mark on BJ's face after 25 mins of fighting, yet Sanchez looked like he got run over by a bus, which then reversed back over his face for good measure.
UFC Lightweight Champ

Lyoto Machida - Now granted his last fight, for me he got beat by Shogun Rua, but before that he had yet to lose 1 rd of MMA action in the UFC, this due to being slick and elusive.
UFC Lightheavyweight Champ



As previously mentioned boxing and MMA are vastly different diciplines and it takes a hell of a lot of dedication to do either form of combat. Im a huge fan of both and can appreciate what these guys have to do to get to the top of their respective sports. I would worry for Toney if he were to enter the Octagon, but as proved recently by Kimbo it can be done, as long as your matched to someone with relative skill set to yours. Put him in with a banger and you have an interesting fight, put him in with a BJJ expert and he's buggered.

Na i think i know what HMH means.
James Toney's style is completely lost in UFC where as someone with a far more traditional/upright style of say, Mikkel Kessler or Vitali Klitschko would fair better if stand-up was gonna be their thing.

[Beanflicker]

You can't just go into MMA on the highest level with just boxing. Boxing is a huge asset, as guys like BJ Penn and Anderson Silva have shown, but its a whole different ball game.

First of all, there is an entirely different range and stance. You don't fight at punching range like boxing, you fight at kicking range. MMA guys utilize a wider stance to avoid double leg takedowns. Toney won't be able to stand in the pocket with guys like he does in boxing, because they are either going to take him down or put him in a muay thai plum.

Speaking of takedowns and kicks, you need to know how to defend these. Realistically, no one is going to box with Toney. They will either a) shoot for the takedown or b) try to pick him apart with leg kicks. Those leg kicks you see on TV don't look like much, but they're the "bodyshots" of MMA in a sense. They do tremendous damage to the leg if you don't know how to block them, and what good is Toney's punching power if he can't put weight on his leg? Many a boxer in MMA and K-1 have been picked apart and neutrilized by only a handful of low kicks.

Toney is old, he's rather stationary at this point in his career, and he has absolutely no grappling/kicking experience as far as I know. Unless he finds someone stupid enough to trade with him (like TIm Sylvia was against Ray Mercer), then he's going to be in for a rude awakening.

And being that TOney is one of my all time favs and one of the most underrated fighters in history IMO, I really don't want to see him get embarrassed like this.

[Gandalf]

It's not going to happen. Toney has never given any inclination that he wants to compete in MMA and as has been pointed out earlier, there are rumours of possible boxing contests in the works. I wish Toney had stayed busy and gone the George Foreman route, but he's waiting again and the truth is that he doesn't have the time to waste.

Come on Toney, get back in the ring!!

[erik_corrales]

i have read on another forum that james toney has some wrestling/grappling experience because i think the gym he trains at and people he trains with also wrestle/grapple. need to confirm though.