Filed under: UFC
James Toney swore that he knew what he was doing with this MMA stuff. Of course, he also said he was the most feared man in boxing, so it’s not as if his credibility was in mint condition coming into UFC 118.
Toney showed up for his mixed martial arts debut in Boston on Saturday night looking like he’d trained more for a competitive eating contest than a professional fight. Fortunately his conditioning (or lack thereof) never had a chance to become an issue, as former UFC champ Randy Couture took him down with ease and submitted him with an arm triangle choke in less time than it takes to make microwave popcorn.
Not that this outcome should surprise anyone. Even if Toney had diligently worked on his ground game since signing a UFC contract, there’s simply no way, in the span of a few months, that a 42-year-old boxer is going to learn to wrestle like a guy whose cauliflower ear has cauliflower ear.