Scheduled to be on September 23rd or October 1st in El Paso Texas, this will be Toney's second MMA fight after getting annihilated by UFC Hall of Famer, and five-time UFC Champion (3x Heavyweight,2x Light Heavyweight), Randy 'The Natural' Couture.
The above fight was over in under one round, without even throwing a single punch, Couture (a former Olympic Alternate for Greco-Roman Wrestling), took down Toney to the ground and proceeded with the ground and pound; because Toney was used to getting hit, Couture decided to end Toney's humiliation and submitted him with an arm triangle.
Toney knew nothing about takedown defence or sprawling and did not even know how to bridge,shrimp or 'buck' to get back on his feet.
Both Yahoo! and ESPN report that the match with Shamrock will have a special format; the former said one round will be stand-up fighting only and another will be MMA (third round not stated), but the latter stated that the entire match will be MMA but with a 30 second time limit for staying on the ground.
As per usual, Toney begins to trash talk MMA,Couture and other boxers
"All these boxers, they're scared to fight me; so I'm going back to MMA to get a fight.
"Everyone knows I had problems going into the Randy Couture fight, but the mother f****r never came to fight anyhow. He scored that bullshit takedown. That will never happen again. We offered Randy more money for a rematch and he said no. But Shamrock; he'll come to fight - I hope, anyway!
"All I know is he's down as a legend in MMA, but that stuff don't mean anything to me. Boxing is a real sport. You have to be retired for five years before you can go in to The Hall of Fame in boxing. In this sport and in wrestling, they put you in straight away and that's bullshit. There will be no wrestling in this fight; this will be real combat.
"I know I'll knock him out. Trust me."
With regards to returning to MMA after his IBA title defence, Toney states that it is because top-level boxers are afraid of losing their titles to him,
"These guys are clowns. You've got David "Gaye" and Wladimir "Bitschko," who are gonna earn millions all because Gaye can talk trash. They call him a great trash-talker, but I'm the best trash-talker on the planet!
"[Haye] did some shit with a T-shirt and he talked his way into a million dollar fight. That's nothing - I called Klitschko's mom a b**ch and his sister too, and they don't wanna fight me. How come? I did everything I could to get those two sisters into the ring."
No matter the result of this match, it will prove little in the 'Boxing vs MMA' debate:
Fans of the former will state that a boxer is a faster,fitter and stronger athlete who will have more than enough time to land a knockout punch before the takedown. They will also say previous examples of boxers losing in MMA are 'has-beens' (which you COULD say is true for Toney-he only holds the IBA Heavyweight title-the WBA,WBC,WBO and IBF are more prestigious and to be undisputed or a 'true' champion, you need to win and hold at least 3 of these). They will state Ray Mercer vs Tim Sylvia as an example of the boxer winning. They will also state the boxer has won 8 of 14 bouts against an MMA fighter.
Fans of the latter will say that the boxers one-dimensional striking is no match for the takedowns and immobilisation in Wrestling,Judo,Sambo and Gracie Jiu Jitsu or the leg-shattering kicks from Muay Thai. In case Shamrock loses, they will say he's old and far past his prime (he left MMA for professional wrestling with a 23-5-2 record; since returning to MMA he won 5 matches and lost 10). They will state Gene Labell vs Milo Savage or Antonio Inoki vs Muhammed Ali as examples of MMA dominating boxing.
Perhaps if Toney wins, he can fight some more stepping-stone fighters to become big in MMA? If he loses, it would be good to see him fight MMA fighters famous for their non-MMA talents e.g. Mariusz Pudzianowski (5x World's Strongest Man) or Bobby Lashley (Professional Wrestler with 2x NAIA National Wrestling Championships in Amateur Wrestling). Heck, he'd be a good fight for Batista or Kimbo Slice since their contracts fell through and the fans love them!
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