Before crossing over from one combat sport to another became de rigueur, James Toney gave it a shot.
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James Toney was crossing over in combat sports before it was cool.
It’s just, it didn’t exactly work out very well.
It’s been 15 years since Toney, then a former three-division boxing champion with a 72-6-3 record in the sport, fought UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture, who was a former heavyweight and light heavyweight champion, at UFC 118.
The fight, not surprisingly, was criticized for being a freak show matchup between a boxer with no MMA experience trying to fight a former two-division champion with plenty of it, as well as elite wrestling experience. Even UFC CEO Dana White, who put the fight together, implied he thought it was a bit of a joke.
Couture stood by the matchup and told MMA Junkie in 2010 ahead of the fight that it had merit.
“I don’t think it’s a ‘freak show’ fight,” he said. “I think people have to give James credit for the things he’s accomplished in boxing. I certainly accomplished a lot of things in wrestling, and nobody chose to give me any credit for it when I made my way into MMA. Those combative sports count for something.”
But in the case of the fight itself, it really counted for … well … nothing.
Couture took Toney down with a basic single-leg takedown a few seconds into the fight with what appeared to be very little effort. He quickly hopped to mount and patiently worked his way to an arm-triangle choke a little past the midway point of the opening round.
Although Toney said he would fight in MMA again, and had predicted a big knockout of Couture, he never stepped in the cage again.
These days, such a “freak show” is commonplace, but it’s usually MMA fighters transitioning to boxing or bareknuckle boxing when the MMA gravy train starts to run dry.
Relive Toney’s big fail in the video above, for which he reportedly was paid twice as much as Couture.
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