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WILLIAMS' BLOG: No Excuses, Boxing Media: If Toney Loses, Then He'll Have Proven the Lesser Fighter
Mar 4, 2010 - 4:31:16 PM WILLIAMS' BLOG: No Excuses, Boxing Media: If Toney Loses, Then He'll Have Proven the Lesser Fighter

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By Alex Williams, MMATorch Senior Contributor

Those in and around the boxing business used to contend that boxers could beat mixed martial artists under MMA rules. Blissfully ignorant of pro boxers previous forays into the sport, they maintained that boxers would KO mixed martial artists before MMAers could take them down and start "rolling around like homosexuals on the ground" (stay classy, Bob Arum!). Respected boxing columnist Ivan Goldman once opined in the pages of The Ring that pugilist Kermit Cintron would defeat Sean Sherk if the former "stepped into the cage with the mixed marital arts" [sic].

Boxing scribes fortunately abandoned this viewpoint before an ancient Ray Mercer could give them false hope by knocking out a fat (and, judging by his strategy, fatheaded) Tim Sylvia. Unfortunately, they created a new excuse for why a mixed martial artist beating a boxer under MMA rules doesn't prove the mixed martial artist is the superior fighter. Here's my favorite boxing journalist, the normally excellent William Dettloff:

"[Floyd] Mayweather, back when he first fell in love with the idea of creating the Mayweather 'brand,' floated the idea of having an MMA fight, and UFC fighters by the dozen scrambled out of weight rooms all over America to tell reporters how happy they’d be to face him and how easily they’d beat him. None, regrettably, had the good manners to admit that he’d beat them just as easily by boxing rules."

Not wanting to let the media have all the fun, boxing promoter Dan Goossen praises MMA fighters for possessing considerable skills, before adding:

"There’s not an MMA fighter in the world who could fight James [Toney] on his court, in the ring, and be able to stay with him. But this is like something I said to Pete Rose the other day: As great a hitter as Pete was, and he’s one of the greatest who ever lived, do you think he would be the all-time hit king in cricket? It’s still hitting a ball with a stick, but they’re completely different sports."

Both Dettloff and Goossen are correct: if one artificially restricts the rules of a fight to "punching only," then James Toney would destroy, say, Randy Couture. Similarly, if the rules are artificially restricted to "pins and takedowns only," then Couture, the great amateur wrestler, would own Toney. What is interesting is what happens when the rules are not restricted. In MMA, the only pure sport of fighting, Couture and Toney are free to use whatever skills they wish to defeat each other. And in MMA, there's no question that Couture, via his knowledge of takedowns and ground fighting, would dominate Toney.

Of course, the rules in MMA are restricted a little bit. For example, neither man can eye gouge or hit the other in the groin. But unless there is some reason to believe that Toney would prove superior at these tactics and that their legality would thus swing the fight in his favor, I am comfortable with using the result of an MMA fight as a substitute for what would happen if two guys fought "on the street."

If Toney loses in MMA, it would not change the fact that in a boxing contest he would defeat the MMAer who bested him. But it would demonstrate that the MMAer is the superior fighter.

Alex Williams can be reached at alexwilliams123 AT gmail DOT com

MORE ON THIS STORY: To read MMATorch columnist Frank Hyden's criticism of this decision, CLICK HERE