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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
"We threw the kitchen sink at Brock when he came in. Are we going to do that same thing with James? I don’t know. To be 100 percent honest with you, all [expletive] aside, I haven’t thought it out. I like James Toney. He’s one of the greatest boxers ever. I have tremendous respect for him. He said he wanted to fight in the UFC and I was interested. Now he’s here and I have to figure out what to do with him. What we won’t do is make a freak show out of it. I’d be the first to scream if someone else did that, so I’m not going to do it.... Hey, I don’t want this to be seen as a joke, and it’s not like Herschel Walker or Canseco or any of those guys. James Toney is a fighter. The worst thing anyone can ever say to me is that they were watching one of my fights and they changed the channel. That’s why I’ll never put [expletive] fights on. James is an interesting case. We know how much talent he has as a boxer and he insists he’ll surprise people by how much MMA he knows. I’ve still got some thinking to do. But if we promote him and he does well and that raises his profile and he gets a Klitschko fight and makes a lot of money for himself and [Toney's friend and promoter Dan] Goossen, I’d be cool with that. But James came to me and he literally chased me around the country to do it, so I’m giving him the chance. We’ll get it figured out one way or another."
Penick's Analysis: Like I said earlier, I'm not all that against this signing, provided that White sticks to this assurance that it won't be made into a freak show type fight. Toney's got basically one thing that he brings to the cage, and that's obviously his boxing, but how he stacks up against the mixture of ability necessary to be successful in the sport is a major, major question. It's honestly not that different from bringing Brock Lesnar into the UFC when he essentially had one major skillset to bring into his first fight in the Octagon, though Lesnar's was more suited to success in the sport. But Toney's had success in boxing for a long, long time and White, as a boxing fan, is bending to the desires of a fighter he has watched for a long time and respected in his sport to give him a chance. I don't really see anything wrong with that at this point.
MORE ON THIS STORY: To read our original story on this news including editor-in-chief Jamie Penick's analysis defending the decision, CLICK HERE
[Dana White photo by Wade Keller (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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