It's no secret that purists of boxing, the "sweet science," frown on mixed martial arts. But those who follow MMA know the skill that's involved.
View full sizeRandy Couture, left, will take on boxer James Toney in a highly anticipated bout on Aug. 28 in Boston.Jon "Bones" Jones takes on Vladimir Matyushenko in San Diego on Sunday, Aug. 1, in a UFC- sponsored card televised on Versus.
On Saturday, Aug. 7, middleweight champion Anderson "The Spider" Silva will defend the belt he has had since 2006 against No. 1 contender Chad Sonnen, at UFC 117.
Ho-hum.
The fight to watch, the fight that will catch the attention of even mainstream media, is on the card of UFC 118, set for Aug. 28 in Boston.
It's not B.J. Penn trying to reclaim the lightweight title Frankie Edgar took from him in April, even though that is the top fight on the card. The fight to watch is James Toney going against former UFC heavyweight titleholder Randy Couture.
That's because the James Toney in question is a former three-division world boxing champion.
It's no secret that purists of boxing, the "sweet science," frown on mixed martial arts. Even on our own website, cleveland.com, one of the first comments on posts of this column usually begins: "Get this stuff off my sports page. It's not a real sport."
View full sizeJames Toney has a record of 72-6-3 with 44 knockouts as a professional boxer, while his MMA record is 0-0-0. Yeah, this will be his first bout.Boxing promoter Bob Arum is among those detractors. Witness his comments in a Los Angeles Times story setting up the Toney-Couture fight:
"If James hits [Couture first], he's going down. But if it goes to the floor, [Toney is] probably going to lose," Arum said. "If this was a boxing match, I'd be watching it, but this is the cockamamie martial arts, guys rolling around on the floor. It's not even a sport."
Sorry, Bob, but Olympic-style wrestling is a sport, and so is this. You're wrong, and so, with all due respect, is my detractor on cleveland.com. But I get where you're coming from, believe me.
Years and years ago when I was in Houston, I covered a local fighter named Maurice "Termite" Watkins. He was a good-looking kid who was riding the crest of a wave that began to curl when he became one of the youngest national Golden Gloves champions. He grew up to be a good man, too. He spent time in Iraq helping soldiers learn to box, and eventually helping the Iraqis get back to the Olympics. But that's a different story.
Anyway, at this particular fight, I watched a guy on the undercard get knocked out -- knocked out, mind you! -- by a low blow. That, to me, is brutality, and not "sweet science." Thirty years later, I still wince when I think about it.
And then I think about a man with unmatched skills in a ring -- and an interview room -- and seeing him go from being one of the most colorful, articulate people in the world to a man whose brain was so battered by head blows that he can hardly speak. Of course, I mean Muhammad Ali.
I figured MMA and UFC, with its spinning kicks and elbows to the noggin, had to be worse.
Then I watched. Then I learned. Nate Clark, a friend of my son-in-law, is a soldier who has done multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, and some other places we in the general public don't really know about. Clark also does amateur MMA fighting outside of Washington, D.C. He and my son-in-law, Jon Martinez, showed me some of the moves and explained them to me.
Eye-opening is an understatement.
Rent some mixed martial arts DVDs and watch them at one-quarter speed. Try to follow the skill and timing it takes to execute a rear naked choke . . . or a guillotine choke . . . or an arm bar.
Look, MMA fighting is dangerous. Chuck Liddell broke Rich Franklin's arm with a kick before Franklin managed to knock out probably the biggest name in the sport. And the gloves they wear are 4-ouncers -- Easter Sunday gloves, I guess -- compared to the 10-ounce padded things pro boxers use.
One MMA insider told me that in the average 10-round boxing match, a fighter will throw more than 200 punches, and most of those are aimed at the head, with an average of more than nine a bout landing with some degree of effectiveness. But MMA, with its mixture of punches and grappling, doesn't so much rely on beating your opponent into unconsciousness.
And in boxing, there's no "tap-out" option. I confess I'm still a little new to MMA, but in the cards that I've watched, from bottom to top, I would guess 75 percent end with submission holds.
Part of that is, of course, the best fighters to watch in MMA are the lighter weights. They don't -- they can't -- rely on knocking someone out. They need the finesse.
For the record, I'm betting Couture, at 47, six years older than Toney, takes him out, and with a submission hold. It won't settle the debate, but there will be one thing going for it:
Toney still will be able to talk in the post-fight news conference.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: cyarborough@plaind.com, 216-999-4534