Mixed martial arts takes on boxing -- sort of -- when MMA champ Randy Couture battles fighter James Toney in UFC 118.
View full sizeBoxer James Toney, shown after a 2007 fight, takes on mixed martial arts legend Randy Couture in the co-main event of UFC 118 on Saturday, Aug. 28.MMA PREVIEW
UFC 118
Main event: Frankie Edgar defending the Ultimate Fighting Championship Lightweight title in a rematch with the man he took it from this past April, B.J. Penn.
Co-main event: International Boxing Association heavyweight title holder James Toney vs. former UFC heavy weight and light heavyweight champion Randy Couture.
When: 10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 28.
Where: Boston TD Garden.
Tickets: $75 to $600, available at Ticketmaster outlets, online at ticket master.com or by phone at 1-800-745-3000.
Satellite/Cable: $44.99. Contact your local provider for ordering details.
Web: ufc.com.
Boxing vs. mixed martial arts. That's how the Aug. 28 UFC 118 fight between two-time UFC champion Randy Couture and boxing champ James Toney is being billed by UFC.
It's how fans of each sport desperate for validation may be looking at it, too.
But it's not how Couture and Toney see it. Even if Couture, 18-10-0, is 47 years old, and Toney, 72-6-3 (with two no-contests) will turn 42 four days before the fight.
Speaking to reporters in a conference call last week, the two fighters discussed their different sports, and came across -- honestly -- as strikingly different men. Couture, currently starring in the movie "The Expendables," speaks articulately, using phrases like "rules of engagement" and Toney drops lines like "I've been a bad guy all my life, so ain't nothing new for me. . . . I just love violence."
At the same time, it's clear that this is hyping a fight that UFC President Dana White wants to sell. Perhaps White is tired of listening to critics of mixed martial arts decry it as a lesser sport than boxing.
But as I said, Couture for sure isn't buying into being the salvation of MMA.
"I don't think there's anything riding on this. . . . The sport is still a mixed martial arts competition," Couture said. "Boxing is a great sport. I've enjoyed boxing all my life, but this is still the octagon and still MMA. There's cage tactics. There's ground fighting. There's a lot of things that don't happen in boxing that are going to happen in the cage."
Not all of them sit well with Toney, the reigning IBA heavyweight champion. Take for instance that grappling part.
"Now he's talking about he's going to lay on top of me," said Toney. "God bless him, . . . I ain't going down like this, so put it away. . . . He's getting knocked out, straight up."
As a matter of fact, Toney even said that while he's trained a bit with grappling experts, Couture will go down from a punch. Even if it means he goes down a couple of times. Toney will let him up just to knock him down.
Couture acknowledged the fighter's forte as a puncher, and plans to work around it. Instead, he'll use the wrestling skills he's been developing since he first stepped on a mat at the age of about 10.
"I have no illusions that I'm a world-class boxer, or going to stand and trade with James," Couture said. "That would be pretty stupid. Given the rules of engagement of mixed martial arts, I can tie him up, I can take him down and put him on the ground and do a lot of other things to kind of neutralize his strength, which is, of course, his striking, most definitely."
Which may be even stronger, considering that MMA gloves are 4 ounces, not the 10-ouncers pro boxers use. But that creates more problems. Those bigger gloves add some protection for a fighter's hands, said Toney, who quickly added that he wouldn't spend time worrying about that.
"So it's like this: Hey, I'm ready. I'm excited to put the small gloves on," Toney said. I want to let everybody know what a real fighter does, a real fighter who really knows what he's doing with his hands."
OK, this is just opinion, James, but I have a feeling what one "real fighter" is going to be doing with his hands is "tapping out."