Back on August 28 of 2010, James Toney, who at the time had a professional boxing record of 73–6–3, decided to try out MMA against one of the sport’s all-time greats; Randy Couture.
Prior to Toney vs. Coture at UFC 118, no one gave James Toney a chance, and those people turned out to be right, as he was submitted in 3 minutes and 19 seconds with an arm triangle choke.
Earlier this week, Couture appeared on the MMA Hour, and he compared his fight with James Toney to this Saturday’s mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor.
“I wasn’t gonna play James’ game,” Couture said regarding his strategy going into his fight with the longtime pro boxer. “I had respect for James’ ability as a boxer, but this is an MMA engagement and I wasn’t gonna stand around in front of him and see how hard he hits and see how good he rolls his shoulder and throws that hook. There are a lot of other pieces to MMA and I wanted to see how he was gonna do in those situations.
“[Conor vs. Floyd] is the opposite of that. [Conor’s] striking style is from more traditional martial arts — he does a lot of spinning kicks, spinning fists, and he’s not a traditional boxing striker, and now he’s engaged in a purely boxing competition where that footwork, timing, and hand speed comes into play, and he’s fighting arguably one of the best defensive boxers we’ve seen in 20 years.
“Does [Conor] have a chance? Absolutely. He’s got a couple things going for him: he’s unorthodox, he’s a southpaw, he’s not gonna throw things like Floyd has seen coming at him for his entire career. He’s young and he’s big for this weight class, so those things go in his favor, but still, at the end of the day, Floyd’s gonna go what he’s gonna do: he’s elusive, he’s quick, he’s got great hand speed, he’s got great head movement, he’s gonna be hard to hit, and the harder you chase him the more you seem to get hit. That’s how I see this fight going.”
You can check out Couture’s entire appearance on the MMA Hour below: