By Matt Stein: James Toney did not give a good account of himself in his foray into the MMA world with his 1st round tap out loss to 47-year-old Randy Couture last Saturday night in UFC 118. I don’t know if the 42-year-old Toney is aware of this or even cares, but he may have actually helped the MMA to attract more boxing fans to their sport with this fight rather than the other way around. This fight was hugely successful in terms of pay per view sales compared to past UFC events and you have to figure that the reason for this was because of boxing fans purchasing it to see a match-up between a boxer and a MMA star.

Toney did not give a good account of himself in the fight, however. He came into the fight weighing a fat 237, which for his short 5’9″ frame, was about 60+ pounds too much for him to carry. Couture, no longer considered the best in his weight class in the MMA, was still far too good for Toney. Immediately, Couture took Toney to the canvas with a single leg take down. That’s a move that’s not used very much in the UFC because it’s so easy to defend against. However, Toney had no idea what to do when Couture dove at his right leg and took him down to the mat. Once Toney was on his back, his large belly kept him there and made it hard for him to turn on his side or stomach.

Couture just sat on top of Toney and rained shots down on his head. Eventually the action got near the fence, and Couture began to try and mix in chokes with his punches. Finally, it looked like Couture was showing mercy on Toney by grabbing him in a choke and causing Toney to tap out. Couture very easily could have let it go on longer and landed more head shots, but it looked like he didn’t want to really hurt Toney.

Toney reportedly made $700,000 for this fight. It’s unclear if he intends on continuing to fight in the MMA or if this was a one shot thing. Hopefully, Toney will forget about the MMA and either go back to boxing or retire. He’s not cut out for MMA at this stage in life and I can’t see him learning enough to win any fights against quality MMA fighters. He’s too old and all that weight that he’s carrying around on his small frame will continue to be a big problem for him in the future should he want to stay in the MMA sport.