By Rhodri Kilcoynea: On August 28th two ageing, but extraordinarily talented fighters are being pitted against one another in what UFC President Dana White envisions as ‘UFC vs Boxing’. This kind of all encompassing title threatens to damage the reputation of one of these subsequent sports when the winner is decided at the TD Garden in Boston. But let us not fool ourselves here, even the most obsessive MMA and Boxing fanatics have come to concede the individual merit that both these disciplines deserve. In saying this, as a writer for a boxing news website I must defend the sport I cherish the most, and argue the case for why a dinky, rotund and punch drunk boxer of 42 years of age will defeat a legend at his own game.

James Toney is a man that divides opinion, he is either alluded to in the manner I have previously mentioned, or he is labelled as one of the most talented boxers that ever lived. I believe he is all these things, and this contributes to why predicting the outcome of Saturday night is more difficult than initially thought. Now the general consensus is, is that Randy Couture with his infinite mastery of Greco-Roman wrestling, will simply prance about outside of Toney’s striking distance until he spots an opportunity to take his opponent to the ground and submit him. Without beating around the bush, this will almost certainly occur. However let me imbue you boxing faithfulls with a little bit of hope, because I will proclaim the reasons why James Toney might win this seemingly impossible contest.

+ James Toney is younger than Randy Couture.

This is the most obvious advantage Toney holds over the man from Everitt, Washington, is that he is a good five years younger. It must be taken with a pinch of salt however, because Toney appears to have aged worse than Couture who at 47 still looks in phenomenal shape.

+ James Toney is one of the most brilliant boxing technicians ever to have graced the ring.

His counter punching, shoulder rolling and harmonious yet brutal combinations have diminished with age, but are still of a great advantage to him in the striking department. He is known as the ‘Illusive One’ for a reason, he is so slippery and slimy that many boxers have found themselves struggling to connect with any part of his body. Which is a bit of a paradox considering that James is, well, a bit of a fatty.

+ James Toney is in great shape for this fight.

No really. Having just contradicted myself and being all too aware of the flabby belly staring at your eyes in the leading picture, I must assure you that this is the best Toney has looked in a long time. Having reached almost 240 pounds at his heaviest (a staggering figure considering he began as a middleweight), Toney has since began losing weight for his fights and I predict he will come in under 220 for this bout. That is unless ESPN’s article claiming he will weigh in the region of 290 on the night is indeed true, which it probably is not. He does seem to be taking this fight and the fitness training that is required very seriously, which leads me to my next point.

+ James Toney is truly adamant he is going to slaughter Couture. This could be seen as a detrimental factor, but Toney’s unshakable confidence has paid dividends in his previous exploits in the ring. It has contributed to why he has such a sterling chin, he is man after all who has never been knocked out in his astonishing 83 fight career. In the two rare knockdowns he has been subject to (one at the hands of a prime Roy Jones Jr) he did not look that hurt at all. His gargantuan heart has also been demonstrated, for example in his gruelling encounter with Vasiliy Jirov in 2003 in which he slugged it out with the previously unbeaten Cruiserweight champion, to earn a knockdown in the 12th round and win a unanimous 12 round decision.

+ James Toney will be wearing 4 ounce gloves. Toney has been noted for his hand speed, theoretically it will now be twice as fast considering UFC gloves are less than half the weight of standard 10 ounce boxing gloves. Couple this with Toney’s underrated power (he has 44 knockouts remember) and Couture’s questionable chin and it could be a short night’s work. What people forget to mention is the fact that these small gloves will adversely affect Toney’s guard. This shouldn’t be too much of a problem though as James relies mostly on his upper body movement to defend himself. Also there is fact that Toney will be without any shoes stepping into the octagon. It is unknown how this will affect him exactly, he is likely though to exhibit less grip and lighter feet. So these factors might be just advantageous as they are disadvantageous.

+ James Toney has fought better opposition than Couture. This is perhaps a more controversial topic that Toney has highlighted himself: ‘Don’t worry about me. Worry about Randy. If you see me fighting a bear, don’t worry about me. Protect the bear.’ Strong words indeed, but are UFC fighters really cut from the same cloth as elite boxers? This is a challenging query to gauge, it would seem that boxing, having been a far more popular sport than MMA over the past 20 years (albeit until recently), would determine that Toney has had to fight in a more populated and competitive sport throughout his career. Randy Couture could be one in one hundred thousand while James Toney could be one in a million. It’s hard to say.

And there it is, I have even managed to convince myself that the striking game of ‘Lights Out’ will definitely beat the silly sweaty hugging style of the overmatched Couture. Definitely. In all seriousness though I truly hope James does not get humiliated in this fight, he is an exciting, talented loquacious, and courageous individual who is brave enough to dive into a sport he has never even participated in before. I for one salute his madness and wish him all the best.