This coming Saturday after next has sparked a debate amongst fight fans as to just what level of striking MMA has evolved and whether boxing is something that translates as a striking art with smaller gloves and different spacing, not to mention the plethora of different options available for mixed martial artists to use, other than strikes. It poses itself as a battle between two multi divisional champions in either sport competing in the octagon. Nobody would question whether James Toney would destroy Randy Couture in a boxing ring with boxing rules so why is there a thought out there that the opposite is true? That Toney could possibly come into a cage and have a snowball's chance in hell. I'll try to examine that in this blog.
Most people, myself included, seem to think that all Couture needs to do is close the gap and get a hold of Toney and it's academic from there. The issue with doing so is that James is likely going to be throwing bombs at Randy while Randy tries to do so. Randy is pretty durable but we've seen him in trouble from strikes in recent fights. Brandon Vera nearly stopped him with a body kick. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria out classed Randy with his boxing (significantly) and hurt him several times. Are we so delusional that we don't think a James Toney strike to the grill or even the body of Randy Couture won't bring about a similar result? On the contrary. There is a much better chance that Randy closes that gap without being hurt than that he has a clean punch land on him but the level of striking prowess that a world class boxer brings is certainly something that has scary potential. This is why it is possible for boxers to fight in mixed martial arts whereas it is very unlikely that a mixed martial artist could ever compete in boxing.
That would make it seem like I'm suggesting that boxing is the superior sport, which is completely false. It merely suggests that mixed martial arts is diverse enough to encompass boxing, whereas boxing is more style specific and is too technical to have guys that train other disciplines succeed in it. After all, we wouldn't expect somebody like Brock Lesnar, with his tremendous wrestling base, to be able to enter a world class submission wrestling tournament like the ADCC and do well against a guy like Fabricio Werdum, yet in MMA, Brock would likely be favored to win that fight, and even on the ground, wouldn't be completely out of his element, as he would be without the strikes, in a submission wrestling contest.
James Toney is providing an interesting case study, to say the least. He is not anywhere near the best boxer in the world anymore, nor the boxer with the style of boxing that theoretically could translate to mixed martial arts the best but he's the boxer with the biggest balls. The boxer with the self belief and intestinal fortitude to test his skills and put himself on the line. He has made a fan in me. I expect him to lose and lose in an embarrassing way but I actually hope he lands one of those bombs he's going to throw. It won't hurt MMA at all if he does. It will just gain the UFC notoriety and the sport will continue to grow from it.
Hopefully some boxing fans watch the pay per view that normally wouldn't have. When they do they will likely see the best boxing performance of the night in the real main event. BJ Penn and Frankie Edgar have levels of technical striking in MMA that are tremendous and will put on a great show, again. Penn doesn't deserve the rematch in any way and has recently talked himself out of the good will he built up by formerly not being a poor sport about his original loss. Frankie is confident and, in my opinion, the clear fan favorite for this fight now. So much hype has been behind Penn for his entire career that people were shocked to see him lose to Edgar the first time. I wasn't shocked and I won't be shocked on Saturday when Edgar continues from his late round dominance of Penn and out points the Hawaiian demigod and puts him in his rightful place. Penn has said that Edgar will find out what it's like to be in there with the champion. I guess the last time around, Frankie didn't find that out. I guess last time it wasn't the real BJ Penn. Or maybe it was the real BJ Penn and finally when somebody wasn't intimidated by his hype machine he was found out for the over rated, flat footed, front running baby that he really is. I have news for BJ Penn; it's he that will find out what it's like to be in there with the champion. He is the challenger here, much like when he challenged St. Pierre. I don't know that Frankie will take him down and pass his guard at will like Georges did but he will dance around Penn, again, and out point Penn, even more considerably than last time, and there won't be any more excuses for the aptly named Baby Jay.
I'm David Vaessen, and this is my point of view.
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