James Toney will end the great debate

The eternal debate of which combat sport is better, boxing or MMA, could be answered with the UFC’s recent addition of former boxing champion James Toney.

Toney, who hasn’t stepped inside the ring since September of last year, is making the move to mixed martial arts after a very vocal and public campaign to win over UFC boss Dana White. The 41-year-old fighter isn’t sure when he will make his debut in the cage, but MMA fans can be sure they’ll be shelling out a pretty penny to see it.

Toney is a tremendous boxer and has shown an uncanny ability to adapt to different weight classes and challenges. Even though his career is winding down, his punching power alone makes him a real threat in the UFC. There are strikers and then there are boxers. Even mixed martial arts' sturdiest chins would crumble like new-born deer under the power of one of Toney’s shots.

That point has been the biggest weapon for fight fans that say an MMA athlete wouldn’t stand a chance against a boxer. Yeah, the MMA fighters will shoot and control the ground grappling, but if a boxer was to land one punch – just one – Mr. MMA would follow that knuckle sandwich with a bowl of smelling salt soup.

I’m sure Dana White will hand pick Toney’s first opponent, looking to get a nice return on his investment. Toney will KO the poor schmuck and with some training and hard work (hopefully without the use of steroids this time), could really make some noise in the UFC.

I, for one,... [More]

Hey boxing, quit hittin' yourself!

What a way to kick off your day.

I woke up this morning to read that the dream fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. was about to be just that – only a dream. I felt like the naïve college girl who couldn’t avoid falling for and sleeping with jerk-off frat boys.
 
Not again. I thought you’d changed boxing.

After almost two decades of missing out on super bouts, like Tyson vs. Jones Jr., the sport seemed to be getting it. It wasn’t about money…well…it wasn’t all about money.

Boxing was starting to wipe the dollar bills from its eyes and gave fans great matchups like Mayweather vs. De La Hoya and Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya – fights that you would line up playing Fight Night on the Playstation but never thought they would actually happen.

The promise of Mayweather vs. Pacquiao was about to shoot the sport into a new golden age. Instead, it has pissed off a lot of fight fans as well as gave many casual spectators a bad taste in their mouths
 
(You want a bunch of prickly pears? Try talking smack in our boxing forum today. Those guys are dying for a fight.)

Now, I don’t agree with the people who say boxing is dead and MMA is the wave of the future. That’s like comparing hockey to broomball (WTF is broomball, you ask?). Yeah, both are played on ice but they are completely different sports.[More]

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Figuring Fedor's future

Where do we go from here?

Fedor Emelianenko, like Vegas odds predicted, scored a victory over Brett Rogers at Strikeforce's prime-time event on CBS Saturday night.

Early in the second round, he landed a thunderous right hand that floored the bigger Rogers and finished him off with strikes on the ground, forcing referee John McCarthy to stop the fight. But up until that split-second shot, a lot of MMA experts would have scored the first round to Rogers.

The American began the fight with a snap jab which broke Emelianenko's nose and then took the fight to the ground, landing punches on the bloodied Russian. Rogers also showed some solid defense, using his brute strength to slip out of would-be arm bars and kimuras.

The rematch talk was thrown around during the post-fight interviews, but is that what mixed martial arts fans really want to see?

Emelianenko still has two fights left on his contract with Strikeforce and, pending a rematch with Rogers, will be fed a couple more tomato cans.

He's 33 years old and appears to be on the decline. He looked soft and fatter Saturday than I have ever seen. He's never been the model physic but it looks like he was hitting the buffet more than the gym.

And how motivated can you be to train for guys who were changing tires at Sam's Club a year before stepping into the cage with you?

Eventually, one of two things will happen:

Fedor's slumming eventually catches up with him. W... [More]

UFC screw job

UFC 104 was a night of surprises for me.

For one, I actually did well with my picks going 4-for-5 after feeling like a Madden curse for MMA fighters the last couple events.

Second, Maurico Rua surprised me with the way he controlled the pace of the bout and had Lyoto Machida on the defense all night.

But the biggest surprise came when ring announcer Bruce Buffer announced Machida was the winner by unanimous decision after taking a beating for five rounds. Sure, I'm happy I cashed my ticket and that my column on Machida winning the light heavyweight title fight wasn't thrown in my face.

But Shogun Rua was screwed.

I know it. You know it. Rua knows it. Even Machida knows it.

Joe Rogan nearly bit through his tongue he was holding it so hard in the post-fight interviews. The judges did such a bad job of scoring the fight – if they really did score it – they make Golden Boy Promotions panel look good. Fight fans haven't seen a screw job this raw since Vince McMahon pulled the plug on Brett Hart back in '97. The fight was fake but the outcome was very, very real.

It makes you think that maybe Dana White and his big-money buddies had some heavy action on "The Dragon" at -500. The claws of Las Vegas can stretch as far as Los Angeles.

But whether Saturday night's decision was an honest mistake or call made from up on top, this controversial finish would hopefully spawn a rematch. However, with the UFC's recent push for... [More]