What did Couture versus Toney really teach us?

UFC 118 is in the books and any MMA fan will tell you he or she knew the Randy Couture/James Toney fight result before it even happened. Naturally, “The Natural” immediately took Toney down and never let him up, beating on him for a few minutes before choking him out.

So MMA defeated boxing, right? The ultimate debate was settled?

I’m not so sure anymore.

I knew Toney didn’t have much of a chance at all against Randy. I knew his ground skills would be vastly inferior. But I admittedly underestimated just how remedial he’d be on the canvas. Toney didn’t even move. He didn’t buck, didn’t struggle, didn’t know how to defend against a simple submission. He really just laid there like a dead animal.

What we witnessed wasn’t a boxer turned mixed martial artist. We witnessed a boxer thrown into the Octagon with no MMA experience. I wonder if Toney trained in the ground game at all. The loss will shut him up for now, sure, but what did it really teach us about the MMA/boxing debate?

Is MMA “better’ because one of the greatest grapplers ever outwrestled a guy with no experience? If we took, say, a BJJ guy like Demian Maia and threw him in a boxing ring, would we announce boxing as superior if he lost?

The more interesting debate – and perhaps the one we should’ve entertained all along – is how a boxer would fare if he legitimately transformed himself into a mixed martial artist. If, say, Floyd Mayweather Jr. left boxing and trained in MMA for two years before even accepting a fight. Then we’d really see if a boxer could succeed.

Then again, I suppose you could argue a boxer who trained in MMA for that long would simply cease to be a boxer. It’s a tough philosophical debate to solve. Did MMA defeat boxing on Saturday? Maybe, but I sure wish Toney had prepared better for the bout. Then the answer would’ve been a lot more definitive.

About Grant Brothers Boxing & Mixed Martial Arts Gym: Based in North York, Grant Brothers Boxing & Mixed Martial Arts Gym offers world-class Boxing, BJJ, Judo, Muay Thai, Sambo, Wrestling, MMA and UFC training at real-world prices.  Classes are taught by certified coaches with classes for men, women, children, adults, beginners and advanced.  Private lessons and boxercise classes are also available. Areas serviced include North York, Etobicoke, Toronto, Scarborough, Thornhill, Richmond Hill, Markham, Vaughan, Brampton and Mississauga.

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