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RANDY COUTURE: I DON'T THINK BOXERS GET MMA
Sunday, August 15, 2010 - by Damon Martin - MMAWeekly.com
Mixed martial arts vs. boxing.
It's a longstanding debate among combat sports fans and journalists, and while there have been MMA fighters that have done pro boxing, and pro boxers that have done MMA, the biggest crossover fight the two sports has ever seen is about to take place on Aug. 28 in Boston.
UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture had no problem being the first person to step up to the plate when he heard that boxing champion James Toney signed with the UFC. In fact, he volunteered and wanted to be the one to welcome him to the Octagon.
"We've heard (Floyd Mayweather Jr.) and others run their mouths about it, and he's the first one that's actually had the courage to step up and fight, and stand behind what he's talking," Couture told MMAWeekly Radio.
"He's a tremendous boxer. I've watched him compete. He's a four-time world champion. He's an amazing striker. The question is how much of the other stuff is he going to be able to pick up and learn by the time he has to step into that cage.
"To finally get a world champion boxer to sign on the dotted line and step up is a huge fight. It's going to bring a lot of eyes from the boxing world to see how this fight comes out and unfolds. That's a fun fight, that's a cool place to be in."
Couture has spent the past 13 years evolving his game beyond his wrestling roots, and no one is sure that Toney, while a world class boxer, can pick up what he needs in order to compete in MMA in just a few short months.
The former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion is also a very smart and calculating fighter, and he knows that to stand and trade with a fighter like Toney would be a fool's errand.
"I think anybody who faces him would be silly to stand around in front of him and play that game," Couture commented. "There's so many other tools that come into play in mixed martial arts, and hopefully he'll have learned some of them and we'll have a great fight.
"I don't have any illusions that I'm on the level of James Toney when it comes to striking. I'm going to rely as I have in most of my fights on my wrestling background. On the things that I've spent 30-plus years developing."
In this new age of mixed martial arts, very few fighters are as deliberate as to divulge their game plan before a fight, but Couture and Toney aren't hiding much of anything.
"I'm going to go out, try to set him up, use some striking effectively to set him up, run him into the fence if possible, tie him up, smother him, and put him on his butt. It's a lot harder for him to be an effective boxer from his butt," Couture said.
"He doesn't have to box again forever, that muscle memory's there. I rarely go in and just wrestle anymore. I'm spending all my time on the striking and the submission stuff. He's on the other side of that."
As an avid fan of all combat sports, Couture says that there is a certain mentality among boxers and boxing supporters that just doesn't allow them to understand MMA. Whatever the reason for that is, Couture is happy to show them how MMA works on Aug. 28.
"I don't think boxers get it. I don't think people from the boxing world understand all the dimensions of our sport, and how the clinch work and the wrestling, and all the other stuff changes your ability to strike," said Couture. "It's not a pure form of striking like boxing, so you have to adapt and find those situations where you can still be an effective striker, but there's a lot of other things to think about. There's a lot of questions to be answered in a fight like this."
Couture will look to answer all of those questions at UFC 118 when he faces James Toney in the co-main event of the promotion's first ever trip to Boston.
Sunday, August 15, 2010 - by Damon Martin - MMAWeekly.com
Mixed martial arts vs. boxing.
It's a longstanding debate among combat sports fans and journalists, and while there have been MMA fighters that have done pro boxing, and pro boxers that have done MMA, the biggest crossover fight the two sports has ever seen is about to take place on Aug. 28 in Boston.
UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture had no problem being the first person to step up to the plate when he heard that boxing champion James Toney signed with the UFC. In fact, he volunteered and wanted to be the one to welcome him to the Octagon.
"We've heard (Floyd Mayweather Jr.) and others run their mouths about it, and he's the first one that's actually had the courage to step up and fight, and stand behind what he's talking," Couture told MMAWeekly Radio.
"He's a tremendous boxer. I've watched him compete. He's a four-time world champion. He's an amazing striker. The question is how much of the other stuff is he going to be able to pick up and learn by the time he has to step into that cage.
"To finally get a world champion boxer to sign on the dotted line and step up is a huge fight. It's going to bring a lot of eyes from the boxing world to see how this fight comes out and unfolds. That's a fun fight, that's a cool place to be in."
Couture has spent the past 13 years evolving his game beyond his wrestling roots, and no one is sure that Toney, while a world class boxer, can pick up what he needs in order to compete in MMA in just a few short months.
The former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion is also a very smart and calculating fighter, and he knows that to stand and trade with a fighter like Toney would be a fool's errand.
"I think anybody who faces him would be silly to stand around in front of him and play that game," Couture commented. "There's so many other tools that come into play in mixed martial arts, and hopefully he'll have learned some of them and we'll have a great fight.
"I don't have any illusions that I'm on the level of James Toney when it comes to striking. I'm going to rely as I have in most of my fights on my wrestling background. On the things that I've spent 30-plus years developing."
In this new age of mixed martial arts, very few fighters are as deliberate as to divulge their game plan before a fight, but Couture and Toney aren't hiding much of anything.
"I'm going to go out, try to set him up, use some striking effectively to set him up, run him into the fence if possible, tie him up, smother him, and put him on his butt. It's a lot harder for him to be an effective boxer from his butt," Couture said.
"He doesn't have to box again forever, that muscle memory's there. I rarely go in and just wrestle anymore. I'm spending all my time on the striking and the submission stuff. He's on the other side of that."
As an avid fan of all combat sports, Couture says that there is a certain mentality among boxers and boxing supporters that just doesn't allow them to understand MMA. Whatever the reason for that is, Couture is happy to show them how MMA works on Aug. 28.
"I don't think boxers get it. I don't think people from the boxing world understand all the dimensions of our sport, and how the clinch work and the wrestling, and all the other stuff changes your ability to strike," said Couture. "It's not a pure form of striking like boxing, so you have to adapt and find those situations where you can still be an effective striker, but there's a lot of other things to think about. There's a lot of questions to be answered in a fight like this."
Couture will look to answer all of those questions at UFC 118 when he faces James Toney in the co-main event of the promotion's first ever trip to Boston.
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