Shocker on Shock Street: Couture Clobbers Toney
And in other news, water is still wet.
This was the most expected outcome in some time, and proved absolutely nothing in the pointless “MMA vs. Boxing” debate. Honestly, it didn’t really do anything for the UFC other than drive up pay-per-view sales. Thankfully, Dana White has already said we won’t be seeing any more boxers inside the Octagon.
Assessments of Couture’s dominance – and he was dominant – need to be tempered by who he was facing. While Randy looked great in securing a quick takedown and earning a finish, it came against a guy who had no business being in the cage with the UFC Hall of Famer. “The Natural” remains an amazing figure – he looks better at 47 than I have in my entire life – but this win should carry next to no weight moving forward.
Toney’s Take Home Pay an Insult to Fighters Everywhere
It has been speculated that James Toney will take home somewhere in the neighborhood of $750,000 – $1,000,000 for spending 3:19 inside the cage with Randy Couture. Fighters everywhere should be pretty pissed off about that.
While Toney certainly helped push this fight into the mainstream consciousness and undoubtedly sold a few extra pay-per-views with the boxing and casual MMA fans, the fact that he made more money than Frankie Edgar has probably earned in his entire career is embarrassing.
Say what you will about selling PPV’s and whatnot – if there is that kind of money to throw at a guy who has no business being in the Octagon, put a little more money the pockets of the guys who do this day-in, day-out for next to nothing. All those dollar bills go a lot further in the hands of fighter who have a future in the organization than they do in the pocket of an over-the-hill boxer who we’ll never hear from again.
More Needed from Maia
In his first fight since being clowned by Anderson Silva, Demian Maia earned a unanimous decision victory over Mario Miranda that left more to be desired.
Maybe we’ve set the bar too high for the Brazilian jiu jitsu wizard, but Maia missed numerous submission attempts that he connected on in the past. He twice lost armbar attempts from the top, and while his control and wrestling was solid, we’ve come to expect finishes from Maia on the ground and when it doesn’t happen, questions arise.
Miranda deserves some credit; he has a black belt of his own and showed that he knows the proper escapes when needed, but while Maia earned the all-important win, he wasn’t overly impressive in doing so.
His striking is never going to make guys nervous, and while he will still submit inexperienced guys on the ground with ease, he’s in a place in the middleweight division where his only shot at success is to dominate with his grappling and his performance last night left something to be desired there as well.