(With 4oz gloves on Sam Peter's head may have spun completely around)
First of all, I am not against the idea of James Toney fighting for the UFC. Being one of the best boxers of all time does not disqualify you from MMA simply because you don't have an amateur wrestling or Jujitsu background. Toney can and more than likely will bring excitement to those who are fans of his and those people who want to see him fail in his UFC endeavors. What has got me messed up when looking at this deal is that the UFC has the most restrictive contracts in all of combat sports yet they are allowing Toney to continue boxing while under contract. A company that has slighted many a fighter by not allowing them to compete in other sports, let alone other promotions, has let a debuting fighter with no prior MMA experience do what so many others have not been able to. If you recall the original negotiations with Fedor Emelianenko The UFC was unwilling to even allow "The Last Emperor" to compete in Combat Sambo tournaments if he signed with the promotion. The company's Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva has been angling for a fight with Roy Jones Jr. for years and Dana White tells his camp to stop talking about it because he won't allow it to happen. Further contradicting his stance on who fights for the UFC, White went out of his way to accommodate Toney. Is it because of name recognition? Kimbo Slice had already had four pro MMA fights and the record for the most watched MMA fight in history, yet he was still forced to cut his teeth on The Ultimate Fighter reality show before given a shot at fighting for the UFC. I am not comparing the former street-fighter to boxing legend James Toney by any means other than to illustrate a point. If they are so willing to go out of their way for Dana's man-crush James Toney, why not show some of that respect to the loyal fighters in-house? Why not extend that type of courtesy to Fedor Emelianenko to get the Heavyweight juggernaut to the UFC? However, now that this deal has been done maybe the doors have been opened for the UFC to offer better deals to fighters like Emelianenko. Maybe the option of co-promotion has secretly slipped into the realm of possibility with the unlikely signing. Only time will tell, but in the meantime I am interested to see who Toney draws as his first fight inside the cage.
5 comments:
they said in the final hours of trying to get fedor that he could fight in sambo also......./story
Some valid points but I believe Sambo is an amateur sport and wear head guards and all that.
Hehehehehehe... Funny stuff! Fedor doesn't compete in anything amateur. That's like seeing Shaq compete in high school tournaments.
Too, you don't need hand-to-hand combat skills if your military is worth anything. Go ahead, arm-bar the B-2 Bomber! But... Sambo has to be one of the best (if not the best) combat sports in the world... Just ask Vladimir Putin!
"they said in the final hours of trying to get fedor that he could fight in sambo also......./story"
"If you recall the original negotiations with Fedor Emelianenko The UFC was unwilling to even allow "The Last Emperor" to compete in Combat Sambo tournaments if he signed with the promotion."
"And Sambo is not an amateur sport. It is taught in the Russian military. I would think you Americans would be more humble seeing as your military has awful hand-to-hand combat skills."
Erm...I'm not American and I'm the biggest Fedor fan around. My understanding is that Sambo is not a professional professional sport like boxing, kickboxing, and MMA. There are no people making significant money for it. I didn't say it isn't a GOOD martial art. Learn what professional means. They also have to use head guards like amateur boxing and I know some amateur boxers are some of the best in the world.
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