Imagine If Dana White Promoted Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather?

Yesterday was Media Day at the Wild card Gym in Hollywood. That meant that Freddie Roach's gym, the home of current P4P king Manny Pacquiao was overrun with media types from all over the world.

Everyone with press credentials was let in to see the Pac-Man during one of the last workouts leading up to the Pacquiao-Clottey fight that will take place on March 13th. 

To counteract the blitz, Golden Boy Promotions had Shane Mosley doing radio interviews all the country including the very popular and nationally syndicated Jim Rome Show.

So, which boxer ended up being the lead story on many of the top websites including a featured turn on the front page of Yahoo! News along with stories about the elections in Iraq and a preview of last night's American Idol?

Give yourself a tongue if you said former five-time champ James "Lights Out" Toney. 

For those of you who didn't see the news yesterday, Dana White announced that Toney just signed a contract to fight in the UFC. The fact that Yahoo and several other sites placed that story on the front page of their entire site explains a lot about the current state of both boxing and the UFC.

And yes, I am talking about James Toney the boxer. The same James Toney that has been having a hard time even getting a bout in the last year.

That's who I'm talking about, Willis.

MMA has become a very popular sport in a very short time. So popular that UFC news is now on the same level as other cultural phenomenons like Lady Gaga and Tiger Woods. 

UFC fighters on the other hand are not household names.

That's the big conundrum for UFC head Dana White. White needs fighters that he can sell promote and the UFC obviously has a hard time developing them.

This wasn't always true. Stars like Chuck Lidell, Tito Ortiz, and Randy Couture all became very well known for fighting either in the UFC Octagon or fighting for other promotions around the world.

But for whatever reason fans do not connect with the best MMA fighters out there today. The very best MMA fighters, can't seem to gain traction among the casual sports fans no matter how talented or dominant they are in the ring.

It also doesn't matter which promotion they are fighting for either. Strikeforce strikes out as often as the UFC.

Fedor Emelianenko, Georges St. Pierre, and Anderson Silva might be some of the best cage fighters ever, but the fact is all three would have trouble getting a table at Katsuya without a reservation placed well in advance.

Even BJ Penn, who oozes charisma, can't seem to make the transition from the UFC to a mainstream audience. 

The hottest names in MMA right now are Brock Lesner, a former WWE star, and Hershell Walker, a former football player, who biggest claim to fame was winning a National Championship and Heisman Trophy almost 30 years ago. 

Now you can add James Toney to the list. A man who has never ever wrestled, let alone gone up against a top MMA fighter.

Therein lies the irony. Toney's signing was big news on the Internet, bumping stories about two of the biggest boxing matches of the year. 

If Toney had signed to fight Vitali Klitschko for the heavyweight title it would have been the third story down on Yahoo's boxing page. James signs with Dana White and he's competing with Simon Cowell and Angelina Jolie for space on the front page.

Which tells us two things.

First of all, Dana White needs to find ways to promote his stars.

The UFC isn't going to last long if the top fighters find themselves playing second fiddle to retired or soon to be retired stars from other sports because the best in the sport are bound to become resentful and look for greener pastures.

Boxing on the other hand needs to learn from MMA and do a much better job promoting it's sport. If White can make headlines just signing James Toney, why can't boxing promote the sports very best fighters while they're in their prime?

That is the $64,000 question. A question the folks at Top Rank, Golden Boy, and anyone in boxing should be asking themselves today.

If I had to bet on who gets their act together first, I'd put my money on White.

Dana's a smart guy. He probably looks at someone like James as a great self promoter who can hold the fort for the UFC while White grooms the next Chuck Liddell from within the UFC ranks.  

Boxing on the other hand has a wonderful group of young fighters coming up, the best fighters fighting in the same weight divisions and yet they keep shooting themselves in the foot.

Dana White may not be perfect. I think he puts himself out front too often and he hasn't always paid his fighters what they're worth.

But, I'll guarantee you one thing. Dana White would have made the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight happen or done his damnedest trying.