Why Couture Was Dana’s Perfect Pick for the Toney Fight

The results of the MMA vs Boxing bout at UFC 118 shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Even though Toney followed the Chael Sonnen strategy of trash talking your opponent until his ears bleed, there was no way he could duplicate Sonnen’s success in the ring, not now and not ever.

Dana White couldn’t have planned this any better for the MMA world. Not only did he pick the perfect opponent for Toney, he picked a boxer who had no concern whatsoever for his legacy. Toney simply wanted a paycheck and he got an unearned paycheck for his piss poor performance against Couture.

After the fight it’s obvious why Toney was the perfect pick for Dana but it’s not quite as obvious why Dana picked Randy Couture for the Boxing vs. MMA bout. Here are the reasons I think Dana chose “The Natural” for the fight

Randy isn’t dumb enough to stand with Toney

Over his career Randy has been a mastermind in the ring. He has always taken fighters out of their element. Any other fighter may have been tempted to try and prove that they could stand with Toney.

Brock is a great heavyweight but he doesn’t try to automatically take fights to the ground, he may have stood waiting for the opportune moment for a opening and got caught.

Carwin could have relied so much on his stand up that Toney would have ended up knocking him out standing. Carwin has top of the line punching power but he’s not going to be able to stand with a boxer.

Dana knew that Randy would not take any chance at all of getting into a boxing match with a boxer in a cage. He knew Randy would take full advantage of his wrestling and take James down right away and he did just that.

Dana knew he wouldn’t lose, but fans might have a little doubt

Dana knew that by throwing Toney in against a veteran of the cage was 100% foolproof. Fans on the other hand may have thought that Randy is too old. How many people have doubted Randy for his age in the past?

Look at the Vera fight, everyone doubted Randy against a young guy who hasn’t really lived up to his potential. Still everyone doubted Randy. Yes, it was a close fight but a man closer to his fifties than his forties eked out a win.

He was coming off an easy fight with Coleman, but people marked that win up as an easy fight and didn’t give him much credit for the victory.

Dana however had no doubt about Couture. He knew that Couture was going to take Toney to the ground and beat him. After the victory Dana could smile on the inside, or even put up a smiley face tweet up about how MMA just beat Boxing.

Dana isn’t going to brag about it, surprisingly of course, but he can still think about how a boxer stepped into the ring and got beat.

Randy would be humble in his victory

Randy isn’t one to boast about any victory, he has never bragged about a win or complained about a loss. Even with the bragging rights on the line and all the trash talk directed at his sport he wouldn’t say anything to be disrespectful.

His comments after the match were more directed towards the long shot that Toney had to win the match. He acknowledged the fact that if he stepped into a boxing ring then Toney would destroy him in the first round.

This goes right along with the last reason, Dana doesn’t want to brag about this victory. The last thing Dana wants is a MMA vs. boxing debate across the internet. No one stands to profit from that and if you don’t believe how heated it can get go look at my first article “Why Mixed Martial Arts is Better Than Boxing.” (Link posted at the end of the article)

Bottom Line

This fight couldn’t have been better for Dana White if he had scripted the fight. He had all the intangibles covered and made it look like he was giving Toney a chance when in reality he knew that Toney would fail.

Toney is not the dedicated athlete he once was and Dana knew that before he signed him. Toney showed up at 237 pounds of blubbery mess, and got beat for his effort. He deserved it too in my opinion, you don’t come into a sport without giving respect to one of the legends.

Dana White you truly are a mastermind…