The long-awaited Randy Couture vs. James Toney match finally took place at UFC 118, and in what was billed as a “UFC vs. Boxing,” Couture had a lot riding on his shoulders. Sure, Toney has punching power, but if Couture could not use his well-rounded skillset to stop a boxer, how would it make mixed martial arts look in the eyes of its detractors?
The odds were long, as the feeling was that Toney’s only chance was to catch Couture with an uppercut on a takedown attempt. But a boxer has beaten a former UFC Heavyweight Champion before (Ray Mercer defeated Tim Sylvia via KO in a non-UFC fight), so one could not ignore that “puncher’s chance” in this battle.
Did he land that punch? Or, did Couture use his superior wrestling and mixed martial arts experience to win the fight?
Randy Couture b. James Toney via submission (arm triangle) at 3:19 of Round One
Story of the fight: The fight went entirely as predicted. Couture shot for an extremely low takedown, and even though he only seemed to catch the foot, Toney went down. Couture quickly moved to mount, and worked his ground-and-pound from that position.
Toney did not seem too affected by the punches, but Couture used his dominant positioning to work for an arm triangle submission (the same move on which he reportedly worked with Brock Lesnar ahead of the Shane Carwin fight). Couture could not finish Toney on the first attempt, but after improving his positioning, he tried for the choke again, and Toney was forced to submit.
While the match played as many forecast, the downside here was that Toney could not even stall Couture on a takedown attempt. Many were curious to see how Couture would handle a punch or two from the high-level boxer, but the wrestling assault was just too fast and dominant to allow that to happen.
