Trevor Sherman Hopes to Keep Training James Toney in MMA

By Michael David Smith - Lead Blogger

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After a two-decade career as a professional boxer, James Toney looked like a fish out of water in his mixed martial arts debut on Saturday night, and UFC President Dana White said after Randy Couture overwhelmed Toney that the UFC was done experimenting with professional boxers.

But Trevor Sherman, the man who trained Toney for MMA, said he doesn't want Toney to quit the sport, even if he has to fight in a second-tier MMA promotion.

"I still love James," Sherman said. "I hope he doesn't stop doing MMA, and if the UFC does release him ... trust me -- there's plenty of interest."

Sherman acknowledged that it was a little embarrassing seeing Toney fail to stop Couture from putting him flat on his back and submitting him. He said they had worked on a game plan for how to stop Couture's takedowns, but he believes that once the fight started, Toney started thinking about getting a chance to land a punch, and nothing else.

"I'm super disappointed," Sherman said. "We had a distinct game plan going in that we worked on for hundreds of hours. We're talking 14 to 16 weeks of working on sprawls. We thought Randy would shoot in low, or maybe he might kick, and it was disappointing that James, one of the best boxers who ever lived, started believing that that's all he needed -- and he never landed a punch."

Once Couture got Toney on the ground it was only a matter of time before the submission came, and Sherman said that the method of submission -- a head and arm choke -- was exactly what he had been working with Toney to defend.

"We worked on the head and arm choke and the arm bar extensively because we knew if it went to the ground Randy would go right for the mount," Sherman said. "James got angry when he got to the ground and just wanted to hit him and that was all she wrote."

Although Toney weighed in at 237 pounds and appeared to be out of shape, Sherman said he was impressed with how hard Toney worked during their time together, and that Toney was much heavier when they first started training together.

"If he was under 270 I'd be shocked," Sherman said of Toney's first workout with him. "He dropped at least 30 or 40 pounds getting ready for the fight. I mean, he was ginormous. We whittled him down to below 237 and then he probably gained a few pounds that last week."

Sherman believes Toney was put in a tough position by fighting as accomplished an opponent as Couture his first time out. He said there was talk of Toney taking on Kimbo Slice, and that would have made more sense.

"I wanted him to fight Kimbo -- I thought he should have done that as a tune-up, but James didn't want a tune-up," Sherman said. "It was his first fight, and it was against one of the best. Randy wouldn't allow any room for error. Randy is probably the best ever at game planning."

For his part, Kimbo recently told the MMA Hour that he would be open to fighting Toney, but no one ever proposed that to him. In any event, the UFC's heavy promotion of Toney over the last few months will give him plenty of opportunities to fight again, either in boxing or MMA. Sherman said he thinks Toney should stay in the cage.

"I hope it's MMA," Sherman said. "I think James Toney is humbled and ready to get back to work. My first question to him was, 'Do you want to fire me?' because he lost, and if I can't get my fighter to follow the game plan we laid out, that's my fault. But he immediately said no. I would love to work with him again."

Read More: trevor sherman, James Toney (MMA), Randy Couture (MMA)

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