Latest Randy Couture Stories

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."

The UFC's grand James Toney experiment is over, according to Dana White. Whether it was a success or not depends on the hypothesis you started with, but unless you happen to be Toney or one of his hype men, chances are you saw this coming.

But while this fight was undoubtedly a sideshow attraction from the very beginning, it did have some benefits. For one, it got some attention from the types of fans and media who might not otherwise have cared about this card. It seems a little doubtful that they all became instant converts upon seeing Gray Maynard lay on top of Kenny Florian, but who knows.

The important thing is that the opportunity to have a famous boxer compete on MMA's biggest stage finally presented itself, then refused to stop presenting itself, then mumbled some absurd, semi-coherent threats at everyone within earshot, and then the UFC finally made it happen. Now that we've done it, let's not do it again until we find someone willing to put in the work and take it seriously.

Now on to the big winners, losers, and everything in between from UFC 118.

James Toney swore that he knew what he was doing with this MMA stuff. Of course, he also said he was the most feared man in boxing, so it's not as if his credibility was in mint condition coming into UFC 118.

Toney showed up for his mixed martial arts debut in Boston on Saturday night looking like he'd trained more for a competitive eating contest than a professional fight. Fortunately his conditioning (or lack thereof) never had a chance to become an issue, as former UFC champ Randy Couture took him down with ease and submitted him with an arm triangle choke in less time than it takes to make microwave popcorn.

Not that this outcome should surprise anyone. Even if Toney had diligently worked on his ground game since signing a UFC contract, there's simply no way, in the span of a few months, that a 42-year-old boxer is going to learn to wrestle like a guy whose cauliflower ear has cauliflower ear.

BOSTON -- On the night that multi-time boxing champion James Toney made his mixed martial arts debut with the intention of showing that boxing is the most effective combat style, it was ironic that there was not a single knockout recorded. Instead, it seemed that subconciously, the athletes of the UFC were intent on showing Toney how varied and effective other forms of fighting could be.

Toney was on the receiving end of the fifth and final submission of UFC 118, losing to Randy Couture in a one-sided fight that will be his first and last foray in the UFC, according to company president Dana White. When asked if he would stick to his pre-fight promise of only a single fight for Toney if he lost, White said yes.

"He's the IBA and NABO heavyweight champion. He's a boxer and that's what he does," White said. "He wanted to fight, he picked a fight with our guys and he fought tonight. He's a tough guy, he's been around. I have a lot of respect for him, but you can't expect a guy to come in with one discipline and do well. He stepped up, he came in and did it. He picked a fight and he got one."

BOSTON -- Randy Couture met with the press following his dominant win over James Toney Saturday night at UFC 118.

Couture talked about why the fight played out exactly like he thought, why he has no interest in boxing Toney and whether he believes the MMA vs. boxing debate is over.

Check out the highlight video of the press conference below.

The 41-year-old former boxing world champion James Toney made his mixed martial arts debut Saturday night at UFC 118. It did not go well.

UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture easily beat Toney by first-round submission, confirming what everyone suspected: In a mixed martial arts match, a good mixed martial artist will beat a past-his-prime boxer.

"This was exactly what I trained to do," Couture said.

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UFC 118 in Boston is just a few hours away, so in order to get a perspective on the action from the people who are paid to know winners from losers, let's examine tonight's main card betting odds.

With one new champ defending his title against the man he took it from, and one boxing great crossing over into a brand new sport that he seems to only barely understand, you'd think there would be a vast difference in the odds on the two co-main event bouts. In reality, the two lines are more similar than you might think, and they favor neither the champ nor the big-mouthed boxer.

Let's break it down below and see who the smart choices are at UFC 118.

BOSTON -- Randy Couture is a massive favorite to win his third straight fight Saturday night at UFC 118, but given Couture's status and renown in the MMA world, you might be surprised to learn that if Couture does indeed win, it would be his first streak of three wins or more since 2001.

During the course of fight-week, we're privy to a host of interesting stats that don't otherwise make it into the event discussion, so we're compiling a few of the more interesting nuggets here, including a few gems about James Toney, BJ Penn, Frankie Edgar and more.

BOSTON -- Ray Sefo knows a little about the transition James Toney is making. Sefo has fought as a professional boxer, was a world renowned kickboxer, and in recent years, he's worked hard on his MMA game, most recently fighting for Strikeforce last September.

Sefo is also a trainer at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, as well as a key member in preparing Randy Couture to face Toney; the 6-foot, 240-pound Sefo mimicked the similarly built 5-foot-10, 237-pound Toney during Couture's training camp. And given his own experiences going from the striking arts to the ground game, Sefo feels Toney will be woefully unprepared for the opponent that awaits him.

"I don't think it'll go any more than three minutes," he said. "It's going to end real fast."

BOSTON -- If he wasn't so mild-mannered and quiet, you'd almost feel bad for Frankie Edgar. On the night he beat the odds and won the UFC lightweight championship by defeating all-time legend BJ Penn, Anderson Silva jumped, jived and danced to a decision that was so controversial, it eclipsed the underdog Edgar's historic win.

Months later, he's in his first main event, but it's hardly the most attention-grabbing fight on the UFC 118 card, not with spotlight-stealing James Toney in attendance.

Yet in some ways, that's just how Edgar would want it. Edgar quietly climbed the UFC ladder in relative anonymity, and he's more than happy to step aside and let the veterans take their bows while he walks away from UFC 118 as the only title-holder.

BOSTON -- The 20 fighters competing at UFC 118 weighed in at the TD Garden. There were no complications as every fighter on the card made weight.

The UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar weighed in at 154 for his UFC lightweight championship defense against BJ Penn, who also checked in at 154. Meanwhile boxer turned MMA fighter James Toney checked in at 237 for his bout with multi-time champ Randy Couture (220).

The UFC 118 weigh-ins take place Friday at the TD Garden in Boston, and if you can't be there in person, you can watch the video live right here at MMAFighting.com.

The most intriguing issue will be the weight of James Toney, who has been as light as 157 pounds and as heavy as 237 pounds in his boxing career. Toney says he's working hard and in great shape, but at times Toney has become grotesquely overweight. We'll find out on Friday afternoon whether he got himself into decent shape for his UFC debut against Randy Couture.

In the main event, lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and challenger B.J. Penn will both have to make the limit of 155 pounds.

The weigh-in starts at 4 PM ET (replay will be available in the evening) and the video is below.