The History of Boxing vs MMA. VIDEOS.

In honor of tonight's James Toney vs Randy Couture fight - let's take a look back at some of the historic meetings between boxers and mixed martial artists.

Judo Gene LeBell vs Milo Savage

We'll include Muhammad Ali vs Antonio Inoki for its historical significance - but there were some strange rules in this fight making for an equally strange encounter.

UFC 1 and the encounter between boxer Art Jimmerson and the man who was about the change the world by winning three of the first four UFC tournaments - Royce Graice.

UFC 4 and Melton Bowen vs ninja cop Steve Jennum.

And most recently we have the fight between one time WBO champion Ray Mercer against exiled former UFC champion Tim Sylvia.



Anyone got any more examples of boxer vs MMA fighter?

Thought i would post this here, just to get the juices flowing...

Did Ali even through one punch in that fight? I think it was fixed personally...


Also thanks for those Couture- Toney trailers you bastard, as if its possible for me to get any more psyched up for it

Other Boxing vs MMA

Matthew Saad Muhammad: A decade after holding the WBC light heavyweight championship, Muhammad, on May 8, 1992, in Yokohama, Japan, faced Kiyoshi Tamura, at the time a popular pro wrestler. Tamura exploded with a takedown and finished Muhammad with a choke in 34 seconds. Tamura would later go on to a solid career as an MMA fighter with wins over Maurice Smith, Renzo Gracie, Minowa-man, Kazushi Sakuraba, Masakatsu Funaki, Pat Miletich and Jeremy Horn and a draw with a prime Frank Shamrock.


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Imamu Mayfield: The former IBF cruiserweight champion fought Japanese wrestler Kazuyuki Fujita on December 31, 2003. To make things more fair for the boxer, the rules were set up so Fujita would get only 20 seconds on the ground before he was stood up. Mayfield never got in a good punch, and was repeatedly taken down by Fujita. Fujita, never a submission specialist, would go for moves but couldn't get them in 20 seconds. Finally, Fujita grabbed an arm triangle choke standing, where time wasn't working against him, and Mayfield submitted at 2:15 of the second round.
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Trevor Berbick (August 1, 1954 - October 28, 2006) was a Jamaican - Canadian heavyweight boxer and champion who fought as a professional from 1976 until 2000. He was the victim of a homicide near his hometown of Norwich, Jamaica. Berbick briefly held theWBC heavyweight title in 1986, before losing it to Mike Tyson on November 22, 1986, by a TKO in the second round. He was the last man to fight Muhammad Ali, winning a 10-round unanimous decision in Nassau, Bahamas on December 11, 1981.

In 1991, he went to the UWFI in Japan to fight Nobuhiko Takada in a "boxer vs. wrestler" bout. Berbick claimed that he had been double-crossed and that he had expected the fight to be like American kickboxing, but it turned out that the rules allowed Takada to kick Berbick below the belt. Berbick refused to mount any offense, instead repeatedly complaining to the referee as Takada kicked him repeatedly in the legs. Takada claimed victory by default when Berbick exited the ring.
(I dont know if this counts as MMA as im not sure what exactly the rules where and Berbick wore gloves)


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Frans Botha, a heavyweight contender in the late-90s, is best known for out-boxing a post-prime Mike Tyson for four rounds in 1999 before getting knocked out in the fifth. The next year, heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis demolished Botha in two rounds. "The White Buffalo" left boxing in 2002 (with a 44-4-2 record) for a career in K-1. His stint as a kickboxer was largely unsuccessful, the notable exception being a stoppage victory over Jerome Le Banner. On December 31, 2004, the then 36-year-old Botha engaged in his first and, to date, only MMA fight. His opponent was debuting judo player and future UFC middleweight contender Yoshihrio Akiyama. Akiyama defeated Botha by armbar submission in under two minutes. Botha has since returned to boxing, most recently suffering a loss to the ancient Evander Holyfield.
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Yuri was an accomplished amateur boxer for the Soviet Union. As the USSR disintegrated, Vaulin came to America, debuting in 1990 on a card televised nationally by the USA Network. Fighting as a heavyweight, the prospect Vaulin progressed to 9-0 before being upset by the "suspect" John Sargent. Vaulin's loss was marked by the ignoble move of quitting on his feet in the eighth round of a ten rounder without having been knocked down or even having endured any serious punishment. After the Sargent loss, Vaulin's star fell, and he would continue boxing through 1992 without enjoying any particular success or notoriety. Along the way, he compiled a win-loss ledger of 13-3. In 1997, at age 33, Vaulin competed at UFC 14. Perhaps stung by the criticism of the lack of grit he displayed against Sargent, Vaulin fought with heart against jiu-jitsu player Joe Moreira. Ultimately, though, Moreira took the unanimous decision.
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Yosuke Nishijima, a Japanese cruiserweight, campaigned primarily in the United States. Though his record stood at 24-2-1, the fact that he failed to make a dent in America's notoriously weak cruiserweight boxing scene says something about his abilities. In 2006, four years after he was stopped in two rounds by journeyman Cecil McKenzie, the 32-year old Nishijima entered MMA. He competed against the much larger Mark Hunt at Pride 31, losing by knock out in the third round of an exciting slugfest. The loss was the most competitive fight of Nishijima's MMA career: he lost each of his remaining four bouts more definitively than he did his match with Hunt. Nishijima most recently popped up in combat sports in 2009, losing twice that year in K-1.
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Cracking like to the Hunt fight, its in Japanese though...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-692944281288938583#.

Sakuraba beating Rubin Williams too at Dream 11...

Nice 1 Ben,cheers for them

watching and reading these has helped reboost my confidence.

Randy is going to take Toney out,no problems

Toney fucked up his chances by weighing in so heavy, his only fight that heavy he looked shite, he needed to use boxers superior footwork to avoid a grappling and TD's like Anderson does, not great TD defence but being light on you toes is an alternative, Toney at 237 hasnt that option, Randy to take him down and sub him in the 1st.

Ben i still think Toney's tremendous footwork he's picked up from being such a world class boxer over the years, will be a handful to Randy.

Diasgree mate.

James Toney is flat footed as fuck at that weight, heres the only other time he weighed 237lbs



From the get go Toney was fighting totally flat footed, the only time he goes on the balls of his feet is when he bounces about between exchanges.

Toneys style was a heavyweight the shoulder roll and the reach of Frankie edgar he is going to be in the clintch by the time he fires off a shot.

Toney carrying that much weight was either to stop a takedown but against a greco roman wrestler as oppose to a Mark Coleman double legger I dont get how it will help at all. Toney at 217 would have been a lot more dangerous I reckon.

i reaaaaly want to ...but i cannot bring myself to be excited about another fight where randy says he will "push him up against the fence, use the clinch, use the dirty bo- "

I can only presume that Toney thinks being at this weight will add to his punch power and also make it harder for Randy to manhandle and controll him giving him extra time to get his shots off.

The poor deluded fool,is going to look like a Tortiose when he's on his back,with Randy in full mount,pounding the shit out of him.

I just praying he's doesn't quit to early,so we can see Randy school him for more than 2 mins

before you get too confident Payne, comparing Toney to the likes of Yosuke Nishijima isnt exactly fair....considering this:





(yes thats toney and yosuke)

This is false confidence mate.

I'm shitting it for Randy really,but I'm hoping like fuck that he gives Toney a lesson in MMA and makes easy work of him.

I keep trying to get the image of Randy getting clipped on the way in for a clinch out of my head.

I just hope Randys guys have studdied this



It worries me that Randy says he will be patient and set up TD's with Standup. I hope he doesnt end up walking into one of these...

Cool video chesty!

Payne think about it like this,

BADR HARI LOST AT MMA

Badr is 10X more dangerous on the feet than Toney, in a striking only fight he would fuck James up in a round and I reckon James wouldnt leave under his own power! Much more dangerous strikers than a fat James Toney have fought much worse fighters than Couture and lost. I think the bookies 5 to 1 underdog is generous enough to Toney

I'm enjoying your optimism.

My head says Randy's got an easy night once he grabs hold of him,but the 30 secs or so standing plus this sick feeling in my stomach,has got me worried.

Randy's my boy as you obviously know by now,but even i'm not blind enough a fan,to ignore the fact that he's 47,he's slowing down and his chin has been on the decline for a good few years now.





What am I talking about,this is captain America for fucks sake,this is what Randy does.Toneys getting fucked up in the 1st

Badr Hari is 10x more dangerous on his feet than James Toney?? What complete shite. Hari might have more weapons but Toney's hands are more dangerous than anything Hari has to offer. James Toney is an ALL TIME GREAT in boxing. It doesn't matter if he's fat. It's a simple fact that Randy Couture has been knocked out by far less dangerous opponents than Toney. If Couture gets close enough for a takedown, he's getting close enough to eat a right hand. and Randy's never had the best of chins.

Kind of along the MMA vs boxing debate, but the most successful MMA fighter to go into boxing is pretty much completely unknown even within the MMA community. Alexander Ustinov was 7-1 in MMA when he moved to pro-boxing. He was also an accomplished kick boxer with a 53-9-1-1 record.

He's currently 21-0 in MMA, and in his last fight defeated Olympic bronze medalist Paolo Vidoz.

UFC hype machine strikes again.

it was bad when they made out Lesnar and Carwin to be these 2 super fighters, when they are sloppy as hell.
but this takes the cake.
what a sham.

Randy crawls over and hooks an ankle, Toney falls on his arse and starts to panic. Randy moves with ridiculous ease to mount, some powderpuff punches to Toney to doesn't fight back. Transition, submission, fight over.

Joke.

I loved watching it,just for the fact of the amount of shit and disrespect Toney showed towards the sport and Randy,Toney called for the fight,Randy battered him,the world is once again back to normal.