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source: abs-cbnnews.com

James “Lights Out” Toney is not done talking. After losing to Randy “The Natural” Couture at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 118 last Saturday (Sunday in Manila), Toney called out the UFC Hall of Famer to prove himself in the boxing ring.

“My thing with Randy Couture is he is a legend in his sport. He seems like a good person. I don't know him personally, but from when I meet him, he seems like he’s a great dude, man. And if he is a real man, come put the gloves on,” Toney told Percy Crawford of FightHype.com.


Toney entered the mixed martial arts (MMA) scene after spending months deriding MMA for its substandard levels of striking.

However, the former boxing champion failed to land a single punch as Couture took him to the mat and submitted him at 3:19 of Round 1 via an arm triangle choke.

“The thing is, I did it his way. Now is he willing to come do it my way? Nobody in MMA will do it my way. No one will come to boxing and to try show off their hands with me. Nobody in the MMA world can go blow-for-blow with James Toney,” the former world middleweight, super middleweight and cruiserweight champion said.

UFC President Dana White, meantime, said the former boxer lasted longer in The Octagon than he expected.

“I'm sure he was prepared as he could've been… Anyone who knows James Toney the last few years, James isn't the most physically fit boxer. From the day we signed the fight in my office, he lost a lot of weight,” he told told Raj Giri of FightLine.com.

No more boxing vs MMA

White also promised to never put on another boxing versus MMA encounter after Toney’s trouncing.

“It's unfair to bring in a guy with one discipline no matter if he's trained eight or nine months. I wasn't the guy going out and trying to bad-mouth boxing and take boxing down and hurt the sport of boxing. James Toney picked a fight and he got one,” he stated.

“I didn't try to sell this as, ‘Tune in, you'll see the most spectacular war’… Anything can happen in a fight. We're not after boxing,” he continued.

Toney, for his part, vowed to bounce back.

“It felt good. It felt like I hadn't been inside a boxing ring in almost a year, you know what I'm saying? But I blame myself. It is what it is. I made a mistake and I paid the price for it. I will be back stronger than ever, I promise you,” he told FightHype.com.

He even said that he would rather compete with MMA fighters than boxers.

“At least MMA guys got guts and they will get in a cage with me. The boxing guys are all talk and no walk,” he added.
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