Is the UFC Playing Russian Roulette With Randy Couture vs James Toney at UFC 118?

That's what Sherdog's Jake Rossen says:

Toney only has a marginal chance, but it's a chance. And if Couture stands still for a second too long -- if that brain that just wants to hang out on a porch somewhere sabotages him -- it's really not such a good thing for the UFC.

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A win would also delight Bob Arum and boxing's other pallbearers, who can count only on biannual fights that briefly ignite interest in that sport before they find new ways to extinguish it. Boxing as an institution relies on the idea that it's a cleaner, more mature activity. Having a past-prime Toney clock Couture -- one of the names most commonly circulated in mass media -- would be a gift. And unlike the Tim Sylvia/Ray Mercer debacle, it'll be taking place on a show people are actually watching.

The UFC's appeal in part is that it represents advancement in combat sports. You would not expect a Selectric to outperform a Mac. If it does, the cache that goes along with following the hot product dwindles. Brock Lesnar, by virtue of being the UFC's heavyweight champion, has been labeled the "baddest man on the planet." If Toney wins, will some people now expect that title is invalid until he fights one of the Klitschkos?

Couture's age means the UFC is playing a dangerous game of Russian roulette with their own reputation. His name sells, but there's more security in having a younger, faster takedown artist deal with Toney. If the number one rule of fighting is not to take unnecessary chances, they've scheduled a pretty reckless round.

I've been enjoying a pretty spirited round of MMA vs boxing debate with an older friend who just started paying attention to MMA. He's been devouring fight videos online and while he's somewhat open to MMA -- or at least to debating it with me -- the part of his brain that has learned what constitutes solid boxing technique just can't reconcile with the seemingly sloppy stand up involved in MMA. 

I sent him this old piece that has former pro boxer Marcus Davis talking about how he had to change his game for MMA, read it and more commentary on Couture vs Toney in the full entry:

"One is the way you stand," Davis said. "The way everyone stands so upright and staggered. You need to square your hips to defend a takedown. Also, to check a kick, you can't do that from a staggered stance. You have to center up a little bit, hips pointed forward, in order to check a kick correctly.

"That right there takes away a lot of your boxing stuff," he said. "And then the way you throw punches, the way you move your head. The defense is different. In boxing you lean back and do, like, the fading out of a punch. You can't do that in MMA. If you lean back, you leave your legs forward. That leg will either be kicked or it leaves the leg open for a takedown."

Davis said one cannot bob and weave because of the danger of being kneed, or of the chance of being caught in a Muay Thai clinch that leaves one vulnerable to knees and elbows.

But despite these explanations, my bud is going to be rooting for Toney come August 28 and if Couture blows it, I'm not looking forward to eating crow, and even worse, losing a potential MMA convert.

For his part, James Toney isn't shy at all about framing the fight in terms of MMA vs boxing and Randy Couture is answering in kind, per Franklin McNeil:

"I look at this [fight] as a way to show everybody that boxing ranks supreme," Toney told ESPN.com recently while in Las Vegas to observe UFC 116. "It's still the No. 1 sport; it's still the best sport. I like MMA; I'm not a hater. I watch it all the time.

"But when somebody like [UFC president] Dana White, who started in the boxing game, says that MMA is better than boxing -- then hold on. You're wrong there."It's this attitude that motivated Couture to ask White for the chance to fight Toney. Couture loves boxing, but not the disrespect he believes many boxers show toward mixed martial arts.

"The mixed martial artists I know have a ton of respect for boxers and what boxers do," Couture told ESPN.com. "Most of us train in boxing as part of our mixed martial arts training.

"You don't hear too many mixed martial artists going around, running their mouths about how boring boxing is, which is what we could easily be saying about boxing. On the other side of the coin, you continuously hear boxers running their mouths about how terrible mixed martial artists are with striking and how they'd knock everybody out."

Boxer vs wrestler match were a not uncommon occurrence back in the old proto-MMA days of catch wrestling and despite dozens of bouts under a wide variety of rule sets, no clear answer was ever arrived at. Ultimately, it's impossible to determine anything beyond who is the superior athlete on any given day under a particular rule set. But it sure is fun to watch them try.

We'll likely have to wait another decade or so to see a top flight boxing talent in his peak make a serious run at MMA, but in the meantime, this will be fun to talk about, even if it ends up being your typical senior league bout between two fast-fading past their prime athletes.