UFC 118 Preview: Boxers in MMA Predate James Toney

As a follow up to our own Jonathan Snowden's pieces on Muhammad Ali's venture into proto-MMA and Art Jimmerson at UFC 1, I thought I'd talk a little about two other pro boxers who gave MMA a try in the 1990s: James Warring and Melton Bown.

Dave Meltzer talks about Warring in his piece on boxers in MMA: 

James Warring: Warring, who held two minor versions of the world cruiserweight title, competed in the one-and-only World Combat Championship pay-per-view tournament on October 17, 1995. In the days of styles vs. styles, Warring first beat kickboxer Jerome Turcan. Then, in a grueling 16:08 fight, in which Warring used hair pulling (legal at the time) to keep Paulsen under control, he upset Erik Paulson, a notable shootfighter in Japan. But in the finals, Warring was choked out in 2:47 by Renzo Gracie.    

The Gracie-Warring fight is in the full entry. Warring wasn't just a boxer, he had high level kickboxing experience and once faced future boxing champ Vitali Klitschko, that video is in the full entry too (keep your eyes posted for Referee Cecil Peoples). Sadly, I can't find Warring's epic bout with Erik Paulson in which he hair pulled and dirty boxed his way to a win over the Shooto champ and future Brock Lesnar trainer.

But the man no one is discussing is Melton Bowen who lost to UFC 3 champ Steve Jennum at UFC 4. Matt McEwan wrote up that bout in his estimable event-by-event history of the UFC: 

Bowen is the WBF Intercontinental Heavyweight champion with 24 KO's in his 37 pro fights. He is proclaimed as the first "real" boxer in the UFC. Now, I am not a boxing historian, but I do know that the WBF was not one of the major boxing organizations, and being the Intercontinental champion of any boxing organization does not mean too much. Bowen does some talking in his video, but I really can not tell you what he says. He is a big, ripped guy though, and is actually wearing grappling gloves, making him the first to actually fight with them.

Jennum - the policeman ninja - is back to defend. That is all he says in his interview. Great personality there. Even still, Brown thinks Jennum will win with his ground game. On his way out, Jennum is roundly booed by the crowd.

Jennum starts the fight looking to kick. Bowen holds back, not wanting to over commit and be taken down, and when he finally throws a punch is caught in the clinch. They end up against the cage as Bowen slowly teeters over. Jennum ends up in the mount and starts throwing punches. Bowen struggles hard, but every time he is about to roll out or reverse, Jennum grabs the cage for balance. Big John screams for Bowen's corner to "watch their fighter", which I think is code for "this fight would be over if I was allowed to stop it." Jennum lands a nasty head butt. Surprisingly, Bowen is still struggling from the bottom and actually manages to pull himself up with the help of the fence. He is not on his feet for long though, as Jennum throws him right back down and mounts again. Jennum throws some of the WEAKEST punches I ever seen in a fight, then tries for an Americana, but just does not have the strength to cinch it in. He gets a few decent punches in, then finally grabs an arm and extends it for the tap out victory. It was only five minutes long, but both guys are exhausted. It seems as if, other than maybe Royce and few other guys, no one knew what kind of conditioning was needed to fight for any length of time, and they paid the price for it.    

He fails to mention the big punch Bowen landed on Jennum while mounted. It clearly rocked the UFC champ and prompted Jennum to say, "he hits HARD" in the post-fight interview. Video of that fight is here.

Bowen wasn't much as a pro boxer though and had already pretty much washed out as a prospect by the time he fought in the UFC. Three years later he faced Shannon Briggs. That fight is in the full entry.

Clearly none of these guys had boxing careers comparable to James Toney, but there's little reason to believe he will enjoy much more success inside the Octagon.

Nonetheless, UFC 118 is in many ways a return to the very roots of MMA and what it was originally all about -- a clash of styles to see which approaches to martial arts perform the best in simulated non-lethal combat. The intrigue this time is that with the UFC's huge success and boxing's faltering fortunes, perhaps more of the athletes that have devoted themselves to boxing will consider trying MMA.  

Renzo.Gracie.vs.James.Warring

Vitali Klitschko vs James Warring

Melton Bowen vs Shannon Briggs