Ahh the age old of questions of supremacy are infinite. Who would win in a fight three-way fight, Unicron, The Death Star or Galactus? Which sport is better boxing or MMA. Boxing fans will say there is a deep rooted tradition in boxing that MMA can never take away from. Whereas MMA advocates boast that their sport is more physically challenging, visually invigorating and is the new coming of fighting as a sport. As a fan of both, I think that each has elements worth watching and are equally deserving of respect.
Dana White put together the biggest mashup for the heavyweight division, by bringing in James Toney into the UFC. I'm semi surprised (but not really b/c it'll sell ppvs), because when Dana White was asked what he thought about Roy Jones wanting a shot at Anderson Silva, Dana responded by saying
“You won’t see a Silva versus Jones fight while Silva is under contract with me,” White said Tuesday. “I don’t want to say anything bad about Roy Jones, I like Roy Jones and was a fan of his, but he mattered like fifteen years ago. He’s not anywhere near the best boxer in the world. He must’ve spent all his money.” “I could do it, make it huge, make money, but I could have done a fight like this when we were bleeding money (in the early 2000s),” White said. “The fight would make some money, but it hurts MMA in the long term. We don’t do that because we love the sport. That’s a Pride or K-1 matchup. It’s not what we do.”
So this leaves me wondering at 41 and not headlining in boxing for ages, what is Toney going to do in the UFC and who is he going to fight? My friend G. put it perfectly when he said "It's not a gimmick; so much as it is an experiment... in a Hella violent petri-dish!" Dana White ultimately is a business man, an undeniably savvy one at that, but this "experiment" smells of money all over it, and less to do with the sport. Unless he's really trying to put that question of whether boxers can make it in MMA, on display.