James Toney, Ken Shamrock Look to Further Tarnish Their Legacies with October Fight
by Scott Christ on Jun 23, 2011 11:59 PM EDT
in Boxing News Analysis
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42-year-old boxer James "Lights Out" Toney and 47-year-old UFC original Ken Shamrock will apparently meet in a "mixed rules" bout either on September 23 or in October, and according to Boxing Scene have a meet-and-greet press function scheduled for Saturday in Van Nuys, California. The actual fight is set to take place in El Paso, Texas.
This is what it is, and I could choose not to be harsh here, but if the fight goes ahead -- and consider me skeptical to say the very least -- it sort of tells you all you need to know about where the careers of Toney and Shamrock are at these days. Toney was embarrassed in his foray into MMA last year when he fought Randy Couture at UFC, being easily taken down and submitted in the first round. Toney was unable to do anything in the cage against Couture, and frankly there's no reason to suspect that he could do anything with Shamrock, either, even given that Shamrock is light years past his prime and these days is basically a famous guy fighting when he shouldn't.
Shamrock was in the 1990s one of the stars of the early Ultimate Fighting Championship, alongside such names as rival Royce Gracie, Don Frye, Dan Severn and Tank Abbott. Shamrock left mixed martial arts to focus on a pro wrestling career, where he made good money and became a star with the then-World Wrestling Federation for a couple of years before returning to MMA. He's never been the same level of fighter he was before his WWE stint in the late 90s, and most recently lost a fight to a low-level fighter named Mike Bourke (10-16-1) last November, as he was stopped in two minutes at a King of the Cage event in South Africa.
I don't know how this fight will even come together, but I'm guessing some fringe MMA promotion will back it in the hopes of the famous names attracting some eyes and some money. But sanctioning it might prove difficult even in Texas, which is a more lax state than California or Nevada, and I'd still bet right now the fight doesn't actually happen.
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Let me know when this happens
I’ll watch Toney-Jirov on YouTube for the 5 billionth time instead.
Most people don't know shit about boxing. At all. Period. - Roger Mayweather
by The Kittitas Kid on Jun 24, 2011 12:15 PM EDT reply actions
Forget James Toney it makes me sick every time Ken fights or should I say is alloweed to fight. This is a MMA match Toney might just win ? If and its a BIG if he trains just alittle takedown def all he has to do is hit Ken ounce and he will go down. Shamrock’s career and especially mind & body are just spent , I mean done for. The years of the grind from fighting, training, wrestling mixted with PED’,Booze and drug usag have just taken their toll on the man. MMA fans have been calling for his retirement now for years.Every one has also been hoping sooner or later some athletic commission out there will stop giving him a license to fight and the others will follow.
But from all reports he can’t stop fighting it’s his main source of income still ? According to his brother Frank and others not only is Ken dead broke from the crazy life style he ounce lived and bad business decisions he made over the years he actually is quite in the hole and owes out a ton of money.I think the last I read he still owes Zuffa/UFC $250,000 or $300,000 plus there lawyer fees from the lawsuit they won against him.
The Bottom line I just don’t like where this is headed with Ken if he keeps it up the way he has looked he might actually become the first in cage MMA death or serious injured fighter ? I hope and prey he will just stop or the people around him can talk some sence into him ?
Shamrock’s career and especially mind & body are just spent , I mean done for.
Right. Ken doesn’t want to fight anymore….at all.
"You can't search me without probable cause Or that proper ammunition they call reasonable suspicion Listen while I bring friction to your whole jurisdiction" - Fugees
I guess in Ken’s mind he has no choice in the matter and is still addicted to that quick pay day ? Who knows all I wish is he would just stop. Fihters like Ken Shamrock, Gary Goodridge and Sakuraba all should hang it up or be forced to hang it up but thats the problem there will always be some regional MMA show looking for a name to make money and there will always be a athletic commission to let it go on and if not just go over seas like we have seen so many times now. Something has to be done, we have been watching it more and more now with older aging MMA stars especially alot more the last few years.
For the record, I’d be morbidly curious about Toney vs Tank Abbott. I mean, I think Toney would smoke him, but I’d be interested to see the weigh-in after looking at 257-pound Toney in the ring against Damon Reed in February.
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I aqree Scott, I actually think he could beat Tank easy and I myself would not mind watching him fight Kimbo eather and think Toney beats Kimbo also, I can actually see in the future some mid size regional MMA promotion that wants to get onto PPV putting on a card with the mainevent being James Toney vs Kimbo Slice ? And I think it sells alright and makes a profit I can see it easily doing between 75K to100k + ppv buys ?
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