On a recent episode of Mauro Ranallo’s Hardcore Sports Radio Show on Sirius, Future Hall of Fame boxer, Bernard Hopkins, gave his thoughts on the UFC/MMA vs. Boxing rivalry and fellow boxer James Toney’s MMA debut against UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture at UFC 118 on August 28.
Ranallo wanted to get Bernard Hopkins take on James Toney entering the sport of Mixed Martial Arts and Hopkins bluntly answered; “I think James Toney is going to get his ass kicked. James Toney is out of his league,” said Hopkins.
“I believe and I’ll go on record with this, the best MMA guy or UFC guy goes up against the boxer in the world, in their arena … gets their ass kicked and I don’t care if it’s Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao or Bernard Hopkins. It’s not what we do.”
Hopkins like many combat sports fans, who follow MMA and Boxing share the same point of view. It’s basically apples and oranges, both are two entirely different sports. With boxing you are limited to just your hands and in MMA you can stand and strike but you can also take the fight to the ground for submission attempts.
James Toney’s former trainer, Freddie Roach, who currently trains Manny Pacquiao, also feels Toney will not last long in the UFC octagon. Roach is familiar with the world of Mixed Martial Arts having trained some of the worlds best MMA fighters from BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, Andrei Arlovski, Tito Ortiz, Georges St-Pierre and he knows that a boxer won’t fair well in MMA without any grappling knowledge. Roach said in an interview on the HDnet show Inside MMA that he believes the UFC is just using James Toney to prove that MMA is better than boxing.
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