Toney’s Manager Calls for Couture’s Head

Dan Goossen has nine siblings. If he’s a little defensive, you can guess why.

Goossen promotes the career of James Toney, and I would say he has done a less than spectacular job of it: Toney seems to have as much interest in a gym as he does in a diet, and now appears ready to embarrass himself in front of a sizable television audience. If all of this has still resulted in a nice retirement fund, more power to the both of them.

Anyway. Goossen had an interview with FightHubTV.com that Cagewriter dug up, and it’s pretty standard bluster: Goossen wants Randy Couture to follow up his MMA fight with Toney on Aug. 28 with a boxing match. "Win, lose or draw with Randy Couture, I'll match whatever he's making for this fight," he said. "And let's see if he's got the same warrior makeup that James Toney has to cross over to the boxing business."

It’s not really unreasonable. If Toney is willing to play Couture’s game, Couture should be willing to play Toney’s. But deals aren’t made based on reciprocal feelings: Couture is, for all purposes, owned by the UFC, and the UFC would sooner open up their books than let a high-profile fighter escape. (Literally: when Couture bolted in 2008, they started waving paperwork around to cameras.)

Goossen’s idea, obviously, is to embarrass an MMA fighter as badly as most expect Toney to be in a couple of weeks. While I give Couture no chance in that proposal, I don’t think it’s a blanket win for Toney regardless of the opponent. The stereotype that mixed martial artists have no hands at all, and would assuredly be mauled in a boxing ring, is as bad a thought as believing no boxer would ever have a chance in the cage. (Sparring is sparring, but Matt Hamill -- according to Albany sports blogger Michael Rivest -- put the screws to current pro boxer Kimdo Bethel in a gym a couple of years ago. Toney is a far cry from Bethel, true, but Hamill is a far cry from some of the better hands in MMA.)

Goossen and Toney should probably get as much press out of the MMA media has they can. Come the 29th, I doubt the demand will be quite the same.