On Saturday night August 28, 2010 it will be time for James “Lights Out” Toney to put up or shut up. The boxing legend will step in the cage for the first time and face UFC legend Randy “The Natural” Couture. Toney is a heavy underdog with no mixed martial arts experience.
The 2 keys to victory: Never let Couture close enough to get a takedown and hit the 47 year old former 2 division champion on the chin and put him to sleep. Is this possible? I believe it is.
Randy Couture doesn’t take a punch well and James Toney will be a devastating puncher with 4 ounce gloves. The Natural leans slightly back and to the right in his boxing stance and is tailor made to be hit with a straight right hand. Most of the time when Randy has been knocked down or out it’s been by the right hand.
Lights out needs to make sure he keeps his feet moving in half steps and mostly circle to the right. If James circles to the left he will be moving into Couture instead of away. Movement is going to be very important and James tends to get lazy and stand flat footed.
If the Michigan native lands one clean shot the bout will be over. That’s it, one shot. The most significant punch he throws will be the lead right hand. Couture is too slow to stop it.
Here is a detailed account of what the whole fight should look like.
As soon as the bell rings Toney needs to start circling to his right and use his huge advantage in the stand up game. James should mix up his combinations. For Example: 1) Lead right hand followed by the left hook or left uppercut 2) Lead left uppercut followed by the straight right hand 3) Double jab 4) Feint the jab, left hook, step off to the right and throw a right uppercut 5) Time Randy coming in and hit him with a lead right or lead left uppercut. As you can see the punches are only in 1-3 punching combinations. The reason for this, James has to keep moving. Lights Out can’t set his feet and throw 5 or 6 punches because that will leave him vulnerable to the takedown.
If Toney can execute this fight plan for 3 minutes he will knock Randy Couture out.
I don’t know if Toney can pull it off. He is very lazy. Not sure if James will be in decent enough shape/disciplined enough to follow a game plan like this. There is a great chance he will stand flat footed, right in front of Randy and start swinging. Also, Lights Out has a monstrous ego and might really believe he will come out, hit Randy one time and the fight will be over.
James Toney’s best chance will be in the first couple minutes of the fight. After that, it will be all Randy Couture.
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