Tonight will feature a modern-day UFC vs. Boxing bout when Tyron Woodley faces Jake Paul. Only this time, much like Ben Askren’s bout against Paul in April, it will be in the boxing ring. Here’s a timely look back to an article we published 11 years ago immediately following the historic Randy Couture vs. James Toney bout.
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AUGUST 29, 2010, 7:41 AM]
By MATT BOONE
MMANEWS.COM Staff Writer
The numbers are in. The CompuStrike tallies are complete. Randy Couture turned James Toney’s “lights out” during their co-main event bout at the UFC 118 “Edgar vs. Penn II” event on Saturday night, without taking a single meaningful shot of any kind from the dangerous hands of one of boxing’s all-time greats. Out of the eight strikes attempted by Toney during the entire fight, six went down as landed strikes. All six shots were flailing punches that did land, but landed from the bottom position with Couture on top in full mount, one of the most dominant positions available in the sport.
With that said, it doesn’t seem completely unfair to say that Couture, supposedly representing all of MMA, statistically shut out Toney, who supposedly represented all of boxing. Even if such an embarassingly lopsided statistical breakdown is somewhat of a rarity in the sport of MMA, can you really say you’re surprised that the UFC’s self-admitted “freak show fight” played out in that exact fashion? If so, please explain.
There’s nothing surprising about what went down in the co-feature of the evening inside the TD Garden, a venue that marked the live event debut for the UFC in Boston, Massachusetts, the hometown of the company’s president (as well as its’ public face and voice) Dana White. White himself stated during the UFC 118 post-fight press conference [watch video] after the event on Saturday night that he was openly honest about Couture-Toney all along. He basically claimed that outside of an unlikely solo knockout punch in Toney’s first swing of the fight, thrown the second Couture were to step in reach, “Captain America” was going to win that fight. White went as far as to correct himself when reciting the “99 times out of 100” cliche’, which he used in reference to the odds that Couture beats Toney in the scenario that played out on Saturday, following up by stating Couture beats Toney “100 times out of 100.”
In contrast to Toney’s statistical report card coming out of UFC 118, Couture passed his CompuStrike-generated evaluation with flying colors. One of many standout numbers and tidbit-style facts related to their “UFC vs. Boxing” showdown worth mentioning, include this one: Couture spent just 20 seconds out of the three-minutes and six-seconds the match-up lasted as a whole, before he successfully took Toney to the ground. From there, Couture would spend a two-minute and 46-second period landing punches, all the while working towards fully applying the hold that would result in the conclusion of the contest: an arm triangle choke.
In other numbers, CompuStrike recorded 38 total strikes landed for Couture, all of which were on the ground, as Couture kept his word in claiming he wouldn’t be foolish and exchange with the superior puncher. Technically speaking, the numbers may not have been necessary to prove that particular point, as it was pretty apparent to anyone who follows MMA that Couture had no intentions of exchanging fisticuffs with the man dubbed “Lights Out,” during their meeting inside the cage. Anyone who didn’t already know should have been tipped off by the remarkably low takedown attempt, which couldn’t possibly have been shot from a greater distance, or at a lower level, than that of the one successfully executed by “The Natural” on Saturday night.
The only other notes coming out of the CompuStrike breakdown of Couture’s offense in the Toney fight at UFC 118 were incidental. CompuStrike recorded Couture with three “dominant positions” during the fight, to go along with his pair of submission attempts. One of the two attempts resulted in the victory for Couture, making his performance a near-perfect one when factoring in the amount of unnecessary movements and attacks used by the MMA legend during the competition.
Fans interested in further statistical data coming out of the UFC 118 show can check out the complete CompuStrike report, which includes all of the same information, as well as additional data not included in our Couture-Toney rundown above. The link includes the full rundown for the UFC lightweight title rematch, Frankie Edgar vs. B.J. Penn II, the UFC lightweight title eliminator match-up, which featured top contenders Gray Maynard vs. Kenny Florian, as well as the rest of the matches that took place during the pay-per view televised portion of the complete UFC 118 live event.
Were you surprised to see Randy Couture record a near-flawless statistical performance, fighting James “Lights Out” Toney, who recorded among the worst statistical outputs possible? Share your thoughts with tens-of-thousands of die-hard MMA fans in the MMANEWS.COM Forums and/or the official MMANEWS.COM Facebook.
For a complete recap of how the rest of the action turned out on Saturday night, check out our UFC 118 Results, which contains the most in-depth, descriptive recaps of every televised and PPV broadcasted bout on the card. If you prefer a quick one-line result featuring strictly the basics, visit MMANEWS.COM’s official UFC 118 event page.
