James ‘Lights Out’ Toney was very close to signing up with the Moosin “Gods of Martial Arts” fight card, which is being co-promoted by Eric ‘Butterbean’ Esch. The UFC beat them to it as they flew in Toney to Las Vegas and convinced him to ink a deal with the North American MMA organization instead.
Here’s what Butterbean had to say:
“We had Toney committed to our card, but the UFC flew him to Las Vegas the day before he was to sign with us and they locked him up. Believe me, they’re not doing any favors throwing him in there against Couture. Couture won’t stand up with Toney, he’ll just jerk him down and beat the snot out of him. That’s not a good fight. To make good fights, you need a stand-up guy against a stand-up guy, or a take-down guy against a take-down guy. A lot of boxers have tried [MMA] and not had success. It’s important to know the differences, otherwise you look like Michael Jordan trying to play baseball.”
