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THURSDAY THROWDOWN!!

Vol. II

by Robert Menn

Greetings ladies and gentlemen.  Welcome to the second installment of the Thursday Throwdown, a.k.a. the Child Please version.  In this column I'll give you my 3-5 cents on James Toney, Jose Canseco, and other tid bits of MMA news. We clear?  Great.  I'll be your host, as always, Robert Menn.  You may remember me from such readings as Monday Miyama (now The Tuesday TKO)  and last weeks Thursday Throwdown.  What?!  You didn't read?  How could you?  Your sacrilegious acts will not be tolerated.  Read now, lest the MMA Gods turn their favor towards another. 

James Toney signs on to fight for the UFC

According to 5OZofPain, James Toney has signed a multi-fight deal with the UFC. Toney, 41 years old, is a former professional boxer who compiled a record of 72 wins, 6 losses, 3 draws, and 2 no contests. No word yet on when he will make his UFC debut.

My take:  Dana always bashes other promotions for signing "freak show" fighters but then goes out and signs Toney?  I guess.  At least Toney has participated in combats sports before so it's not that big of a freak show as Jose Conseco.  Still, it's borderline.  As soon as the signing was first reported, Randy Couture expressed interest in fighting James via his twitter account.  Then James got wind of this and starting talking back how he would run through the UFC and how he's been in over 80 professional fights and not been knocked out and how no one can stand with him, and how he's not worried about being taken down, etc. etc.  In two words brought to you by Chad OchoCinco...Child Please.  Toney is an avid fan of MMA, so you would think he would say more educated things.  If this was a boxing MATCH then I could side with James.  But this is a MMA FIGHT.  With 4oz gloves.  Any heavyweight can knock out any heavyweight.  That's just the way it goes.  He's never been inside The Octagon and he's going to be in a world of hurt when he does if he comes in with that mentality.  I hope Joe Silva doesn't feed him a can like Strikeforce did for Hershel Walker.  That would just add to the "freak show" spectacle.  They should give him a legitimate heavyweight or light heavyweight to fight, or even let Randy Couture fight Toney as he wishes.  I'm sure everyone would be watching that fight.  And I'll call it right now: Randy Couture, Rd 2, TKO, via Ground & Pound.  

Jake Shields not wanting to train with Jose Canseco

"I don’t want to knock anything that Cesar and my camp has done, but I don’t really want to have anything to do with Jose ... He’s not someone I want in my life. I don’t want to help a guy out who has constantly screwed everyone over who has been close to him. I like Hershel Walker and I’d like to see Hershel kick his (expletive), but if he was fighting under my team that would make me feel a little weird, so I don’t know how I feel about that. Being a friend and fan of Hershel and having a guy that I think is kind of a scumbag coming to my gym ... I guess that’s Cesar’s decision. I don’t want to knock his decision, but I certainly wouldn’t let him come into my gym." 

My take:  I agree 100% with Mr. Sheilds.  I wouldn't want some sideshow freak steroid user training in my gym either.  Jose isn't in it for the sport.  He's in it for a payday.  That's it.  Nothing is more apparent.  His first "professional" fight was against Choi Hong-man in Japan.  Nothing freak show about that.  I hope my sarcasm was not lost in the text.  That fight was horrible.  And now he wants to fight Hershel Walker?  Child Please.  I hope with every fiber of my being that Strikeforce does not put this fight on.  As much attention as that fight would garner, it would be the wrong kind of attention.  No way Jose.  (Yeah, I went there.)  

Fedor-Presented-By-M1-Global returns?

According to an interview with Sherdog, Evgeni Kogan, M-1 Global's Director of Operations, said this of FPBM1G’s return to Strikeforce: "I think June, July is realistic (for Emelianenko's return). It's not 100 percent. Don't take this as a fight announcement, but I think during the summer."  His reason: "We were renegotiating. I think we're pretty much at the end of that road," said Kogan. "After the CBS show, we thought that the terms needed a little bit tweaking -- nothing major, just a little bit of tweaking. So, we had a round of negotiations with Strikeforce. Everything went positively. We're pretty much at the end." 

My take:  From fighting in April, to fighting in May, to now maybe June or July?  Ridiculous.  Fedor’s management is easily the worst management in MMA.  Maybe all sports.  It’s close.  These guys are jokes.  They want what’s best for them, not what’s best for Fedor.  Fedor needs to realize this, and soon.  His buddy Mousassi sure did and quit M-1 because of some shady dealings.  M-1 needs to go away.  Don King thinks Vadim Finkelstein is a leach.  (Now I await a Russian mob hitman at my door…)

Kimbo Slice vs. James Toney? Matt Mitrione?

Kimbo Slice's next fight has been confirmed for UFC 113 on May 8th in Montreal, Quebec. He will fight Matt Mitrione. For the past week, there have been rumors the UFC was considering moving Slice to fight on the April 17th Spike TV show to fight the recently acquired James Toney, but that has been laid to rest. 

My take:  Let’s get one thing straight, I never thought Kimbo was going to fight James Toney.  I don’t even know why this rumor was started.  I don’t think Dana risked signing Kimbo so he could put him on free TV.  Not even to counter a Strikeforce event.  Makes no sense.  Same thing with Toney.  Both are money machines, even if James has yet to fight inside the Octagon.  James will get ESPN and the likes to pay attention.  Kimbo will bring in the casual fan.  No freaking way it’s free.  They might not ever fight, but if they did, $49.99 is the price.  I look forward to Kimbo’s fight with Mitrione come this May.  Kimbo better be working on that cardio.

And it is all over!  Questions?  Comments?  Don't hesitate to leave your imput.  I'll try to answer any and all.  WAR ARLOVSKI!!  I'm out.

Submitted 3/11/10

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