James “Lights Out” Toney signs with UFC

James “Lights Out” Toney signs with UFC

James Toney has become the highest profile professional fighter to sign with a mixed martial arts organization. Toney went looking for Dana White before UFC 108 and Dana White blew Toney off for a few weeks before Toney became relentless in his desire to become a UFC Fighter. Dana White is still a diehard boxing fan and the prospect of signing one of the top 5 pure fighters of this generation was too much to resist.

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There have been questions about James Toney’s desire to fight compared to his desire for another big paycheck but as Toney put it

“You know, I have a lot of pride and I’d never do anything to embarrass myself. I’m a fighter. I want to fight. And don’t ever underestimate me.”
But there are concerns, Toney last fought at 217 but he had a gut that would match half the office at Sportsbook Veteran. He’s also test positive for steroids twice but as a fan of Toney, I’m convince he’ll be in top fight shape when he steps in to the cage for the first time.
Say what you want about Toney but he was an excellent fighter and an even better showman, he doesn’t have a fight lined up as of yet but he’s already creating interest.

“Don’t make wise cracks about my weight, because I’ve been working hard and the next time you see me, you’ll be shocked,” said Toney, who said he would probably box sometime in the next six weeks to get the rust off. “Dana put his foot in his mouth and said UFC guys are better fighters than boxers. We’ll see. Everyone who knows anything about fighting knows I’m the purest fighter in the game. There ain’t no secrets.

“I’ve been fighting a long time. I was born fighting. I know what I’m doing. Boxing is still my main focus, but them guys are a bunch of (expletives) and they don’t want to fight. So I called Dana after he put his foot in his mouth and I’m going to prove he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
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Dana White was more gracious “I like James Toney. He’s one of the greatest boxers ever. I have tremendous respect for him. He said he wanted to fight in the UFC and I was interested. Now he’s here and I have to figure out what to do with him. What we won’t do is make a freak show out of it. I’d be the first to scream if someone else did that, so I’m not going to do it.”

“James is an interesting case. We know how much talent he has as a boxer and he insists he’ll surprise people by how much MMA he knows.
I’ve still got some thinking to do. But if we promote him and he does well and that raises his profile and he gets a Klitschko fight and makes a lot of money for himself and Goossen, I’d be cool with that. But James came to me and he literally chased me around the country to do it, so I’m giving him the chance. We’ll get it figured out one way or another.”