Bad James Toney Argument #1: Signing Toney provides a path to end the 'MMA vs. Boxing' Debate

Wait, is this 2007?

I wasn't aware that the great boxing vs. MMA debate wasn't already concluded and dismissed as nothing more than a mainstream media creation in order to grab eyeballs while bemoaning the "death of boxing". 

If you honestly believe the argument posed in the headline then you've missed out on the past three years or you just watched Joe Rogan vs. Lou DiBella on youtube. Both sides of the fake debate have largely let it go and conceded that both are unique sports with unique skills sets making them fundamentally different, akin to baseball and cricket or American football and rugby. Sure there are some similarities but when you get down to it, one is from Mars the other is Venus. Case closed. Even the mainstream media was beginning to accept the view that MMA and boxing shouldn't be compared as equivalents. While there was the occasional flare up it was usually to grab attention for some upcoming fight. In other words promoting 101.

The boxing vs. MMA debate is over and has been for years but if you try to spin the James Toney signing as such it doesn't make all that much sense. Why, because if Toney loses his first fight to a grappler --something that we learned a dozen years ago will happen when a one dimensional puncher fights anyone with a ground game-- it will be widely dismissed as a stunt--which it is, or that the two sports aren't truly synonymous--which is true. Hell, the signing of Toney hasn't gotten an iota of mainstream play. Ironic because the sporting public and mainstream media don't care about James to begin with.

But, by the off chance Toney pulls a Ray Mercer and lands that one flush power punch before being put on his back, then what happens? The boxing vs. MMA debate finds a second life and is rekindled in favor of boxing. It doesn't matter if Toney loses his next four MMA fights in a row because for that fleeting moment he would've carried the flag of boxing in triumph against MMA on their home turf. The equivalent would be if Jose Aldo defeated Manny Pacquiao in a boxing match, MMA fans would have a field day even if Aldo lost every boxing bout for a decade.

Zuffa may try to spin this as the "world class boxing vs. world class MMA" but that argument falls flat on its face when you consider that a Toney loss results in no gain and a Toney win blows up in your face.