Meanwhile, in the UFC 118 night’s co-main event, one has to give props to James Toney for getting in the cage when so few other boxers will. Otherwise, there was little to celebrate about the 42-year-old’s MMA debut.

UFC Hall of Famer (and unofficial MMA ambassador) Randy Couture didn’t eat a single punch in the heavyweight bout before he scored a takedown, quickly hopped into the mount position, and then unloaded dozens of punches en route to securing an eventual fight-ending arm-triangle choke a little more than three minutes into the first round.

Toney was simply a fish out of water once he was put on his back. Clearly confused as to how to defend against Couture’s attacks, Toney simply went along for the ride. Couture twice reset the choke attempt, but Toney was clueless as to how to defend himself.

Finally, bordering on unconsciousness, Toney ultimately tapped out at the 3:19 mark of the opening round.

“I worked on that arm-triangle choke for more than a year,” said Couture, who now owns the biggest “MMA vs. boxing” victory in the short history of head-to-head competition between the two combat sports. “It was nice to finally get it.”

While no doubt a win for MMA, the 47-year-old Couture admitted that Toney had a tall order ahead of him.

“I think realistically even if he were training for nine months, that’s a lot of stuff you have to pick up in a short matter of time,” he said. “I give him credit for getting in here.”

Despite Couture telegraphing the takedown attempt and shooting from a distance, Toney simply was too slow to respond.

“He just caught me,” the boxer said. “He got me on the ground, and I couldn’t get back up.”

Although the win came against a clearly over-matched opponent and in a higher weight class, Couture (19-10 MMA, 16-7 UFC) nonetheless has moved closer to a potential light-heavyweight title shot with his third consecutive win.

Toney (0-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC), who posted a solid 72-6-3 record during his 22-year pro boxing career, hasn’t ruled out a return to MMA. But he’ll need some serious work on his ground game before he poses much of a threat to anyone in the UFC’s heavyweight division.

Source: MMAJUNKIE.com