James Toney says Randy Couture is a “coward” for not honoring boxing bout agreement
Interview clip with James Toney below
More than ten years removed from his lone mixed martial arts fight, former boxing champion James Toney recounts the time he stepped into the UFC octagon against Randy Couture.
In a recent interview with Murder Master Music Show, Toney reveals that there was an agreement between him and the former 2-division UFC champion and Hall of Famer in Couture. The two men fought at heavyweight in the co-main event of UFC 118 in August 2010. With Toney not familiarized with submission defense, he was forced to quit in the first round by way of arm-triangle choke. “Lights Out” tells the podcast hosts that there was an understanding that he and Couture would also compete inside a boxing ring since he had crossed over into the MMA world.
“I knew he was scared when the fight was made,” Toney said. “Randy is a great fighter in MMA. We had made a deal that we do one fight MMA and one fight boxing. But of course, after he beat me, he retires. What kind of shit is that? That’s a coward move, I lost a lot of respect for him. He retired a week later. The bad thing about it is I made more money than he did. I offered to pay him more money for the boxing than he made with the fight with me.”
Ultimately the fight never took place and Couture would compete in his final fight less than a year later, a knockout loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 129 in April 2011.
Toney held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the IBF and lineal middleweight titles from 1991 to 1993, the IBF super middleweight title from 1993 to 1994, and the IBF cruiserweight title in 2003. Toney also challenged twice for a world heavyweight title in 2005 and 2006
