Gordon Marino: UFC118:In Praise of James Toney
The great psychoanalyst Erik Erikson once observed that the moment little boys realize they have a backside, they become riveted to the question of who can do what to whom. Of who can kick whose butt? I grew up in a home in which backhands were always flying, so the who wins in a parking lot question has always had a natural appeal to me. As the immense success of the UFC attests, I’m not alone.
Back in the days before mma, when the question of who wins in a brawl came up, it was always an issue of who is tougher, the boxer or the wrestler? Most agreed that the accomplished boxer was the supreme expression of American martial arts and that, I think, added a certain currency to boxing. Things have changed.
These days the common conviction is that the mma grapplers are the baddest guys on the planet. And though I am boxing trainer and writer, I would have to agree. In an mma contest, the mma guy wins maybe 7 out of 10 times. The boxer who becomes adept enough at sprawling to avoid the takedowns will, of course, stand a much better chance but again, in the octagon or the alley the mixed martial artist will usually triumph.
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