Things Went From Bad To Worse For James Toney: Tax Lien, Loss, And Cut
Added on Oct 27, 2010 by John Petit in
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“I’ve never done a freak show fight, but I guess I cant say that anymore” UFC President Dana White said when he announced the signing of Pro Heavyweight Boxer James Toney. The MMA community was shocked for a few reasons, the first being that they were bringing in a pro boxer, but the boxer they signed was James Toney. At one point in his career, James Toney (72–6–3 boxing record) was on a 44 fight win streak in the boxing ring, and even to this day he holds a heavyweight belt. However, many boxing fans agree that the high point of Toney’s career has passed him, as he has only managed to win 4 of his last 9 fights since 2004(counting 2 no contests and a draw.)
Toney hyped the fight by taunting MMA fans, Reporters, Dana White, and even showed up to interviews with a Randy Couture action figure in a dress. The fight didn’t go as planned for Toney, as Randy had no interest in exchanging punches with James Toney. Randy took him down, mounted him, punched him and elbowed him several times, and submitted. Couture later said he wanted to “give to James Toney the full MMA experience.”
The commission later released that Toney was paid 500 thousand dollars for the fight. This was a huge sum of money for a fighter, who was basically made to look foolish on the biggest stage in Mixed Martial Arts, and for his first MMA fight.
This is where things get sorted. James Toney apparently found out just 24 hours before the fight, that he would likely not be receiving a penny of the half of a million dollars. MMAjunkie is reporting that the IRS had put a lien on all of his winnings for past taxes Toney had failed to pay. In fact, Toney even said in his pre fight interviews that he got news that “Just made him want to punch Randy harder!”
Manager John Arthur confirmed the report “I could see his face change from one extreme to the other extreme when he was told.” Thats when things went from bad to worse, because not only would he not make one of the biggest pay-days in MMA, but he also lost the fight in an embarrassing performance. To make it even worse, Dana was so disappointed in James Toney, that he basically cut him from the UFC before the press conference was over. Saying “James Toney doesn’t belong in the UFC, and the Octagon is no place for fighters to learn how to fight MMA.”
Arthur’s main complaint so far is that the UFC didn’t make them aware of the lien themselves. “If this would have been (promoter) Dan Goossen, I would have known about it the minute he got it, but I’ve been with Dan for many years, so I can’t compare him with the UFC.”
Unable to even find a boxing match these days, some are speculating that the experiment to fight MMA has completely backfired on him. Arthur says he is holding up ok. He was down in spirits, but he’s the type of guy that tries not to let things show. Life goes on. You have obstacles and difficulties in life, and you just have to move on.”
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November 7, 11:20 pm
I was there when Randy beat Tony. I think Dana White is way out of line cutting any fighter off from UFC after just one fight.
It made me really angry when everybody boo’ed Toney when he came out at UFC. C’mon people he’s a champion, and he has feelings too.
I feel bad for Toney. I hope things come together for him and he doesn’t keep getting the sh*t end of the stick.
Keep fighting James Toney, whether physically or metaphorically!