Toney far from first MMA crossover

While James Toney vs. Randy Couture will be the biggest modern-era boxer vs. MMA fighter confrontation, Toney would not be the best boxer historically to have participated in something approximating a mixed match.

The closest thing to the first high-profile confrontation would have been what was billed as a mixed boxing and wrestling match on November 19, 1935, in St. Louis. A crowd of 11,262 fans saw King Levinsky, a colorful heavyweight boxer who was touted as the biggest-drawing boxer in the world a few years earlier, face Ray Steele, a professional wrestling star with a strong legitimate background. Levinsky landed the first punch, cutting Steele’s eye, but didn’t stop his takedown and the match was over with Steele winning in 25 seconds.

But besides Ray Mercer, several other boxers have been involved in these types of confrontations:

Muhammad Ali: On June 25, 1976, in Tokyo, in what is now regarded in Japanese sports mythology as the birth of mixed martial arts in that country, Ali, at the time the world heavyweight champion in boxing, went to a 15-round draw against Antonio Inoki, the country’s biggest pro wrestling star. While a nothing fight inside the ring, the background was intriguing including the ability to get Ali to even do such a fight, where he was offered a $6 million payday, more than he’d ever made in boxing. As it turned out, he received only $2.1 million.

It was actually supposed to be a scripted pro wrestling match, with Inoki winning. The week before the fight, Ali balked, thinking about his legacy for participating in a sham – although Ali did several pro wrestling exhibitions in prior weeks building the fight. To keep the match from falling apart, Inoki’s side had to agree to do a legitimate match, with a plethora of rules that handcuffed Inoki, including no kicks to the head. Various takedowns also were banned, as were submission holds.

Inoki mostly laid on his back and threw sweeping kicks at Ali’s legs. Ali, confused by Inoki’s tactics, threw only six punches the entire fight and never hurt Inoki. The match was a bore and neither boxing nor wrestling fans, nor the judges who came from both worlds, understood leg kicks in those days. Ali absorbed so many kicks he was hospitalized after the fight. While the match would not be exciting by today’s standards, if it was judged under modern MMA standards, Inoki would have been the easy winner.

Matthew Saad Muhammad: A decade after holding the WBC light heavyweight championship, Muhammad, on May 8, 1992, in Yokohama, Japan, faced Kiyoshi Tamura, at the time a popular pro wrestler. Tamura exploded with a takedown and finished Muhammad with a choke in 34 seconds. Tamura would later go on to a solid career as an MMA fighter with wins over Maurice Smith, Renzo Gracie, Minowa-man, Kazushi Sakuraba, Masakatsu Funaki, Pat Miletich and Jeremy Horn and a draw with a prime Frank Shamrock.

James Warring: Warring, who held two minor versions of the world cruiserweight title, competed in the one-and-only World Combat Championship pay-per-view tournament on October 17, 1995. In the days of styles vs. styles, Warring first beat kickboxer Jerome Turcan. Then, in a grueling 16:08 fight, in which Warring used hair pulling (legal at the time) to keep Paulsen under control, he upset Erik Paulson, a notable shootfighter in Japan. But in the finals, Warring was choked out in 2:47 by Renzo Gracie.

Art Jimmerson: Jimmerson is best remembered in MMA circles as the boxer who fought Royce Gracie on November 12, 1993, in Gracie’s first MMA fight at UFC 1. Jimmerson was 29-5 as a cruiserweight boxer with 15 straight wins, and came into the fight wearing one glove. Gracie quickly took him down, and Jimmerson submitted, even before being put in a submission hold, at 2:11.

Imamu Mayfield: The former IBF cruiserweight champion fought Japanese wrestler Kazuyuki Fujita on December 31, 2003. To make things more fair for the boxer, the rules were set up so Fujita would get only 20 seconds on the ground before he was stood up. Mayfield never got in a good punch, and was repeatedly taken down by Fujita. Fujita, never a submission specialist, would go for moves but couldn’t get them in 20 seconds. Finally, Fujita grabbed an arm triangle choke standing, where time wasn’t working against him, and Mayfield submitted at 2:15 of the second round.

Jeremy Williams: A former top 10 heavyweight with a 42-5-1 record, Williams was different from every other boxer on the list. He trained extensively in MMA disciplines before going into the sport and compiled a 5-0 record between 2005 and 2008, mostly fighting in Hawaii. He never faced any name fighters.

Ray Mercer: The former Olympic gold medalist and WBO heavyweight champion, Mercer was the biggest-name heavyweight boxer up to this point to try MMA, although he didn’t do it until he was well past his prime. Mercer was 46 when he fought Kimbo Slice on June 23, 2007, under MMA rules in an Atlantic City match that the New Jersey Athletic Control Board labeled as an exhibition. Slice choked Mercer out with a guillotine in 2:00 in what was also Slice’s first foray into MMA. Mercer knocked out hideously out-of-shape former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia in nine seconds on June 13, 2009, in Birmingham.