In the aftermath of Anderson Silva's near-death experience against Chael Sonnen, Dave Walsh wrote this at Head Kick Legend:

MMA is generally a no-no for high level kickboxers for the obvious reasons of having to deal with grappling and takedowns, which means standard fight stances don't always work. ... Some of the main criticisms against K-1 heavyweights in the past have been that they are very offense-oriented, but their defense is lacking compared to Middleweights. Many chalk that up to a stylistic preference, or how the rules of K-1 dictate the fighting style. So it seems MMA is the same where the rules dictate the style. If you take to heart the lack of defense of some of the K-1 Heavyweights (not all, obviously), it is apparent why many would like to stay away from MMA. Even with basic knowledge of takedown defense, the chance of getting hit by a striker not seen on their level could do damage to their credibility. On top of this, being laid upon for any amount of rounds is demoralizing. If you want proof of this beyond Anderson vs. Sonnen, watch this video of Badr Hari in his lone MMA bout and understand why he'll never do MMA again. Watch Errol Zimmerman's top level striking not even come into play against Ikuhisa Minowa from Dynamite!! 2008, as well. So this is why you won't see many, if any kickboxers wander into MMA, and why there should be a certain level of respect given to fighters like Anderson Silva who are exceptional stand up fighters but choose to compete in MMA and learn every aspect of the game.

When you add the financial disparity that still exists between top level boxing and even the UFC, it's very clear why the only big time boxing talents to dip their toes into the MMA waters have been older fighters like Toney and Ray Mercer.

When you add in the reality that not only is the fighting stance for MMA radically different than a boxing stance, but MMA requires that one has to deal with leg kicks, knees to the face and spinning strikes as well as throws, take downs and submissions the pure boxer is at a significant stylistic disadvantage going in.

Kickboxing has given MMA some greats -- notably Mirko Cro Cop Filopovic but the talent transfers have mostly been in the other direction with long-time Pancrase champ Semmy Schilt and Alistair Overeem both coming from MMA before launching notable kickboxing careers.

If your'e a true MMA fan, you'll be agreeing with me by the time you read the full story:

Nevertheless, boxing is an extremely effective fighting art. One that has impacted MMA since Don Frye and Tank Abbott started KO'ing fools in the early UFCs. Numerous UFC and PRIDE champs of more recent vintage have based their offensive arsenal almost solely on boxing: Chuck Liddell, Jens Pulver, Takanori Gomi and Rampage Jackson to name a few. Several others have partnered boxing with effective jiu jitsu for an especially deadly combination: the Nogueira brothers and B.J. Penn come to mind.

A cursory read of Catch Wrestlingand Catch Wrestling Round 2 by Mark Hewitt shows that boxer vs wrestler bouts were a frequent treat for combat sports fans in the first half of the 20th century. And the most dreaded of all the "shoot fighters" who toured the nation's carnivals challenging all comers were the "combination men" who combined a background in boxing with sound catch wrestling skills.

So it's obvious that boxing techniques are sound and have already had a huge impact on MMA. Why on Earth would I be rooting for a jerk like James Toney over a class act like Randy Couture?

Simple. It's not just the techniques of boxing, it's also the high caliber pool of international athletes I lust after for MMA. I have little doubt that athletes like the Klitschko brothers, David Haye or Kermit Cintron had the physical tools, brains and discipline to have made major impacts on the MMA scene had they chosen our sport over boxing. In the case of Haye and Cintron, they've also got years of MMA and/or wrestling training under their belts.

My hope is that James Toney can get lucky and catch Randy Couture with a knock out combination. Or even better, survive a couple of rounds of ground and pound and then catch Couture on the feet. I predict if Toney succeeds in winning this fight, we'll see a deluge of second and third-tier pro boxers and aging top tier guys try MMA.

That's the kind of invasion I'd love to see in the UFC, Strikeforce and DREAM. As our own Anton Tabuena pointed out earlier today, the original UFC was based on just this kind of premise -- seeing the very best from all the major combat sports disciplines testing themselves and their art against one another.