Many MMA observers felt the potential for 41-year-old former boxing champion James Toney (72-6 Boxing, 0-0 MMA) to take a fight in the UFC was a bit laughable.
So imagine those same observers' reaction to the rumors that 44-year-old retired MMA legend Don Frye (20-8-1) was returning to the organization to take the fight.
Fortunately, the Frye report turned out to be one online author's idea of satire. But that doesn't mean "The Predator" doesn't have an opinion on a fight with Toney.
"I tell you what: Anybody who fights an [expletive] like James Toney or Herschel Walker or Jose Canseco or any of them other [expletives] that come into our sport at their age should be required to take them down and break as many bones as possible on them and keep them crippled for six to eight weeks," Frye recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). "I'd break both their [expletive] arms so they'd have to hire somebody to wipe their ass for the next six to eight weeks. It should be a requirement."
Former pro footballer Walker makes his mixed-martial-arts debut for Strikeforce on Jan. 30. Former baseball star Canseco infamously fought under the DREAM banner in May 2009.
Frye believes former professional athletes entering the MMA game at such an advanced age are hurting the current state of the sport.
"That's why nobody respects this sport, and it's just a circus act right now," Frye said. "They have these morons come in at the age they should be sitting in the retirement home, and they walk in and get a high-dollar fight."
Frye debuted in 1996 at UFC 8 and proceeded to win 15 of his first 16 contests. During that run, Frye defeated David "Tank" Abbott, Gary Goodridge, Ken Shamrock and Gilbert Yvel, among others.
Frye's most memorable bout may be the final win of that torrid career-opening run when he and Yoshihiro Takayama, under the PRIDE banner, engaged in one of the most furious exchanges in mixed martial arts history.
Frye's latter years saw him mired in a 5-7-1 slump, and he officially hung up the gloves in late 2009 in order to pursue other opportunities, including a budding acting career that have included some national TV commercials.
So Frye most certainly is not coming back to the UFC, but the legendary brawler didn't exactly rule out at least one more trip to the cage.
"Green always talks," Frye said. "Money talks and [expletive] walks. So far, it's all been [expletive]."