Behind all of James Toney's bluster are the men tasked with readying him for his first trip to the foreign land of mixed martial arts.
Head coach John Arthur is a former street fighter and boxing trainer, and Trever Sherman is a social worker. They come from very different worlds, and they are both supremely confident Toney is going to hurt Randy Couture very, very badly at UFC 118.
"If James gets an opportunity, they're going to rush Randy to the hospital," trainer Sherman recently said.
Likewise, Toney feels he's in the best hands possible to take on the new challenge after a storied career in boxing, and it all begins with Arthur.
"Your best MMA trainer doesn't know as much as he does," said Toney (72-6-3 Boxing, 0-0 MMA), who meets Couture (18-10 MMA, 15-7 UFC) at the TD Garden on Aug. 28.
Otherwise known as "Pops," the "60-something" Arthur has worked with Toney for 12 years in the boxing world and knows him perhaps better than anyone else. He's well acquainted with the fighter's brashness and has learned not to confront him head-on or take anything personally when Toney launches into a rant about this or that.
He hardly bats an eye when Toney goes off on the haters that have dogged his transition from the ring to the cage.
"James has anger management issues," Arthur said. "James is for real in whatever he does. And I accept James for that. My feeling is whatever he says, he says. It has no reflection on me."
But Arthur is also very protective of his fighter and bristles when people question the camp's preparation for Couture. When it comes to the experiment in MMA, Arthur believes his own fighting experience qualifies him to train Toney. He said he's fought in over 269 no-rules fights around the world in which the only way to avoid serious injury was to be carried out by your cornerman. He knows a thing or two about no holds barred.
In fact, he thinks the current version of MMA is watered down. It isn't anything like what he experienced overseas.
"Whatever it takes to put you down or knock you out, you have to do it," he said of the no-rules fights. "If you get knocked out or beat down, the only way I can be declared the winner is I have to walk the full square that you have to get in. If you move or get up, I can go over and stomp your brains out ... so if you go out, you better not move until you feel somebody picking you up."
He points to one scar he says he received during a particular match and says he was once approached to fight in a mixed martial arts event more than a decade ago, though he declined.
"Rules and regulations (are things) I don't know when it comes to fighting," Arthur said. "When you're in the streets and you fight somebody, you can't say, 'You can't do this, and you can't do that.' I was too old to get into the sport, so this is something like a second coming for me."
Of course, Arthur was quick to recognize that he needed a trainer who could bridge his knowledge with the current MMA world, and he hired Sherman when well-known MMA and boxing trainer Juanito Ibarra left the camp in mid-May. Sherman initially thought he would be Toney's sparring partner until Arthur approached him one day and asked how he would train the boxer; he said it would be more productive to find ways for Toney to display his natural skills than to don a gi and try to master the ground game.
With four kids, a degree in psychology, and a job in social work, Sherman was also well-equipped to deal with Toney's volatile personality.
"My dad used to say you have to pull a rope; you don't push it," Sherman said. "If you push it, it will buckle."
This is Sherman's first leading role in a major camp after serving as a "specialist" in smaller camps. He says he has a few amateur fights on his record but gave up fighting for the stability of a full-time job. When he's not working, he runs a kid's karate program in nearby Calabasas, Calif.
"It's been a 100 mile-per-hour car ride on a dirt road," Sherman said. "I think [Toney] and I have personalities that can Lego together because I'm not in his face, screaming. I don't think James needs a teacher. He's already got a skill set in one area that's so incredible that we build around that skill set.
"I was a believer at first, and it was such an incredible ride, I wanted to get on and see what it was going to be like. Now, I really believe."
Sherman works primarily with the boxer on creating opportunities to punch in every range, from standing to on the ground.
"I don't think that anybody understands what [Toney] is or who he is," Sherman said. "He needs six inches to hurt somebody really bad. I've been in his guard and he's hit me, and I've got to tell you, it's like getting hit by a car. He just shakes up your organs. And these are six inch body shots. He's forgotten more about the mechanics of punching than most upper-echelon MMA fighters have ever learned."
With all the damage that Toney does, Sherman said the main problem is keeping sparring partners around. He said the camp has already gone through seven, and he estimates the total count will be 20 by fight time.
"We had a kid come in the other day (that said), 'I've been a sparring partner with this guy and that guy,' and he was telling us [he doesn't] spar with headgear on," Sherman said. "We had to let him go because James would put him in a coffin. There's nobody in mixed martial arts like James now. I think maybe – in his prime – Wanderlei Silva would have been the closest. Just a vicious, mean fighter."
Toney has also logged time with Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, who said Toney was very strong and once tapped him out with a standing guillotine.
While many observers believe Toney will have little chance to get off a punch, Sherman thinks it's Couture who won't have time to take the fight to the ground.
"I don't understand the phrase, 'punchers chance,'" Sherman said. "Randy's got a grappler's chance of holding onto [James]. There's no secret in four of Randy's last five fights (that) he's been caught, and he's gone down. Glancing blows – and he's gone down."
Almost in the same breath, Sherman said "The Natural" is one of his favorite fighters and he once attended a seminar the UFC Hall of Famer held in Florida.
"I model my fighting after him," Sherman said. "I think he's the best at that game. I hope [Toney] doesn't hit him full out. Because Randy will retire. You don't recover from those strikes."
Arthur's main concern is that Toney shows up in shape for the fight. Many critics have taken aim at Toney's waistline, particularly the way it's expanded since he began his career at 157 pounds.
"As long as he's in shape, I don't give a [expletive] how he looks," Arthur said. "As long as he's in shape – because he's not a bodybuilder – as long as he's in shape, and he can do those three five-minute rounds, we're OK. And he beat that boy's ass and put him to sleep. Either choke his ass or knock him out.
"We're fine. We're going to get up and go home. We're going to have an easy night."
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