You may not understand the genius that is James Toney. In fact, some of thought you would never see ‘James Toney’ and ‘Genius’ in the same sentence. It’s alright. Your approval is not a requisite for James Toney to make an extraordinary amount of money in his MMA debut. According to Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports, Toney made an estimated $750,000 to $1,000,000 at UFC 118. Too bad the IRS was literally waiting for him backstage to confiscate his entire fight purse. It’s actually news that we broke in our Sunday Morning Rumor Mill months before it hit the rest of the MMA world, but hey — The Sunday Morning Rumor Mill is so ahead of its time that on most Sundays, it’s actually late. Just think about that.
James Toney gave an interview to BJPenn.com and among the expected Rampage Jackson call-outs, Toney briefly touched on the IRS yanking all of his money at the TD Garden.
“I learned to keep my emotions in check. I lost my attention span in that fight. I was dealing with all that b******* before with the IRS and that’s what happened. When I heard the IRS was after my check right before that fight. It was like 35 minutes before that fight I found out they wanted to come take my money so my mind wasn’t on the fight, it was on that situation.”
“Just because I lost the fight with Couture doesn’t mean I’m done with MMA. I’m still going to go back in there. I have just been handling big business right now. I’m looking forward to getting back in there hopefully against Rampage Jackson.”
Win or lose, James Toney still wins. It’s like some twisted game of Candyland where every move will put a year’s salary in your pocket. Maybe BJ Penn is right, James Toney is ‘God’s gift to MMA‘. [Source]
