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It looks like James Toney is finally starting to take his career seriously again. As seen in the photos above, Toney has dropped a considerable amount of weight since he fought Randy Couture at UFC 118 last year. Toney told 8CountNews.com that he’s all the way down to 213 lbs. after his wife and dad convinced him to take his career seriously again. Interestingly, the 8Count story and an interview he did with FightHype.com a couple weeks ago only made mention of potential boxing matches, not the proposed fight with Ken Shamrock that still doesn’t have a definitive date or location.

Images via Heavy.com and 8CountNews.com

When Ken Shamrock meets James Toney in the ring later this year, don’t expect him to immediately take Toney down and finish him off like Randy Couture did. Shamrock “promises” that he’s going to punch Toney in the face and when he does get him to the ground, he’s going to “beat him up” before he ends it.

This won’t be a normal MMA fight by the way. The special rules Shamrock refers to in the beginning of the interview include eight three-minute rounds instead of three five-minute rounds and the fight will be stood up after 30 seconds regardless on their positioning.

Video via MMA Weekly

The fireworks have already started. Ken Shamrock, James Toney and a group of media members gathered at a gym for a press conference and photo-op for their upcoming MMA bout this fall. As we all learned when Dana White gave him a shot in the UFC last year, James Toney isn’t afraid to play mind-games with his opponents. But neither is Ken Shamrock and he was the first to throw the proverbial punch before a date and location have even been determined. The funny thing is, after listening to Toney talk trash for months leading up to his MMA debut, it was Shamrock who got into Toney’s head first. And it didn’t take much.

HT: BE & Larry Brown Sports

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It turns out James Toney isn’t done with MMA after all. He won’t get another fight in the UFC but if reports from BJPenn.com and BoxingScene.com are accurate, he will take on another aging UFC legend. The promoter isn’t clear, but his opponent will be none other than Ken Shamrock.

BJPENN.COM was the first to learn that James Toney and Ken Shamrock have agreed to face off in an MMA match on Sept. 23 in El Paso, Texas.

While details are still emerging about the venue and fight card, the former UFC fighters are going to face off in a heavyweight attraction in what will be James Toney’s second professional MMA bout.

BJPENN.COM confirmed this with both Toney’s manager and Mr. Toney himself this evening via telephone.

MMA Fighting adds that the date and location isn’t as solid as the original report made it sound, but according to Toney’s manager, the fight is going down.

It ought to be something. It may not be something good, but it will definitely be something…

In other UFC legend news, Royce Gracie has revealed his asking price to fight on the UFC 134 “Rio” card. If it wasn’t enough that he’s 44-years old, at least a decade removed from his prime and wasn’t even remotely competitive in his last UFC outing five years ago, Gracie was also asking for a seven figure purse (!) to fight Matt Hughes in Rio.

“Matt Hughes in the Octagon in Rio would be ideal. He’s the one I’m after. In that fight with him I’d gone overboard in training. Dad [Helio Gracie] told me ‘That’s a mistake.’”

“Dana White knows what I’m worth; he knows what I bring to the table. Yes, my fight purse has seven digits!” he confirmed with a laugh.

Holy smokes, that’s a lot of money. I think it’s safe to say it’s not gonna happen though considering the UFC 134 card is pretty much full and Matt Hughes is signed to fight Diego Sanchez at UFC 135. I’m sure Dana White and Joe Silva lost a lot of sleep coming to that decision.

Image via Heavy.com

What a year 2010 was. We saw the rise and fall of Chael Sonnen, the return of Brock Lesnar, Chuck Liddell’s last fight, the long awaited UFC-WEC merger and the end of The Last Emperor’s reign just to name a few. Rather than view this as just another awards list, I like to think of it as the most memorable moments of 2010. Feel free to share your favorites in the comments below.

Without further adieu…

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A month after James Toney called him a “black redneck” and an “Uncle Tom,” Rampage Jackson finally got around to responding. Funny stuff.

Here’s the interview that prompted James Toney to call Rampage Jackson an “Uncle Tom” and “black redneck.”

I want to thank everyone again for your encouraging comments and support. It really means a lot. I don’t know at what point this week I’ll be back to full capacity but I’m trying to keep myself busy and keep you guys in the news. Here’s a rundown of some stories coming out of this past weekend’s events and a few Monday news items.

— The general consensus seems to be that Strikeforce blew the TUF 12 Finale out of the water on Saturday in terms of pure entertainment value. There were three big KO’s on the Strikeforce card versus a bunch of decisions, including one very controversial one (imagine that), on the UFC card. Dan Henderson, Robbie Lawler and Paul Daley all raised their stock with devastating knockouts over Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Matt Lindland and Scott Smith. In fact the latter two were so devastating, both fighters really need to start considering their long-term health. This is the second time in two years Matt Lindland has looked like he was dying on the mat, and Scott Smith really just needs to stop if he can’t learn how to protect himself. He’s taken so many shots over the course of his career, I can’t see how he hasn’t suffered any brain damage by now. As for the winners, Hendo and Lawler will probably end up getting title shots and Daley wants KJ Noons, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he skips ahead and gets a title shot against Nick Diaz either. More on that in a minute.

— Strikeforce “Henderson vs. Babalu” post-fight interviews with Ariel Helwani

— As for that controversial decision on the TUF 12 Finale card, I’m sure most of you aware it was the Nam Phan vs. Leonard Garcia fight. I haven’t seen it yet to comment, but judging by the FightMetric stats, the judges blew it big time awarding the decision to Garcia. Like after most of these BS decisions, someone went off on a rant about the awful judging and officiating in this sport. This time it was Joe Rogan.

“I don’t think the last fight was close and the decision went the wrong way. It’s putting a tremendous amount of pressure on fighters not knowing what kind of officiating you’re getting.

“It’s gross. You should be able to leave it in the hands of the judges. You should be able to just fight.

“And we should point out, that is the situation because of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. It’s got nothing to do with the UFC. People keep saying ‘oh the UFC!’ We have no say whatsoever. And (NSAC executive director) Keith Kizer has denied that there’s an issue.

“I think (Kizer) needs to clean house. There’s a few very good judges surrounded by a bunch of incompetent morons, who know nothing about the sport.

“They need to do something about that, because it’s ruining MMA. It’s making people think that this sport is corrupt. It has nothing to do with corruption. It’s sheer and total incompetence.”

Keith Kizer responded:

“If Joe Rogan wants to get on the air and call people names, that’s his business. I’m not going waste my time responding to that.”

“They always say that ‘the UFC has nothing to do with judging.’ Well guess what, they’ve got a big fight coming up in Canada called Koscheck vs. Georges St. Pierre – the UFC and Marc Ratner are flying Tony Weeks up there as a judge. C’mon, Joe. How about some honesty? They’ve taken 90% of our officials with them overseas, as they should. That’s not a knock on Dana [White] and Marc [Ratner]; they know what they’re doing.”

The good news is the UFC gave Phan his win bonus anyways.

— TUF 12 Finale post-fight interviews via Heavy.com

— How many times has Scott Coker said this about the Fedor negotiations in the past six months? “We’re getting very close.” Well, now it’s, “It sounds like it’s getting very close,’ implying he really has nothing to do with the negotiations. It’s between M-1 and Showtime, and it seems to be all about getting Showtime to broadcast their own events. M-1 says it’s close too for what that’s worth. Can’t wait to do this all over again after Fedor fights again. Maybe if he loses again, M-1 can squeeze another handful of shows out of Showtime, because it makes so much sense right now.

— Now back to why think Daley might get fast-tracked to a welterweight title shot. It looks the champ’s schedule just cleared up. Nick Diaz was supposed to finally fight Jason “Mayhem” Miller next, but apparently that has fallen apart because both sides couldn’t agree on a catchweight. Diaz’s camp wanted 178 lbs. and Mayhem wants 183 lbs. It’s not like we’re talking a big difference here. It’s starting to look neither side really wants to fight and sooner or later people are going to stop caring if they already haven’t.

— Moving on to more ridiculous things, apparently Rampage Jackson and James Toney exchanged a few words at UFC 123. Rampage said something about it on Inside MMA, and now James Toney has jumped all over it trying to talk his way back into another UFC fight and UFC payday. He’s pouring it on thick too calling Rampage an “Uncle Tom” and “black redneck.”

“The only thing that the Fake Mr. T has to do is sign the contract. Rampage is a decent club fighter and if he thinks his club fighting style can match my skills, then he is crazy as hell… What? Is he mad because I called him an Uncle Tom or because I said Detroit wouldn’t accept him? (Laughing) My boy said Rampage stayed in his room and they were in Auburn Hills. They knew better than to go to the D where I’m from. Rampage is still an Uncle Tom and I will go on record and say he is not dumb enough to stand and trade with me. Machida almost knocked him out, so what do you think I would do to him. Rampage is a black redneck. He better stick to hanging with them white boys and keep my name out of his mouth. I ain’t hard to find; sign the contract!”

— Tyron Woodley vs. Tarec Saffiedine will headline Strikeforce Challengers 13

— More of those crazy Japanese videos of Alistair Overeem promoting the K-1 WGP.

— Countdown to UFC 124 premieres tonight at 7PM ET/PT on Spike TV.

Following James Toney’s MMA debut at UFC 118, there was a rumor going around that the IRS had put a lien on Toney’s $500,000 fight purse. Well, it turns out that rumor was true. MMA Junkie is reporting that the IRS did in fact place a lien on Toney’s purse the night before his fight against Randy Couture and his camp is currently trying to recover it from everyone’s favorite government agency.

In an earlier interview with MMAjunkie.com, Arthur said Toney was enraged by an incident just prior to the contest and “just wanted to hit [Randy].”

Today, the trainer and manager said he was first notified of the lien the night prior to the event by a fellow member of Toney’s staff. The fighter’s tax attorney confirmed the judgement as the camp members, including Toney, were preparing to make their way to the TD Garden on fight day.

The attorney claimed the IRS put a hold on Toney’s purse to examine several past tax returns, Arthur said.

After initially considering the idea of pulling his fighter from the event, Arthur informed Toney of the news.

“I could see his face change from one extreme to the other extreme,” Arthur said of Toney.

Wow, talk about a bad weekend for James Toney. It hasn’t got much better for him since then either. His camp hasn’t had any luck getting him a boxing match yet and the UFC released him from his contract.

I think it’s safe to say James Toney’s UFC experiment couldn’t have gone worse.

Image via Heavy.com