The Ghost and The Hunter

Posted on | November 4, 2011 | No Comments

Curtis Ledger / MFC Staff

Jamie “The Ghost” Toney may be best known for his toughness. Let’s face it, the man has been stopped only twice in over 20 professional MMA fights. He’s had literally no amateur experience and very limited access to professional training as he started his fighting career. That being noted, fans may soon know him best for another reason. The Bas-Rutten-trained welterweight is also becoming a reality television star. That’s right, but don’t worry, he won’t be sliding around in mustard, solving gigantic crossword puzzles, or forming fake alliances with ditsy bikini models. It’s not that kind of reality TV. Instead, he’ll be hunting sharks in the depths of the ocean, stalking goats across hot lava rock terrain, and taking down wild boars.

Toney shot his new show, Project Dominion, recently, and the show will be airing on Wild TV and the Outdoor Channel starting December 26th. The show takes a group of travellers and drops them into various environments around Hawaii to hunt, fish, and travel. Viewers will see Toney along side Peter King, a former top-5 surfer in the world, and Dennis Deutsch, a private school principle who is an expert at anything to do with water and fishing. In talking about his show, Jamie Toney expresses the intensity of the experience, “It was unreal. They taught me how to surf, we hunted axis deer, we went cliff jumping and free diving, and we even caught sharks! If you can do it in Hawaii, we did it.”

Not everything went smoothly for the fighter and his crew during filming, however. Jamie almost lost a 3 round decision to the waves. “I almost drowned when we were out there,” explained Jamie, “There were 6’ swells that day. The water was rough…I was getting fatigued.” Despite the setback, the fighter jumped right back into action hunting wild boars.

Jamie made it to the MFC on a balanced record of victories by strikes and submissions, and he didn’t forget about wrestling practice while adventuring in Hawaii either. “I ended up wrestling a boar. I ran in behind it, grabbed its legs, wrestled it to the ground, and held it while the guide talked about it on camera.” The boar wasn’t in the mood for any lay and pray, however, it got up, turned around, and charged the guys. To find out what happens next, fans will have to check out the show.

His development stalking prey comes naturally to this veteran who started hunting from his early childhood. “My dad, he showed me how to hunt. It was something we bonded over. There’s a lot of things me and him don’t have in common, but hunting was something we could share together,” reminisces Toney, “My first gun that my dad bought me for Christmas was a 243.” These days, Jamie Toney has stepped up his firepower, “My favourite gun, which I own back in West Virginia, is a .300 Win Mag. When you shoot something with it, it goes down.”

Opponents better make no mistake. Toney explained he isn’t getting soft just because he’s out adventuring in Hawaii, “Patience and preparation are key in MMA and in hunting. Scouting a fighter is like hunting a bear. I need to know what a bear does, where it likes to roam, what it eats, and all its habits. Patience is essential in both. In hunting, if you make a wrong move, you scare off whatever you’re hunting. In fighting, making a wrong move can cost you the fight.”

As a fighter and a hunter, Jamie is a respectful man. His support for the sport runs deep in his blood, and he reached out to everyone in corporate North America during his interview with the MFC, “It’s really hard to work and be a full-time fighter. If there are companies out there open to it, they should get on board and sponsor some of these guys. If they can help out, help them out – especially these guys out there training hard. If I’d had sponsors early in my career, it would have been a totally different story on some of the outcomes of my fights.”

For a fan looking for a real dude to support in a fight, look no further than a respectful IBEW union electrician with his own adventure hunting show and a fighting style that makes him one of Bas Rutten’s favourite mixed martial artists. In talking about his upcoming fight at MFC 32, Toney sounds confident, “I go into every fight expecting to finish, and I don’t see this fight any other way. I’m going to finish this because that’s what I expect to do and what I train to do. It’s nothing against Cody. I’m not talking smack. That’s just the plan.”

On January 27th, fans can see how well Toney’s plan works during MFC 32 at the Mayfield Event Centre in Edmonton. You don’t hunt sharks or wrestle wild boars without some grit to back it up, so when Jamie steps up to face Cody Krahn, fans have to wonder who should be more concerned – his prey in the wild or his prey in the ring.