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Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. will fight on November 28 on pay-per-view.
Tyson is 50-6 all-time.
Jones Jr. is 66-9 all-time.
A Tyson-Jones fight has been a boxing fan’s dream for years. During an interview on the Joe Rogan Podcast last year, ex-world champion Andre Ward shared that Tyson vs. Jones was discussed as far back as 2003.
“There was a Tyson fight on the table,” said Ward. “And I believe I’m accurate when I say this, it was somewhere around $40 million guaranteed. There was an upside, too. You stay at heavyweight, keep the weight on, and Tyson wasn’t quite Tyson at that time. He was still dangerous, but he wasn’t quite Tyson. I think they were working towards it.
What happened?
“Mike said he was thorough with boxing,” Roy Jones Jr. told K 104’s Ron Murray Jr. in an interview transcribed by Dallas-based writer, Landon Buford.
MIKE NELSON/AFP via Getty ImageNew World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Mike Tyson is lifted into the air wearing the championship belt after defeating WBC heavyweight champion Frank Bruno of Great Britain with a third round technical knockout.
“And didn’t want to fight anymore. When I won the Heavyweight Title I said I would only fight one guy and I asked J Prince to call him and I tried everything I could to get in touch with anyone that had a relationship with him. J called him and Mike said I’m done with boxing and I said okay, if he doesn’t want to box, there’s no reason for me to stay up here. [So, I went back down to the lightweight division]. So, all that stuff about Roy turned down $40 million to fight Tyson, Hell no are you serious?”
Tyson is 5-5 in his last 10 fights. In his last 13 fights, Jones has a record of 12-1. “A lot of people have been at home with nothing to do,” said Jones.
No sports, no baseball, no football, no basketball or nothing to do. Two of the most entertaining fighters to ever grace the sport of boxing were Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. We are home with nothing else to do and they are going to put them two in the ring to do anything. Don’t you want to watch?
Added Jones:
“And you know Mike is pretty much Bio-plar, so he might do anything. You understand me? He might do anything! That is why he was so entertaining because you never knew what he might do. And once again, I have to treat it that way, I don’t know what he might do. So, I have to be prepared to protect myself against whatever, he might do. They want me to wear the earmuffs, but I still don’t know what he might do.”