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Roy Jones Jr. never imagined he would keep fighting at age 51, but he’s certainly looking to make the most of his return to action this weekend against Mike Tyson.
The long-awaited exhibition fight will see Jones Jr. compete for the first time since 2018, while Tyson has not participated in a licensed fight in over 15 years.
Both fighters have invested a lot of time and energy preparing for their eight-round fight this weekend, but no one knows what to really expect when they step foot in the ring together.
For his part, Jones Jr. believes Tyson will search heads and seek a knockout as he did during his reign as heavyweight champion. Back in those days, Tyson was destroying opponents like Trevor Berbick and Michael Spinks in a devastating way with standout reel knockouts still played today.
“I look forward to that Mike early because he’s rejuvenated,” Jones Jr. said on press day before the fight. “He has been away for 15 years. You know what it’s like to miss boxing. He realizes what he had and now seeks to get it back. Because when he fought the last few fights he fought, he really wasn’t in the mindset to be who he once was. His mentality diminished. The fire had died down.
“Now the fire has returned. Now he has the desire to want to go out and be who he once was, to do what he knew he could do. With that being said, you must expect a good Mike to come along. You have to think about it, I probably saw Mike about two years ago. It looked like it weighed almost 250 pounds. Now he’s 220. Don’t you think he’s serious?
Much has been done in the exhibition fight regarding the rules promulgated by the California State Athletic Commission to penalize Tyson and Jones Jr. to compete this weekend at a combined age of 105.
As CSAC Executive Director Andy Foster said earlier this week when he spoke to MMA Fighting, the fight will be played over eight rounds of two minutes each, both boxers will wear 12-ounce gloves and there will be no sanctioned judges scoring the fight without a winner announced later. While the WBC will employ “celebrity” judges to help declare the winner, the fight will be played under exhibition rules for the health and safety of both competitors.
“To us, we never see it as if it’s not real,” Jones Jr. said of the rules of the fight. “He knows I’m Roy Jones. Roy Jones came out to hurt you. I know it’s Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson is coming to get you out.
“So it’s like for us, none of that counts. We don’t listen to what they say. We don’t even know what the commission says. It’s not our job. Our job is to go out and do what we do. “
If all goes the way he hopes, Jones Jr. isn’t planning a full ring return, but there are still interesting opponents he’d be willing to face like former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
Jones Jr. and Silva have repeatedly said that they would like to fight each other and now it looks like the fantasy fight could become a reality. Silva was recently released from his UFC contract after suffering a TKO loss to Uriah Hall and Jones Jr. believes he could finally open the door for their fight to happen.
“If this goes well tonight, I’m pretty sure it will probably be the next thing we do,” Jones Jr. said of facing Silva. “Because he’s been wanting it. I’ve been wanting it. This has to go right first. “
