After a period of speculation, former champion and boxing legend Roy Jones Jr finally has an opponent for the UR Fight Pay Per View event.
After an initial campaign in which a fan would be selected online to fight boxing great Roy Jones Jr, UR Fight, the organization holding the event, faced the obstacle of being forced to ensure that the selected opponent had to have a professional record.
Well, that hurdle has been cleared. Sort of. Enter MMA fighter Vyron Phillips, a native of Minnesota that’s been living and training in Western Canada and is ranked #44 in the listing for Canadian welterweights according to Tapology. This bout is purportedly a boxing match, with a potential $100,000 prize for the challenger were he to defeat the former multiple time boxing champion. While UR Fight has announced the matchup, there doesn’t seem to be any indication by the state athletic commission regarding whether or not this fight would be approved since Phillips does not seem to have any professional boxing experience.
Nicknamed “The Cannon”, Phillips currently holds a professional MMA record of 5-3 with four TKO victories and one decision. His last bout was for the Canadian Hard Knocks organization in which he suffered a loss at the hands of Brazilian talent, Vancouver-based Leo Xavier. Phillips also appears to have an amateur record of 2-1 yet again, shows no traces of a boxing record of any sort.
Also of note regarding this event is the loss of Ken Shamrock, who was supposed to fight Dan Severn for a third time. Following his loss to Royce Gracie, he has been substituted by none other than Tank Abbott. This will be Abbott’s first fight since April of 2013, when he lost to Ruben “Warpath” Villareal.
The rest of the card remains intact with a grappling match between former UFC talent Chael Sonnen and current UFC middleweight Michael Bisping, fresh off his win against Anderson Silva in London. A professional wrestling bout between Rey Mysterio, Jr and Kurt Angle is also set to take place.
UR Fight’s inaugural event is set to take place live from the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix, AZ on March 20th, and will be available for viewing online for $11.99 plus tax. Tickets for the live event appear to still be available for those that would like to attend.