Anton Tabuena
Roy Jones Jr. doesn’t believe the reasons the promoters gave for the delay in his bout against Mike Tyson.
The legends bout between Roy Jones Jr. and Mike Tyson was originally supposed to happen on September 12, until it was suddenly postponed and rescheduled for November 28. The reason was supposedly to try and get a crowd and extra money in, but it’s something that Jones doesn’t believe to be true.
He thinks the extra two and a half months was to help Tyson be better prepared.
“I’m like, you know what? Six weeks, that’s right around the corner,” Jones told Joe Rogan. “(Tyson) ain’t been fighting. I can get ready, I’m pretty sure I can get a little bit more ready than he can because he’s been inactive a lot longer than I have. So six weeks, I know he’s big as heck, and he’s still Mike Tyson and he still can punch, but six weeks, there’s no way he can get prepared for this.
“So I said, you know what I’ll take that, and I jumped on it. Well, lo and behold, something happens and they change it,” he said. “They told me something about marketing, but I don’t really believe much of what was said. I just can’t believe it.
“It ain’t like I’m scared of Mike Tyson, it’s just that I know that in six weeks he had no chance to deal with me,” he explained. “In 12 weeks, he’ll have a better chance to deal with me, but his chance is still gonna be rough, but it’s gonna be better than it would’ve been. Because six weeks, he didn’t have a chance.”
Jones also thinks it will be more of a real fight than the eight-round “exhibition” that it is being built up to be.
“Think about it. ‘Oh it’s an exhibition…’ but we got 12 oz gloves. ‘But it’s an exhibition…’ no head gear. ‘Exhibition…’ judges. ‘Exhibition…’ with Mike Tyson, who knocked Corey Sanders down in the first round of an exhibition back in (2006),” Jones Jr. explained. “So what is your definition of an exhibition? Because going into a ring with Mike Tyson has nothing ‘exhibitionist’ about it. Everything he does is a fight.”
Jones saying promoters wanted to give his opponent more time to prepare wouldn’t be the most farfetched claim in the world. As Tyson noted, he was completely sore and “in bed for a week” after his training session that went viral.
Jones is currently 51-years-old, and Tyson is 54. While the age gap isn’t that wide, the time away from the ring is truly significant. Jones was active up until 2018, where he retired on a four fight winning streak. Tyson on the other hand, hasn’t competed professionally in over 15 years, and hasn’t had a win in over 17.
I guess we’ll see on November 28 if that extra time helps Tyson enough.