Fedor Emelianenko would like to fight Roy Jones Jr. in a boxing match.
Fedor Emelianenko is expected to return to the Bellator cage later this year to compete in MMA, but ‘The Last Emperor’ also wants to test himself in the boxing ring.
Emelianenko has no plans to box ‘bloggers and singers’ such as YouTube brothers Jake and Logan Paul but the former PRIDE and Strikeforce heavyweight champion is interested in a boxing match with future Hall-of-Famer Roy Jones Jr.
“I would be interested,” Emelianenko told BoxingScene when asked about a potential fight against Jones. “I have already worked with Denis Lebedev, with other guys [in boxing]. I have been boxing myself since 2000. So, yes, it would be interesting to have such a fight, but not with bloggers and singers, not with people from outside the world of sports. Roy Jones is a legend of world boxing, so of course, it would be interesting to do it with him.”
“He has such a track record. He will always be Roy Jones, although he will no longer have that crazy [hand] speed.”
Jones, 52, recently fought to a draw against heavyweight legend Mike Tyson in an eight-round exhibition in Los Angeles and, although his best years are behind him, didn’t rule out a return to the boxing ring in the future.
Fedor, who is widely considered one of the greatest MMA fighters of all-time, will make his return to the cage after a two-year hiatus against a TBA opponent at an upcoming Bellator event in Moscow, Russia on Oct. 23. The Russian last fought at Bellator 237 where he knocked out former UFC light heavyweight champ Rampage Jackson in the first round.