By Sam Gregory: On March 21st, 40 year old Roy Jones Jr will be returning to the ring to take on Omar Sheika in a pay per view card he’s calling “March Badness”. In an event Roy Jones Jr will promote himself the undercard will feature mixed martial arts fighters Seth Petruzelli and Bobby Lashley.
The MMA part of the of March Badness took a big hit when it was being put together due to MMA star Ken Shamrock testing positive for steroids. For the record, Shamrock said it was over the counter supplements that caused a false positive for three different steroids. Now in need of a replacement, two possible opponents are in line to take his place, former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world Hasim Rahman and MMA notable Don Frye.
Combining boxing and mixed martial arts has been done before but apparently not with a boxer as well known as Roy Jones Jr. but speaking for boxing fans and myself, who cares? The 40 year old Roy Jones Jr is coming off the single worst beat down of his professional career in his last outing against Joe Calzaghe so who wants to pay $29.95 to watch him fight 27-8 Omar Sheika? In case you’re not familiar with Sheika, some of his more notable opponents were Markus Beyer, Jeff Lacy, Scott Pemberton (twice), Eric Lucas and Joe Calzaghe, all of whom beat him. Jones’ November 8th, pay per view against Calzaghe was promoted terribly; the only thing worse than the terrible promotion was the incredibly lame undercard.
This card, which is promoted by Jones’ Square Ring Promotions, is scheduled to take place at the Pensacola Civic Center in Roy Jones Jr’s hometown of Pensacola, Florida. Recently Roy Jones did an interview on Sherdog.com about his upcoming event, March Badness and this is what he had to say: “So to cure the stigma that we don’t like MMA or that we’re against it, to prove my point, I’m going to start promoting them too. And they have a huge fan base too. They love fighting; boxing, ultimate fight, it’s all still fighting.
Jones also mentioned the fact that he doesn’t understand the boxing vs MMA mentality.
“Why do people keep trying to pull us apart? Why not come together and make for an even bigger situation and make it better for both sports? MMA has something that boxing doesn’t have, which boxing needs to acknowledge.”
As for the principals in this event, on the boxing side, Roy Jones Jr., who is 52-5 with 38 KO’s, is looking to add a W to his record after his one sided beat down at the hands of recently retired Joe Calzaghe. Jones will take on the afore mentioned 32 year old Omar Sheika, who currently has a record of 27-8 with 18 KO’s. Sheika won his last fight in September of 2007 against 26-13 Tiwon Taylor in the light heavyweight division.
The only other probable fighters at the time of this writing is the recently signed Square Ring cruiserweight B.J. Flores who is currently undefeated with a record of 22-0 with 14 KO’s. Flores is scheduled to fight Columbian born Jose Luis Herrera whose record is 16-5 with 16 KO’s.
On the MMA side of the card Seth Petruzelli will take on the former WEC light heavyweight (205 lbs) champion Doug Marshall. Also on the card Jeff Monson will fight Roy Nelson and former WWE star Bobby Lashley will be fighting a TBA.
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