Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr to fight for WBC Frontline Battle Belt

By Boxing News - 10/26/2020 - Comments

By Matt Lieberman: The WBC reportedly has created a new belt called the ‘WBC Frontline Battle Belt’ for the Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr eight-round exhibition on November 28th. The Tyson vs. Jones Jr fight will be on pay-per-view from the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

It seems the idea of the new strap being created by the World Boxing Council is to help make the fight appear more official in the eyes of the public. Creating a new title for the 54-year-old Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) and 51-year-old Jones (66-9, 47 KOs) to fight over will validate the match to possibly bring in a few more buys on PPV.

Does the sport need another belt?

With the negative press, the governing bodies have received lately about there being too many belts, it’s bad timing for the WBC to create a new belt for the Jones vs. Tyson fight. Even though the WBC Frontline Battle belt is a trinket title that is given out as an honor thing. it still creates confusion.

Image: Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr to fight for WBC Frontline Battle Belt

If you’re a casual boxing fan and you see the winner of the Tyson vs. Jones fight being given a WBC title, it could lead you to believe that this is as good as it gets for the sport.

Fans likely won’t care too much about whether there’s a title on the line or not for the Tyson vs. Jones fight. They want to see these two legends go at it to see how they perform and see who emerges as the winner of the contest.t

Tyson looks like he’s planning on knocking out Jones, and he’s not viewing the fight as an exhibition. Likewise, Jones is talking about having an ‘RJ’ alter ego that will come out on November 28th and make him want to knockout Tyson.

Will Tyson’s conditioning be there?

Tyson hasn’t fought since 2005 in getting knocked out by Kevin McBride, whereas Jones last fought in 2018. Just based on activity, Jones will have an edge against Tyson. If he can get ‘Iron Mike’ past the fifth round, he has a chance to knock him out.

Jones and Tyson were previously planning on fighting on September 12th, but they moved the contest back to November 28th so that it could bring in more money.

Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a big promotional push for the fight, and it’s unclear if it’ll bring in many buys.

Most of the attention the Tyson vs. Jones fight has received has from Youtube with users posting workout clips of the two fighters and ancient videos of them during their careers.

YouTube video