By Barry Holbrook: Mike Tyson says that people need to “be afraid” for them to be brave as he prepares for his November 28th exhibition fight against former four-division world champion Roy Jones Jr. If you’re Jones Jr, it would be a good idea to be very “afraid” on November 28th because he’s going to be dealing with a lot of power and speed in Mike Tyson.
Jones has already laid out his plan for the by saying he’s going to box Tyson, tire him out, and then go after him. If Tyson’s stamina hasn’t improved since the last two fights of his career against Kevin McBride and Danny Williams in 2005 and 2004, he’s going to run out of gas and get stopped by Jones.
One month to go for Tyson vs. Jones
Former IBF/WBA/WBC heavyweight champion ‘Iron’ Mike and Jones Jr (66-9, 47 KOs) will be fighting an eight-round exhibition fight approved by the California State Athletic Commission. The match will be taking place at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
The 54-year-old Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) is arguably in the best shape in 20 years, as he’s put in a lot of hard work to take off a lot of weight that he’d packed on since retiring from boxing in 2005. That doesn’t mean that this version of Tyson would have beat the 2005 version, but he’s still in excellent shape for a person in hid mid-50s.
“What do you have to be in order to be brave? You have to be afraid to be brave,” said Mike Tyson on his Instagram account.
“That’s what makes people say you’re brave because they know you’re afraid and now you’re facing something that is unnatural to be. But you control your fear and you face it,” said Mike Tyson.
Jones and Tyson should have fought already
It seems like the Tyson-Jones has been scheduled for ages, as it’s been slow in coming on. There was more fan interest when it was first announced than there is now, and that’s the attrition.
The Tyson vs. Jones fight was announced three months ago in July, and there’s still one more month go to before the match takes place. Four months is too long of a period to build a fight when it’s not heavily promoted like normal pay-per-view contests.
They wanted more time to build the Jones vs. Tyson fight, but it seems like it hasn’t helped the fight by delaying it so long.
If Tyson wants to continue his exhibition matches, it would be good to select heavyweights rather than choose smaller former light heavyweights like Jones. In Jones’ case, his best weight class was at 160.
That was when he was at his best. He didn’t move up to 168 until he started to age, and he moved up for the easier fights at super middleweight. That move helped Jones’ career because if he had stayed at 160, he would have had many hard fights against guys like Bernard Hopkins, who gave him a lot of trouble in their first fight.
Roy’s weak chin may betray him
Jones’ chin problems that he’s had since 2004 makes him an unsuitable opponent for Mike’s November 28th fight. Roy gets hurt too easily, and he probably won’t make it out of the first round against Tyson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHd47-lwmMk&t=102s
For the boxing fans paying to watch the Tyson vs. Jones fight, as long as they know the contest will likely end early, then it’s no big deal. But if they think this fight will go eight rounds, they’re going to be disappointed. You can see how Tyson is hitting the pads that he’s going to tear Jones apart once he starts landing.
Jones is in good shape, but he’s an elderly look to him now, and he appears fragile even though he’s in shape for a 51-year-old.