Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr – Live Results

By Boxing News - 11/28/2020 - Comments

By Mark Eisner: Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr fought to a disappointing eight-round draw on Saturday night in their $50 pay-per-view exhibition match at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

The fight had no scores. The judges saw it as a draw, which isn’t good for Tyson because he wants to continue selling his exhibition matches on PPV.

After tonight, Tyson may have a difficult time doing that unless he faces someone that the fans are interested in seeing. Above all, they will want to see real action, not the ugly holding that Roy Jones Jr tonight that marred the event.

The 51-year-old Jones spent most of the fight clinching, and trying to keep from getting separated from his senses by the 54-year-old former heavyweight champion Tyson.

The rounds were only two minutes, which helped Jones survive for eight rounds without getting knocked cold by the much more powerful Tyson.

It looked almost like Tyson was intentionally holding back from throwing headshots with mean intentions. Most of his shots were aimed at Jones’ body rather than his head, and that was a clear hint that he wasn’t trying to knock him out.

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In the final round, Jones threw some speedy combinations, but with no power on them. Tyson was still landing the much harder shots, but he wasn’t going for Jones’ head.

With Roy’s history of suffering repeated knockouts, it would have been logical for Tyson to target his head if this was a real fight. It was obvious that they were just playing around and not going all out.

If Tyson is going to sell his exhibition matches to the public, he needs to shoot for knockouts. The fans aren’t going to want to pay $50 to watch Tyson take it easy on his opponents.

Boxing News 24 had Tyson winning seven rounds to one. Jones was there to spoil, so it was hard to give him any rounds.

Live updates for Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr card:

  • Undefeated lightweight Jamaine Ortiz (14-0, 8 KOs) stopped Sulaiman Segawa (13-3-1, 4 KOs) in the seventh round. Ortiz put Segawa down with a hard shot to the body in the seventh. After Segawa got back up, Ortiz finished him off with several hard shots. The time of the stoppage was at 2:50 of round seven.
  • Featherweight Edward Vazquez (9-0, 1 KO) defeated Irvin Gonzalez (14-3, 11 KOs) by an eight-round split decision. The scores were 77-75, 77-75 for Vazquez, and 77-75 for Gonzalez.
  • In a mismatch, former two-division world champion Badou Jack (23-3-3, 13 KOs) easily defeated inexperienced club fighter Blake McKernan (13-1, 6 KOs) by a one-sided eight-round unanimous decision. The scores were 80-72, 80-72, and 80-72. The little known McKernan survived by staying on the move constantly, and not letting Jack have a stationary target. The fight was like watching a cat chase a mouse for eight rounds. In other words, it didn’t resemble a fight.
  • In easily the worst fight on the card thus far, Youtuber Jake Paul (2-0, 2 KOs) picked up his second career professional win in stopping NBA player Nate Robinson (0-1) in a second-round KO in a fight at cruiserweight. Paul flattened the 36-year-old Robinson with a right hand to the head in the second round. He was knocked cold. For the record, Paul dropped Robinson twice in the second round, and two more times in the opening round, although he only received credit for one of them. The time of the stoppage was 1:35 of round two. Robinson looked like he hadn’t even trained at all for the fight, as he was charging forward wildly from the opening round without any strategy. It was wild swinging. Jake is capable of beating much better than this, it’s disappointing that Robinson was the best that they could come with. The first knockdown in the opening round from a rabbit punch from Jake to the back of Robinson’s head. But as wild as the fight action was, it’s not surprising that there was an illegal punch. The fight was mostly Robinson dashing forward and clinching Paul, who was didn’t know how to fight his way out of a clinch. For a guy with no amateur boxing experience, Jake Paul looked impressive tonight. This guy is a born fighter.

Preview:

Former world champions Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr will be returning to the ring for an eight-round exhibition match tonight on pay-per-view at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

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The former IBF/WBA/WBC heavyweight champion Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) hasn’t fought since 2005, and he’s 54-years-old.

Difficult to know what we’ll get from Tyson-Jones

Tyson said he had to lose 100 pounds to get down to the 220 lbs that he weighed in at last Friday. At the weigh-in, Tyson looked pretty old even though he was in great shape for a 54-year-old.

Image: Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr - Live Results

For his part, the 51-year-old Jones Jr (66-9, 47 KOs) is coming out of a two-year period of inactivity. He last fought in 2018, and he looked a little flabby around the midsection in coming in at 210 lbs at the weigh-in.

For the boxing fans that remembered how toned Jones Jr was when he was his prime at middleweight, he looked nothing like that last Friday. He looks soft despite having trained for months.

A lot of boxing fans are expecting an early knockout for Tyson over Jones, and for good reason. Jones Jr has shown no ability to ake a punch since his knockout loss to Antonio Tarver in 2004.

The rules for the Tyson vs. Jones exhibition match have proven to be off-putting for a lot of boxing fans, who decided not to pay the $50 asking price when they learned about them.

Tyson vs. Jones rules

There was talk for a while about knockouts not being allowed, and there wouldn’t be a winner. That’s now changed, but too late in the game to lure the fans back that heard about them.

Image: Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr - Live Results

The California Commission wants the exhibition match between Tyson and Jones to be a sparring type of fight, which is fine except the fact that boxing fans are paying $50 during the pandemic. That’s a huge amount of money for a lot of people, and that want to get value, not see play fighting.

The current rules are as follows for Tyson vs. Jones:

  • No headgear
  • Eight rounds
  • The fight can be halted if either fighter is cut

In the chief support fight, Youtuber Jake Paul will be taking on NBA player Nate Robinson. That match is obviously targeted towards Paul’s Youtube followers rather than serious boxing fans, who feel that fight is a joke and not worth paying for.