By Sean Jones: Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr will have a potential winner in their eight-round exhibition match this Saturday on pay-per-view. The rule changes may help more boxing fans to decide whether to order the $49.99 Tyson vs. Jones exhibition match on pay-per-view.
It’s too bad this is coming at the last minute because many fans have likely already made up their minds not to order the Tyson-Jones fight due to the previous rules preventing a knockout result.
According to Ray Kavanaugh, the co-founder of Triller, knockouts are NOW allowed, and the judges will score the contest if it goes the full eight-round distance and announces the winner.
The rule change is a huge departure from the previous rules, which said there would be no knockouts allowed, and there wouldn’t be a winner, period.
With the new changes from Triller, fans will get to see a fight that will play out like a traditional boxing match, apart from the 12-oz gloves, two-minute rounds
“Anyone who is saying this isn’t a real fight, or there won’t be a knockout or winner is now realizing uh oh…this is real. I think people were just in disbelief they were actually going to witness a real Tyson fight.
“But it is as real as real gets. There will be a winner. Knockouts are allowed. There will be scoring. Betting has been approved,” said Kavanaugh.
Timing not great for Tyson-Jones on PPV
The organizers could have selected a better time to stage the Tyson vs. Jones PPV exhibition match. Right now, it’s not the ideal time to be charging boxing fans $50 to watch an eight-round exhibition match between two 50+-year-old former world champions.
It would have been better for the promoters of this event to wait until late 2021 before staging the event because by then, we’d likely have a vaccine out, and the U.S would be returning to normalcy more or less.
The co-feature fight between YouTuber Jake Paul and former NBA player Nate Robinson is also a poor fight for the card.
Boxing fans don’t want to see this fight, and if they were sitting on the fence wondering whether they should purchase it, this fight is a good reason not to.
Will you spend $50 on Tyson vs. Jones?
“If you want to purchase this fight go right ahead, more power to you, but don’t expect to see a 2003 Mike Tyson and 2003 Roy Jones,” said Chris Mannix. “Back then, Tyson vs. Jones was a big deal.
“That was when Jones won the heavyweight title from John Ruiz, and Tyson was still around. That would have been, I can’t even imagine how much money that would have accused in pay-per-view buys.
“But it would have been a huge, huge pay-per-view number. Maybe close to five million on the popularity of those two fighters at that time. Now, Tyson has been out of the ring officially for 15 years.
“He fought an exhibition in 2006. That was goofy against Corey Sanders. Roy Jones has been more active. He’s been out of the ring for almost three years, but he’s been well past his prime for over a decade.
“When you factor that in with these California rules, the referee is literally under orders to break this fight up if it gets too physical.
“If you want to see a shirtless Mike Tyson against a shirtless Roy Jones in a throwback type of fight with two 50-year-olds, okay.
“That will be on your screen, but do not exact an actual fight. It’s not going to be a fight. It wouldn’t be a fight anyway, and the California Commission said they wouldn’t allow it.”