By Barry Holbrook: Roy Jones Jr expects a vintage Mike Tyson when they get inside the ring this month in their eight-round exhibition match on pay-per-view on November 28th.
Tyson says he’s going to be looking to “disable” Roy Jones, and he sees this as a real fight, not an exhibition. That’s bad news potentially for Jones, who has been knocked out five times since 2004. These far lesser punchers than Tyson, but they had enough power to knock Jones out.
Despite what California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) executive officer Andy Foster says about the Tyson-Jones Jr fight being just an exhibition, Roy (66-9, 47 KOs) believes that Mike, 54, is going to be trying to knock him out.
50-6, 44 KOs).
In other words, Jones, 51, isn’t going to go out there and spar with former IBF/WBA/WBC heavyweight champion Tyson because he knows his chances of staying in there with him won’t be good.
Jones is displeased with the recent changes made in the time of each round, which was originally was three minutes. Now they’re eight two-minute rounds, and Roy believes that’s going to help Tyson out because he showed stamina problems in the past.
Mike Tyson has had stamina problems
In Tyson’s last two fights of his career in 2004 and 2005 against Danny Williams and Kevin McBride, he was spent by the fourth round. That was when Tyson a lot younger than he is now.
“Are you crazy with this?” Jones said about Tyson taking their eight-round exhibition seriously and viewing it as a real fight. “Of course, he is. This is Mike Tyson we’re talking about here, man. This is Mike Tyson.
“You think he’s going to go out there and say, ‘Oh, I can’t hit too hard because the guy from the commission is going to be angry?’ No. No way is he going to do that. This is a fight and I have to be ready for that,” said Roy Jones Jr to Yahoo Sports News.
During their recent news conference, Mike Tyson sounded like he’s not going to be playing around when he gets in the ring with Jones at the end of November. You can’t blame Tyson though, as that’s the way he’s always fought.
For Tyson to try and change his fighting style at his age, it could end badly for him. If ‘Iron’ Mike stays in first great trying not to hurt Jones, he’s going to get out-boxed and made to look silly by the former four-division world champion.
Jones Jr will easily outbox Tyson
Most boxing fans would agree that Jones is the superior boxer to Tyson, which is why it’s not a good idea for Mike to coast through eight rounds. Should Mike do that, Jones is going to make him look silly by beating him in a dominant manner.
Tyson obviously wants to not tarnish his legacy by looking bad against Roy, and it’s possible that he’ll be doing additional exhibition matches in the future. If Roy clowns Tyson for eight rounds, it’ll be difficult for the former heavyweight champion to sell his future exhibition matches to the boxing public.
That’s why it’s likely that Tyson is going to be trying to take Jones’ head off on November 28th because there’s too much on the line for this fight.
“Listen, I don’t know what [Andy Foster’s] talking about that this is not a real fight,” Tyson said. “You got Mike Tyson, and Roy Jones and I’m coming to fight, and I hope he’s coming to fight. That’s all you need to know.”
“My objective is to go in there with the best intentions of my life to, you know, disable my opponent. That’s what it is,” said Tyson.