Roy Jones Jr. decided to come out of retirement for a boxing match against former UFC champion Anthony Pettis, despite initially having no plans to compete again.
Roy Jones Jr., the legendary former multi-division boxing champion, thought he was done competing after celebrating his 54th birthday in January. He had no plans of returning to the ring again until he received a call that former UFC champion Anthony Pettis was interested in crossing over for a boxing match. Unable to resist the opportunity, Jones signed up for the fight, recalling a previous plan to fight Anderson Silva that never materialized.
At the Gamebred Boxing 4 press conference, Jones expressed his excitement in facing Pettis, who was known for his creative and innovative skills in the MMA ring. “For me to get the opportunity to face somebody who has that same type of creative mind in their own respective sport as I have in boxing, it’s like, ‘Wait a minute — should you say no to this?'” Jones said. This would also be his first-ever fight in Milwaukee, so the opportunity seemed too good to pass up.
Crossover fights between boxing and MMA have become fairly common in recent years, and Jones credits himself for initially sparking the idea when he pursued a fight with Silva, who at the time was still the UFC middleweight champion. While that match never happened, Jones still wanted to participate in a crossover fight with an MMA great. Despite looking forward to the match against Pettis, Jones promises that this would be a one-night only affair, with no plans to pursue future fights against boxers or MMA fighters.
Jones remains cautious in his approach, knowing that Pettis is taking this fight seriously and is training hard to make a smooth transition to boxing. Drawing inspiration from Jake Paul’s success in his own transition, Jones is aware that Pettis is determined to “get a win” and potentially move on to “bigger and better things.”