Boxing
Roy Jones challenges Floyd Mayweather Jr to a 'real fight'
Usyk vs Dubois - July 19 on DAZN PPV - Buy Now
Former pound-for-pound great Roy Jones Jr has called out Floyd Mayweather Jr, saying that the pair should meet in a ‘real fight’.
Speaking to Seconds Out prior to the Berlanga-Sheeraz fight this weekend, Jones said there needed to be a real fight between he and Mayweather, not an ‘exhibition’. The ‘feud’ seems to centre around on which of the pair is the ‘best ever’.
Jones, 66-10 (47), said that Floyd could only be described as being the ‘best ever’ when it came to making money.
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A recent post by Floyd Mayweather, 50-0 (27), posited that both Jones and Muhammad Ali had the same weakness in their athletic talents as both relied on their legs for defence. Once their legs began to fade, Mayweather said, was the point in which other fighters began to catch up – and defeat – them.
After Jones criticised Mayweather for his comments, Mayweather responded by posting a video to social media of Roy Jones being stopped by Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson in in 2004, and by Danny Green in 2009.
Now, Jones says that the pair should meet in a ‘real fight’. However, he acknowledged that nothing was arranged and that he had not spoken with Mayweather, saying that Mayweather’s camp knew how to ‘find’ Jones.
He said: “Ain’t gonna be no exhibition. I want it real. It makes no sense to be an exhibition. What’re we gonna play for? We both fight for real. No exhibition. We need to make it real. Exhibitions are for people playing. We ain’t playing. I ain’t, anyway.”
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As a professional, Jones was last seen in the ring in 2023, when he dropped a majority decision to debutant Anthony Pettis. Prior to that, Jones had won four bouts against lower-level opposition, with his last significant bout being against Enzo Maccarinelli in 2015 – a bout that saw Jones knocked out cold in four rounds.
Mayweather, meanwhile, has been inactive as a professional since his 2017 win over UFC star Conor McGregor. Prior to that, Mayweather had gone through a selection of the world’s best fighters around the welterweight and light-middleweight divisions.
A match between Jones and Mayweather, should it come about, would have two large obstacles to surmount: age and weight. Jones is 56 years old, which Mayweather is 48. Jones was also most dominant in his career around 175lbs, a weight that Mayweather never came close to reaching. At the end of his career, Jones oscillated between heavyweight and cruiserweight fights, including his exhibition against Mike Tyson in 2020.
Questioned on a potential Mayweather-Jones fight was former pound-for-pound star Andre Ward. Ward said that he did not know how to feel about the situation.
Ward said: “I do know this – they’re fighters. And entertainers and fighters are sensitive about their work. And as tough as fighters are, they are sensitive. Nobody wants you messing with their legacy or even hinting at messing with their legacy and saying anything against their legacy. So I guess Roy said something that Floyd didn’t like, you know, and Floyd responded in Floyd Mayweather fashion.”
He added: “It’s tough, man. They’re fighters. I don’t care if they’re 70, they’re going to be talking like this. So I really don’t have an opinion in terms of who’s right and who’s wrong. I just understand it.”
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