British boxing legend Nigel Benn sends warning to Roy Jones Jr
Two-weight world champion Nigel Benn showed his stark concern for former boxing great Roy Jones Jr ahead of his proposed bout with 'Iron' Mike Tyson.
He said in an interview with Press Box PR "I take my hat off to Roy, but even if Mike Tyson was smoking a spliff, I still wouldn't get it in the ring with him!
"I really take my hat off to Roy because they are bone crunching shots that he will face. All Tyson has to do is collar you and that’s it. Those are brain damage shots.
"Personally, I wouldn't get in there even if I was fit. Regardless of Roy dancing around trying to pick him off, I don’t know if he’s got the power to hold him off.
"He’s an animal, when Tyson hits you, you stay hit. Roy’s a good fighter, he likes to hit and move, hit and move, but if you can’t stop someone like Tyson, he’ll walk straight through you – you need to bang him out regardless of how fast your hands are.
"He’s too powerful, he’ll get himself into shape and come out like a racehorse because he’s not going to come in and make himself look silly. I believe Tyson stops him. He’s just too powerful."
Ranked the fourth best British super-middleweight of all time, 'The Dark Destroyer', now aged 56, believes that 51-year-old Roy Jones Jr has an element of fear ahead of the showdown, despite being a four-weight world champion who held world titles from middleweight up to heavyweight.
"If you listen to the way Roy is talking, there’s a lot of fear there. I would be, look who he’s getting in the ring with.
"He’s talking about how big and powerful Tyson is – he’s not just hyping the fight – it’s the truth. I wouldn't get in the ring with him.
"All you need is to take one shot and that is it, over with. When you watch him hit the pads you can see he’s not playing around.
"It’s going to be a hard night for Roy. He might be getting 10 or 12 million, but it’s not worth it, because all you need is to take one hit.
"We’ve seen Roy get knocked out by nobodies, getting stopped in his last fight, now he’s fighting.
"I think it’s a bad move to tell you the truth. Who wants to get in the ring with Mike Tyson?"
Benn then revealed that he offered Jones Jr a fight when he was making his own comeback very recently, which was cancelled due to an injury sustained in training.
"When I was making a comeback we were talking to Roy Jones but he wasn’t having any of it.
"When Chris Eubank didn’t want to know, we were calling Roy out and thought we were getting somewhere, my agent has all the paperwork, I can send you it, but he backed out. It became about a bigger payday."
Changing subjects from past boxers to present, the Londoner, who won 42 from 48 bouts, blasted American Deontay Wilder as "one of the worst boxers going".
"I don’t know why Fury is having a third fight with Wilder, he needs fresh blood and that blood is Anthony Joshua or Dillian Whyte.
"He beat Wilder easily; it's a waste of time. Wilder has only got a puncher's chance. He can’t outbox Fury, Fury is like a magician when it comes to movement.
"He holds Wilder’s card, he can see his punches coming. Wilder is like a windmill, he’s rubbish, he’s one of the worst boxers going."
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