Roy Jones Jr vs Tommy ‘TNT’ Fury in Saudi Arabia soon?
Boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. has revealed that the exhibition bout with Tommy Fury is currently being negotiated and claims this fight will be bigger than his previous match with Mike Tyson.
Speaking to Casino Alpha, 54-year-old former four-weight world champion, known as RJJ, revealed he is close to securing a deal to fight active professional boxer, Tommy Fury, who is 30-years his junior at 24-years-old. The younger brother of WBC World heavyweight champ, Tyson, has just won back to back fights with YouTubers, Jake Paul and KSI, but his best win as a pro was against Daniel Bocianski, who is now 12-4.
Hears what the American had to say:
Mike Tyson and John Fury inspired me to challenge Tommy Fury; it’s under negotiation
“Me and Tommy Fury is a great idea. John Fury initially said he wanted to fight Mike Tyson, so I said If you're all going to do that, let's go and make an all-out card – if John fights Mike, I'll fight Tommy on the undercard or as the co-main, that would be awesome right? Tommy Fury said ‘alright, let's fight for real’ so I said ‘whoa okay, that might work, but I need to get these knees right first’. That's going to take me a little bit of time, not a lot of time, six to eight weeks – but we’re in talks, it's being negotiated, it's a really interesting fight because Tommy is inexperienced and that’s balanced out but my age and experience; I’m a 55 year old guy who can actually fight for real and I’d be fighting a guy who's not really that experienced, but who is built right and who can get the job done, it’s an even fight. If the money is right it will be good, but if it's not a crazy, astronomical amount of money, why would I do it?”
This could be bigger than my exhibition with Mike Tyson
“Me and Tommy could be bigger than me and Mike Tyson because who would ever have thought they'd see Fury versus Roy Jones? The idea would be out of the question but because of social media and Tommy's popularity it becomes a possibility. This fight would be huge when you look at it from a social media standpoint and it's a fact that it's a 50-50 fight.
“The social media audience like to see these big events ‘can this old guy keep this young guy off him?’ ‘Is the young guy good enough to overpower this old guy?’ In boxing most of the time we know who's going to win, we don't want to see that. We want to see something that's more interesting to us. Can Roy Jones Jr at 55 jump in the ring with young Tommy Fury, who knows what might happen. That's what boxing's about; the suspense, the buildup, the hype of what might happen and who may prevail? I can prevail. He can prevail. That's what makes boxing big.”
I am 54 but I still have enough to ‘outsmart’ Fury
“I should be able to defend myself. Keep him away. Keep him off balance and outsmart him. I should be able to do all the things that I know I can do. I know my reflexes are not what they used to be. I know my legs aren't the same, but I still should have enough to neutralise Tommy Fury and anything he brings to me. I should beat Tommy Fury. I was a professional boxer by trade. That's what I grew up doing. That's not what Tommy Fury is. He took up boxing later.”
I am 75% confident we’ll square off and I’ll travel to Saudi Arabia or the UK
“I haven't heard anymore about John Fury and Mike Tyson, but Tommy Fury said ‘hey, we can still do our thing and do our own exhibition’. And I said ‘that's not a bad idea but the money will have to be right’. But guess what? In Saudi Arabia right now it will probably be right. Saudi Arabia at the moment will probably pay what I'm looking for to make an exhibition happen. Dealing with the Saudis I'll say that I'm 75% sure this exhibition happens against Tommy Fury.
“And if the money is not right in Saudi Arabia then maybe me and Tommy could do an exhibition in the UK, that would be the first time that I ever had the chance to perform in the UK. Would I really say no to that? I believe people in the UK would support that fight. I've got a lot of fans in the UK and I think they'll have enough fan exposure to get some interest in staging that.”
It’s always a risk when you box, but i’m motivated by Saudi riches or the chance to fight in the UK
“I fought a guy in April who’s more experienced than Tommy and dealt with it, but it's always a risk when you're going to the boxing ring, but if the Saudis put the money up, you can't turn that kind of money down. Secondly, if the Saudis aren't interested, it could be my only chance to perform in the UK, so they are the two things that are motivating me, but if neither of those are on the table it won't happen. But if the opportunity is there to make the biggest payday of my career, how could you turn that down? If it's not the biggest payday of my career I won't do it.”
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