Editor’s note: This article was originally posted on DAZN.com.
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When Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. announced they would be facing each other, some people thought it would be an actual boxing match. However, the head of the California State Athletic Commission, Andy Foster, made it clear that the eight-round exhibition wouldn’t be a real fight and would be contested with 12-ounce gloves, no headgear, and two-minute rounds instead of three.
“This isn’t a situation where they’re going out there to try to take each other’s heads off,” Foster told Yahoo Sports in July. “They’re just going to be in there moving around the ring and letting fans see these legends.”
Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) and Jones (66-9, 47 KOs) held a virtual press conference ahead of their Nov. 28 clash that will now take place at Staples Center in Los Angeles. At times, the presser got out of hand, especially when undercard fighter Jake Paul, who was at a hospital claiming that he punched his hand through a car, kept interrupting his opponent Nate Robinson and making vile comments. When Tyson and Jones were speaking, there were times you could audibly hear people who weren’t scheduled to be part of the call making remarks.
But the talk turned serious when the conversation turned to Foster’s comments a few months back. Tyson got upset that Foster would call it anything but a real fight between the former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and the former four-division titleholder.
“Listen, I do not know what you’re talking about,” Tyson said. “What’s not a real fight? You got Mike Tyson and Roy Jones. I’m coming to fight, and I hope he’s coming to fight. That’s all you need to know.”
The former pound-for-pounder echoed Tyson’s sentiments but sounded more perturbed about it than his opponent.
“First of all, if you think you are going into the ring with Mike Tyson, the last guy that did an ‘exhibition’ with Mike got dropped in the first round,” Jones said. “If you don’t know that, then something is wrong with you. Who goes into the ring with the great, legendary Mike Tyson and thinks, ‘Oh, this is going to be an exhibition?’ 12-ounce gloves? No headgear? Really? This is an exhibition? Come on, man. Be for real’.”
Regardless of what Foster had to say, Tyson, 54, made it clear that he’s going in with the same game plan he’s always had whenever he stepped inside the ring.
“My objective,” he said, “is to go in there with the best intentions of my life and disable my opponent.”
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