Back in their primes, Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. couldn’t be touched inside the ring. And few were as exciting to watch as those two.
Tyson was the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history and reigned as the undisputed champion from 1987 to 1990. Jones is a former four-division world champion who rarely lost a round inside the squared circle during his magnificent run in the 1990s and mid-2000s. In March 2003, Jones became the first boxer in more than 100 years to start his career as a middleweight and win a heavyweight title, defeating John Ruiz to win a major belt.
At the time, a dream fight scenario emerged that would pit Tyson against Jones, but Tyson had taken a sabbatical, and Jones vacated the title and went back down to light heavyweight. Seventeen years later, Tyson and Jones will lock horns in an eight-round exhibition on Sept. 12 in Carson, Calif.
While Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) and Jones (66-9, 47 KOs) represent the old guard, the new guard in the land of the giants features titleholders Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. Fans always speculate how active fighters would fare against the greats from the past. Jones was asked this question in an interview with Sky Sports: How would he and Tyson could do if paired with the Brits.
The 51-year-old believes they would have been able to take care of business against Fury and Joshua.
“Not right now,” Jones said. “It would be hard for us to last 12 rounds with any of those guys. They are skilled fighters, not bad boxers. They are not as skilled as we were, but they are in their primes, and we are not.
“In our primes? We would probably have beaten them. You can never say, but I think we would probably have beaten them. Our skill level was deeper at that time than it is now.
“In our prime, we would have come out on top against most of those guys. But you never know because it never happened, so you can’t discredit those guys. They are good fighters, well-respected fighters, and my hat is off to them because they are at the top.”
Fury and Joshua have tentatively agreed to a two-fight series in 2021. But for those bouts to happen, Fury must get by Deontay Wilder in their third fight, expected to occur on Dec. 19, and Joshua is supposed to defend his belt against Kubrat Pulev later this year.