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It seems inevitable that some day, somebody is going to promote a match pitting an elite-level boxer against an elite-level mixed martial artist.

For the past year, former pound-for-pound boxing kingpin Roy Jones Jr. and current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva have talked about being the first to do a fight that would be a subject of much curiosity.

Silva has talked of wanting to test himself by boxing Jones, which UFC president Dana White nixed immediately. Silva still has four fights left on his UFC contract and it makes no business sense to risk one of your prime stars in a dangerous sport.

Jones, at 40, a Hall of Famer who is clearly past his prime as a boxer, has no big money matches lined up. So he has offered himself up to fight Silva in a cage under MMA rules, which, if nothing else, greatly changes the odds on who would win such a fight in favor of Silva.
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White nixed that idea as well. He said he could probably promote it into being a big fight, but he felt it could hurt MMA in the long run and blew it off as something that would be done in Japan. Freak-show fights did huge business in Japan over the short-term. One can’t point to such fights as the direct reason MMA and kickboxing interest in Japan has faded, but it doesn’t appear it was a long-term positive.

After UFC turned Jones down, Nick Diaz’s camp talked to Strikeforce promoter Scott Coker, saying if Jones was willing to do MMA, they were interested in such a fight.

Coker said Wednesday it hadn’t gotten past one phone call from Diaz’s manager earlier that morning. At the same press call, Showtime vice president Ken Hershman seemingly nipped the idea in the bud.

“I get a Roy Jones call once a week pitching me things,” said Hershman. “[The fight] would be a very long shot of ever happening.”

When asked if that was due to financial reasons or sport reasons, Hershman indicated the latter.

“It has nothing to do with money,” he said. “I think it’s an insult to the integrity of mixed martial arts to think Roy Jones, or any professional boxer, could just come in and fight Nick Diaz in a mixed martial arts context. In a boxing context, it’s completely different.”

But such a fight would not be dismissed by one of the country’s most influential sanctioning bodies. Keith Kizer, the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, indicated he would not oppose an MMA rules match with Jones, at 0-0 in the sport, against even Anderson Silva (24-4), the best middleweight in the sport.

“You’ve got to give Roy Jones a lot of credit,” said Kizer. “At the end of the day, the most dangerous part of the sport [of MMA] is striking, not leglocks or chokes. It’s very different from Butterbean and Mark Hunt [a proposed 2006 boxer vs. MMA fight Kizer refused to sanction under MMA rules]. He [Butterbean] wasn’t a top athlete and the MMA fights he had were with rules limiting the ground time.”

Kizer felt in the interest of fairness, a Jones vs. Silva fight would be best under more neutral kickboxing rules, but also indicated he would sanction it under boxing rules as well, feeling Silva has proven himself to be a top-level striker, and Jones is a proven elite-level athlete.

Cammo101 wrote:I bet Anderson would stand with Jones under MMA rules. And it would likely be a great fight.

CPT wrote:Guys with that kind of athleticism who actually train MMA? Now we're talking.

CPT wrote:I kinda feel like they should let him try now.

Mercer beating Sylvia leaves a real bad taste in my mouth (and I am not a Tim Sylvia fan by any means). I'd really like to see that get evened out by having RJJ come in and get dismantled by Silva, or even Diaz or someone in Strikeforce.

Oh, and please tell me you aren't serious with LeBron James and Dwight Howard. 155ers would have those guys slapping the mat in about 30 seconds. Guys with that kind of athleticism who actually train MMA? Now we're talking.

Headliner wrote:what weight would Roy fight at?