Boxing legend Roy Jones Jr., a 64-fight veteran, says his forthcoming fight against Bobby Gunn is a tune-up for a match against UFC middleweight Anderson Silva.
The “freak show” fight has been a dream of Silva for years, and more recently Jones Jr. has also talked of it actually happening.
He told Boxing News Online:
He said that's his lifelong dream. We've got to make that happen. He's a great striker and great defender.
If [Silva] beats [Chris] Weidman, then we'll do a boxing match which is what he wants to do. The Gunn fight would give me a tune up so I'm ready for the fight in case he beats Weidman. So if he beats Weidman I've got to be ready for it because he's going to be coming for me and I want to be ready when he comes for me. I want to give him what he wants.
Silva is one of MMA’s greatest strikers, and he’s long talked of the 44-year-old boxer Jones Jr. as an inspiration.
Silva was the UFC’s longest reigning champion until he lost his middleweight title to Chris Weidman this summer. Jones Jr. was at that fight in Las Vegas and after the loss, offered the Brazilian words of encouragement.
There’s clearly a lot of respect between the two combat athletes. However, it’s uncertain why Jones Jr. believes Silva needs to beat Weidman before he’ll fight him, considering the fight is just a media spectacle which will have absolutely no bearing on either man’s sport. Indeed they both might as well play poker.
Still, if Silva does beat Weidman, other more common sense “superfights” could reappear on the horizon—such as against Jon Jones or Georges St. Pierre. So Jones Jr.’s “tune-up” against Gunn in December, may be for nothing.
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