Anyone have any insight on this fight that was considered by Jones? How close did it come to being made? At what stage was Tyson in on his career? Did they have talks? Thanks in advance.
There were big talks of it after Roy beat Ruiz... And also after Roy beat Tarver.. I am not sure how close it was to getting done, but it went away when Roy was knocked out.
I am not sure about Tyson. But I know Roy signed to fight Buster Douglas, but his dad came in and stongly insisted Roy back out, so he did.
The version of Tyson that was kicking around when Jones beat Ruiz was a very beatable Tyson for RJJ, Tyson from the 80's and 90's is a whole different thing.
It was considered for around the time the Tarver fight took place. It was pretty close to being made, since Mike was desperate for money and Roy wanted to cash in and get out safely (at the time). People forget that Roy had only just evolved into a big draw. He'd been making nice paydays his whole career, but with the Ruiz win he had finally evolved into a pay per view star while also simoultaneously earning respect of hard core fans and mainstream public. In retrospect, not making the fight was a catastrophic blunder. Not only did Roy lose out on something like a guaranteed 20 million (plus a cut of PPV), it also would have been another huge scalp for his resume. Tyson would have been a threat for four rounds, but if Roy survived he would have picked Tyson apart badly. After the Ruiz fight, people were discussing where Roy fit in with Ray Robinson, Ali, Duan, Mikey Walker, etc. All of that changed when Roy fought Tarver instead.
after jones beat ruiz, oddmaker danny sheridan listed jones as a 2 to 1 favorite over tyson. that tyson, didn't train. if jones makes it out of the first three rounds, he probably stops tyson later in the fight. tyson probably couldn't have even gone 10 rounds in 2003. there were negotiations but tyson didn't have his **** together and jones decided to go back down vs tarver to stay busy. tyson finally got back in the ring vs danny williams. both, obviously, were bad decisions. too bad because even after tyson was ko'ed by lennox, jones vs tyson was predicted to be the highest grossing fight of all-time.
agreed on all points. roy was finally getting some notoriety in the main stream sports media after ruiz.
Jones was supposed to fight Tyson after the Ruiz fight but decided to give Tarver a rematch. The fight was still in plan if Jones won the rematch.
