Notebook: Roy Jones exits retirement to box MMA star Anthony Pettis
Top Rank schedules two title bouts; unified champ Teraji gets new foe; Murata officially retires; Kovalev update; Quick hits; Show and tell
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For a decade, from about 1994 to 2004, Roy Jones Jr. was widely viewed as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. He was an electrifying fighter with power and speed, and otherworldly reflexes.
At any moment, Jones might do something in the ring that would leave those watching in awe. He won world titles in four divisions: middleweight, super middleweight, undisputed light heavyweight and his historic heavyweight title victory in 2003.
His return to light heavyweight in 2004 meant cutting nearly 20 pounds, much of it muscle. It badly depleted Jones and he was never the same.
From there, Jones lost three of his next four fights in what became a long fade for the all-time great, who was voted as the 1990s fighter of the decade by the Boxing Writers Association of America and inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame last summer.
Jones would fight for another 14 years and even had a few bigger fights in losses to Joe Calzaghe and a rematch with Bernard Hopkins. His last notable win came when he sent the smaller Felix Trinidad back into retirement in 2008.
Finally, in February 2018, Jones returned home to Pensacola, Florida, for a farewell fight, won a lopsided 10-round decision over journeyman Scott Sigmon and retired, staying around the sport as a trainer and continuing with broadcast gigs here and there.
He was back in the spotlight in November 2020 when, at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic and with most the United States essentially on lockdown, he squared off in an exhibition bout with Mike Tyson that did more than 1 million pay-per-view buys, but that was an unofficial fight with neither man going all out.
But Jones, even now at age 54 and already in the Hall of Fame, has not had enough of the ring and will exit a five-year retirement Saturday for what he has said is a one-shot deal.
He will face former UFC champion Anthony Pettis, who will make his professional boxing debut, in a six-round heavyweight bout. It headlines a $49.99 pay-per-view card put on by MMA star Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebred Boxing at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Pettis’ hometown. The event (9 p.m. ET) is available via InDemand, PPV.com and UFC Fight Pass PPV.
‘I wanted to fight Anderson Silva back in the day, but it kept getting pushed to the side. When they told me about the Pettis fight, it was intriguing,’ — Roy Jones
The rest of the card is filled with other boxing matches involving boxers and MMA fighters, including former UFC champion Vitor Belfort (1-0, 1 KO), who knocked out a long-faded Evander Holyfield in the first round of an exhibition bout in September 2021, taking on former Strikeforce champion and Brazilian countryman Ronaldo Souza in a six-round heavyweight fight.
For years, Jones (66-9, 47 KOs) dreamed of a crossover fight with MMA legend Anderson Silva, who has dabbled in professional boxing and lost a decision to Jake Paul last year. Jones never got the fight with Silva but when a fight with Pettis, 37, was broached he was interested.
“I wanted to fight Anderson Silva back in the day, but it kept getting pushed to the side,” Jones said. “When they told me about the Pettis fight, it was intriguing. He’s done things in MMA that no one has ever done. To face someone else with the same kind of creative mind, I couldn’t say no to it.
“He’s different and he’s very creative with his style. He knows what he’s doing. He’s sparring with guys like former (super middleweight) world champion Caleb Plant. That’s the right kind of sparring. He’s not playing boxing, he’s serious about it.”
For Pettis, facing Jones will be surreal.
“It’s crazy to be in this position and be fighting Roy Jones Jr. in my first boxing fight,” Pettis said. “This is a challenge I’ve been waiting for. You can’t say no to an opportunity like this. This is the kind of challenge that wakes me up every morning and makes me want to bring it.
“I’m just straight boxing now. I’m finding the best boxers I can spar with. I’m living the lifestyle. How could you not be motivated when facing a guy like Roy? I’ve done so much in MMA, but I grew up watching fights like Oscar De La Hoya versus Felix Trinidad. Watching that is why I got into combat sports.”
While crossover fights between boxers and MMA fighters has become normal in recent years — the 2017 Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor boxing match headlined the second-highest grossing combat sports event of all time — Jones said he always regretted not taking part in one despite so much conversation about a match with Silva.
“I feel like I was the first person to come up with the crossover boxing versus MMA fight idea, but I never got to do it,” Jones said. “This was the perfect opportunity. I know that he’s gonna go hard with his boxing, because he’s facing one of the greats. If I were playing Michael Jordan one-on-one (in basketball), I’d put everything into it.
“My game is to help put on an awesome card for the people. My goal in boxing has always been to give the people what they want to see. I love the fact that I get to fight in a place I’ve never been. They have the ‘Greek Freak’ (NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee), and we’re both freaks in the ring, so why not make it happen? When you get the opportunity, you gotta shoot, and that’s what we do.”
Jones downplayed his age and inactivity.
“I’m older, but I’m still wise,” he said. “What better way for (Pettis) to learn boxing than against someone who knows basically everything about the sport?”
Top Rank title doubleheader
Top Rank on Wednesday made official a world title doubleheader on May 13 (ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET) at Stockton Arena in Stockton, California.
Janibek Alimkhanuly will defend the WBO middleweight against Steven Butler in the main event and Jason Moloney and Vincent Astrolabio will square off for the WBO bantamweight title left vacant in January when undisputed champion Naoya Inoue vacated to move up in weight.
“We are excited to bring two world championship fights to the wonderful fight city of Stockton,” Top Rank Chairman Bob Arum said in announcing the card. “Janibek is the most avoided middleweight in the world, but Steven Butler did not hesitate to take on the challenge. Jason Moloney has been close to a world title before, but he’ll need to be at his best to defeat a determined Filipino in Vincent Astrolabio.”
Alimkhanuly (13-0, 8 KOs), 29, a southpaw and 2016 Olympian from Kazakhstan based in Oxnard, California, will make his second title defense after a unanimous decision against Denzel Bentley in his first defense in November.
“All of the middleweights have run scared, so I give Steven Butler a lot of credit for accepting the fight,” Alimkhanuly said. “I want to unify the division, but I cannot overlook Butler. He is a tough, powerful challenger, and I look forward to giving a tremendous show.”
Butler (32-3-1, 26 KOs), 27, of Montreal, won four fights in a row in 2022 following an upset fifth-round knockout to Jose de Jesus Macias in January 2021. In the fight before that defeat, Butler was also stopped in the fifth round challenging then-WBA “regular” middleweight titlist Ryota Murata in Japan.
“No detail will be spared in this training camp. Expect a big upset on May 13,” Butler said. “I am confident that I will bring the belt back to Quebec.”
Moloney (25-2, 19 KOs), 32, of Australia, will be getting his third title shot, having suffered both of his losses in his previous title bouts, by split decision challenging Emmanuel Rodriguez in 2018 and by seventh-round knockout to unified champion Inoue in 2020. Moloney has won four fights in a row since the loss to Inoue.
“On May 13 I will become champion of the world. Nineteen years of hard work, countless sacrifices, and complete dedication to the sport all come down to this moment,” Moloney said. “Whatever it takes to have this world championship wrapped around my waist, nothing will stop me.”
The Philippines’ Astrolabio (18-3, 13 KOs), 25, whose biggest win came via close decision against Guillermo Rigondeaux 13 months ago, also had the option of fighting for the vacant IBF title but opted for the WBO route.
“Since I started boxing my dream was to fight for a world title, and dreams do come true with hard work,” the Manny Pacquiao-promoted Astrolabio said. “I have played this moment over and over in my head, and I will not be denied the world title.”
Featured on the ESPN+-streamed undercard will be Stockton lightweight Gabriel Flores Jr. (21-2, 7 KOs), 22, who face an opponent to be determined as he seeks to rebound from a 10-round decision loss to Giovanni Cabrera.
New challenger for Teraji
WBC/WBA junior flyweight titlist Kenshiro Teraji will defend against Anthony Olascuaga on April 8 (ESPN+, 3 a.m. ET) at Ariake Arena in Koto, Japan.
Olascuaga is the late replacement for WBO titleholder Jonathan Gonzalez, who was forced to withdraw from the three-belt unification bout last Thursday after being diagnosed with mycoplasma pneumoniae, a kind of bacterial infection of the respiratory system.
Organizers hope to reschedule the bout later in the year but now Teraji (20-1, 12 KOs), 31, of Japan, will face Olascuaga (5-0, 3 KOs), 24, of Los Angeles. The fight will be Teraji’s first since he dropped countryman Hiroto Kyoguchi twice in a seventh-round knockout to unify 108-pound belts and win The Ring magazine title in November.
There will be four other bouts on the stream:
The pro boxing debut of Japanese kickboxing superstar Tenshin Nasukawa against Yuki Yonaha in a six-round junior featherweight bout, which is the official main event. Nasukawa, who is 42-0 as a kickboxer, is best known to boxing fans for being dropped three times and drilled in the first round of an exhibition versus then-41-year-old and much bigger Floyd Mayweather in 2018.
Japan’s Takuma Inoue (17-1, 4 KOs), 27, Naoya’s younger brother, against former junior bantamweight titlist Liborio Solis (35-6-1, 16 KOs), 40, of Venezuela, for vacant WBA bantamweight title. Takuma Inoue will get his second title shot, having dropped a decision to Nordine Oubaali for the WBC belt in 2019. Solis is getting his fifth shot (0-4 with a no contest) at a bantamweight title.
An IBF featherweight eliminator between Reiya Abe (24-3-1, 10 KOs), 29, a Japanese southpaw, and former featherweight and junior featherweight titlist Kiko Martinez (44-11-2, 31 KOs), 36, of Spain.
Jin Sasaki (14-1-1, 13 KOs), 21, of Japan, facing countryman Keita Obara (26-4-1, 23 KOs), 36, in a 12-round regional welterweight title bout.
Quick hits
After former WBA middleweight titlist and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Ryota Murata (16-3, 13 KOs), 37, told media in late February he was probably retiring from boxing, the Japanese star made it official on Tuesday at a news conference in Tokyo. Murata’s final bout was a ninth-round knockout loss to Gennadiy Golovkin in their IBF/WBA unification fight in April in Saitama, Japan. Murata won the WBA “regular” title by seventh-round knockout of Hassan N’Dam in a rematch in 2017 after having lost a split decision to N’Dam in the vacant title bout earlier that year. Murata would later lose the belt and regain it in a pair of fights with Robert Brant. “I have nothing left to prove in the boxing world,” Murata said in translated comments.
Former unified light heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev (35-4-1, 29 KOs), 39, a Russia native fighting out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has withdrawn from the chance to face Thabiso Mchunu (23-6, 13), 34, a southpaw from South Africa, in a cruiserweight title eliminator ordered by the WBC. “There was no television interest in that fight, so we withdrew from the eliminator,” Kathy Duva of Main Events, which promotes Kovalev, told Fight Freaks Unite. “We are looking into another opportunity.” After losing the WBO light heavyweight belt by 11th-round KO to Canelo Alvarez in November 2019, Kovalev did not fight again until last May, when he moved up to cruiserweight and cruised to a 10-round decision over then-unbeaten Tervel Pulev.
Uzbekistan’s Israil Madrimov (8-0-1, 6 KOs), 28, who is based in Indio, California, will face Houston southpaw Raphael Igbokwe (16-3, 7 KOs), 30, in a 10-round middleweight bout on the Jesse Rodriguez-Cristian Gonzalez undercard on April 8 (DAZN) in Rodriguez’s hometown of San Antonio. Igbokwe suffered a sixth-round knockout to Serhii Bohachuk in his last fight in September 2021. Madrimov is moving up to middleweight after two fights with Michel Soro in WBA junior middleweight eliminators, a controversial ninth-round knockout win in December 2021 that ended with Madrimov stopping him with punches way after the bell, which was so quiet the fighters and referee did not hear it, and a third-round technical draw in a rematch in July that ended with Soro unable to continue due to a cut from an accidental head butt.
Gabriel Silva, the son of MMA legend Anderson Silva, will make his pro boxing debut in a four-round middleweight fight against an opponent to be named on April 14 (UFC Fight Pass) on promoter Tom Loeffler’s 360 Promotions “Hollywood Fight Nights” card at Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. Silva, 25, Hawthorne, California, who is trained by Manny Robles, is 8-1 as a kickboxer.
The WBA canceled Tuesday’s purse bid for the delayed mandatory bout between strawweight titlist Knockout CP Freshmart (24-0, 9 KOs), 32, of Thailand, and secondary titlist Erick Rosa (5-0, 1 KO), 22, of the Dominican Republic, when the sides said they had a deal. CP Freshmart promoter Panya Prachakorn won a previous purse bid and the fight was scheduled for March 1 in Nakhon Sawan, Thailand but canceled when Rosa was detained upon his arrival because he lacked the proper visa and had a passport too close to expiration. A new purse bid was ordered but they made a new deal. They have until Monday to send the WBA signed contracts with the fight date and venue. In announcing the purse bid cancelation, the WBA added that “in the event that any of the parties refuses to comply with the contract to which both teams committed, he will lose his recognition as champion.”
Former light heavyweight world title challenger “Hot Rod” Radivoje Kalajdzic and promoter DiBella Entertainment have parted ways, making Kalajdzic a free agent, manager Ryan Rickey told Fight Freaks Unite. Kalajdzic (27-2, 19 KOs), 31, a Bosnia native fighting out of Saint Petersburg, Florida, has won three in a row since a fifth-round knockout loss challenging champion Artur Beterbiev in 2019.
Golden Boy announced it has signed lightweight Johnny Canas, 20, of Santa Ana, California, who will make his pro debut on a date to be announced. Canas, who is trained by Hector Lopez, had just eight amateur bouts but participated in the U.S. National Team. “Johnny Canas has all the qualities of a future world champion,” Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya said. “He’s been in the gym with world class fighters, battle-tested veterans and trainers. Golden Boy is confident that he will make waves in the sport.”
Show and tell
Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, who is the greatest boxing promoter of all time, is a force of nature at 91. Of course, we’ve had a few scrapes over the 23 years I’ve covered him and his events, like that time in 2019 he had his body man boot me out of an arena in Philadelphia right before the main event and I had to cover it from the ESPN production truck in the parking lot. But that’s a story for another day. All in all, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed our relationship. Arum is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met and one of the hardest workers. He hasn’t survived all these decades at the top of the rough boxing business without smarts and instincts. He can be extremely tough but he’s also generous and has a tremendous sense of humor. There isn’t a better story teller than Arum and he has a lot of them. I am thankful to have heard many.
During his career, Arum has promoted many of the biggest events in boxing history and many of the sport’s greatest stars: Muhammad Ali (27 fights), Miguel Cotto (41), Michael Carbajal (38), Oscar De La Hoya (37), Donald Curry (37), Johnny Tapia (36), Floyd Mayweather (35), James Toney (33), Erik Morales (32), Micky Ward (31), Mikey Garcia (29), Tommy Morrison (29), Freddie Roach (25), Terence Crawford (24), Marvin Hager (20), Manny Pacquiao (20) and many, many more. He promoted at least some fights for Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., Alexis Arguello, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson and Tyson Fury.
Arum has promoted nearly 1,000 shows and nearly 750 world title fights around the globe on every network imaginable. But the first ever card he ever promoted, which was headlined by Ali’s 15-round unanimous decision to retain the heavyweight title against George Chuvalo at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, took place on March 29, 1966 — 57 years ago on Wednesday. In honor of that remarkable milestone, here is a card (front and back) of Arum in my collection. It’s a cut autograph card from the 2020 Sage Sportkings multi-sport set and is a 1 of 1 — as in it’s the only one in existence.
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Murata photo: Naoki Fukuda
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I hope that RJJ and Pettis have an agreement not to make the "fight" too real.
Roy already went on far too long in his boxing career - he should have called it quits after the Calzaghe fight but he went on for almost another 10 years and was knocked out (not just TKO) twice, the one he suffered against Enzo Maccarinelli in only 4 rounds was particularly brutal.
Roy shouldn't need the money and so I don't understand why he's doing this - maybe he misses the attention. I just hope he doesn't get badly hurt.
I sure do enjoy the "Notebooks" Raffy all the news that is fit to print with no opinions or thought on the matters just the facts man just the facts. Every time i read it i have to go back a second time to check it out and make sure what i just read good stuff.
It works in music but not in Boxing is how i look at Roy Jones Jr.
I went to a blues club i saw Bobby Blue Bland later is his touring life. He was about 10 years out of him checking out of this world, but it was a great show. It reminded me of what an old R n B artist said when asked why they work so hard on their skills talents and stage show. Reply was we know that our voices and talents are not as fresh as when we were young but yet and still our fans love to hear us perform. And we love to show up for our own shows.
The differnece is that with music your skills deteriorate at a much less noticable rate, and your skills and your drive as a musician stay strong in many areas to put out a good product of your past most do not even notice.
But in the fight game man you either have an "unwritten contract" an understanding with your opponent that certain things that make a fight will not be tolerated or done in the ring. Besides you can not hide your age in the ring it shows up fast and obvious. So it becomes cartoonish. Lets remember the great fighters as they were in past history not how they try and fail to be in the ring as they are today. YOur thoughts may be dif but that is fine too.