Roy Jones Jr. Shares Theory On Why Mike Tyson Fight Was Delayed

Roy Jones Jr. has provided an interesting theory as to why his eagerly anticipated exhibition bout against heavyweight boxing legend Mike Tyson was pushed back. Jones and Tyson were originally booked to square off on September 12. However, the date was pushed back to November 28 in order to maximize marketing and profits according to the organizers of the event.

Speaking on a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Jones revealed he was uber-confident heading into the original fight date due to the fact Tyson had next to no time to prepare for the bout.

“I’m like, six weeks, that’s right around the corner,” Jones said. “[Tyson] ain’t been fighting. I can get ready, I’m pretty sure I can get a little bit more ready than he can because he’s been inactive a lot longer than I have. So six weeks, he’s still Mike Tyson and he still can punch, but six weeks, there’s no way he can get prepared for this.

“Lo and behold, something happens and they’ve changed [the date],” Jones added. “They told me something about marketing, but I don’t really believe much of what they said. I just can’t believe it because we had a September 12 date before the football season starts. People at home had nothing to do. And they said, ‘Well, we got more attention than we expected to get, and this happened and that happened so we want to move it.’

Jones now thinks Tyson stands a better chance in the fight after the postponement which gives him double the time to train for match-up billed as an exhibition bout.

“It ain’t like I’m scared of Mike Tyson, it’s just that I know that in six weeks he had no chance to deal with me,” Jones continued. “In 12 weeks he’ll have a better chance to deal with me, but his chance is still gonna be rough, but it’s gonna be better than it would’ve been. Six weeks, he didn’t have a chance.”

The latest change to proceedings is that the round time has been reduced from the standard three minutes to two minute periods most commonly associated with women’s boxing. Jones again believes this change is geared towards helping his opponent shine in the fight.

“They’ve got me doing eight two-minute rounds now,” Jones said. “That’s to his advantage too. Everything’s to his advantage, that’s to his advantage too. At this point, the fans are so excited about it, I wouldn’t want to pull the rug from under the fans… and [Tyson and the promoters] will try and sue me. It’s not really worth it, so I’m going to go in and do these [two-minute] rounds, but I’m going to have to work a little bit faster than I expected to.” (Transcribed by BJPENN.com)

Do you think Roy Jones Jr. has a point? Are things being stacked in Mike Tyson’s favour ahead of November 28?