Roy Jones Jr. might be in his mid-50s, but the former world champion is as active in the boxing world as he has ever been.
Jones will be playing the role of promoter, trainer, and commentator Thursday for a live streamed card at Legends Hotel Casino in Washington. And the 55-year-old won't just be training one fighter – he'll be in the corner providing guidance and on-air analysis for five different pugilists on the card.
From winning Olympic silver in 1988 to becoming a multiple world champion in four different weight classes (middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight), there are few fighters as dynamic as Jones – and that versatility extends to the commentary sphere. And with a lot happening in the fighting world these days, Jones predictably has plenty of thoughts to share.
In an exclusive interview with Covers, Jones broke down the hotly anticipated rematch between WBC and undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and former title holder Tyson Fury, slated for Dec. 21 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The latest FanDuel odds have Usyk as a comfortable -174 favorite over Fury (+142).
Jones pointed to the size difference – Fury has six inches and more than 40 pounds on his opponent – as the key to the former champion regaining his title.
"Fury needs to use his jab, his size, and dominate from the outside," Jones told Covers. "Quit backing up from little, itty-bitty Usyk. He’s smaller than you. Use your jab. Stalk him like you did against Wilder. Make him respect you as the big man and jab him all night. Keep popping that jab, make him stay on the outside and feed him like a little kid that’s been bad in the house, make Usyk wait on the outside."
Usyk won a controversial split decision in their first bout May 18 in Riyadh, snatching the title from Fury and handing the Manchester, England native his first pro defeat. Jones believes Fury can dictate the fight simply by being more effective at keeping his Ukrainian opponent at a distance.
"(Usyk) knows he can hurt Fury, he may be more hungry to get to his chin," Jones said. "But that could take away from some of the boxing he's been doing, and it could take away from using his IQ because he basically could be thinking ‘I know I can hit him and I know I can hurt him.'
"But what if Fury doesn't let him (land that one big shot) and that's all Usyk is trying to do? Knowing he can hurt Fury can work for him and against him. Usyk left the last fight with momentum in his favor, but then Fury knows how to adjust in rematches. He knows how to come back and make it right. So it's hard to doubt him in a rematch situation. Usyk may come out and try to knock him out, and if he does that, Tyson is going to beat him."
Jones on Klitschko-Fury II: 'Why not?'
Regardless of how the Fury-Usyk bout turns out, Jones would love to see Fury take on another rematch: this one with retired legend Wladimir Klitschko. The former heavyweight champ was in talks to challenge Daniel Dubois for his IBF title, but promoters balked at the thought of the now-48-year-old Klitschko returning after seven years of inactivity in light of Mike Tyson's poor showing against Jake Paul.
Jones believes a Klitschko-Fury tilt will be a much easier sell – and a much more competitive fight.
"Why shouldn’t Klitschko come back?" Jones asked. "Why not face Fury? It’s not like Fury is a killer puncher.
"I don’t know if Klitschko can win, but I think he has a chance. It just depends on how much his body has aged. But he has a chance. You have to remember the Klitschko brothers are very strong, very good boxers. They’re intellectual guys who took great care of their bodies, so they should be fine to fight at any age.
'Things would have been different' with Anthony Joshua
Staying with former champions, there might have been a path for Anthony Joshua to eventually face the winner of Usyk-Fury II for another shot at the title following consecutive losses to Usyk in September 2021 and August 2022. But Joshua's quest for a return to heavyweight prominence took a major step back with a fifth-round knockout loss to Dubois on Sept. 21.
Jones, who has been open about his admiration for Joshua, believes the 35-year-old would have fared much better had he been able to work with him – something the Joshua camp wasn't keen on happening.
"Of course things would have been different if I had the chance to work with (Joshua), but you can't blame people for their opinion and the way they do things," Jones told Covers. "I feel bad the way they thought about me working with him, I know what I could have helped him out with and how much I could have changed him but I can't change what doesn't want to be changed.
"It's still possible he becomes a world champion, he still has the heart, he's still got the athletic ability, so I think he could."
Roy Jones vs. Tommy Fury? 'Mams has my number'
As for Jones's own fighting future, he's keeping an open mind – but would happily step in to face Tommy Fury on short notice after Fury reportedly cancelled his scheduled Jan. 18 bout with former UFC star Darren Till over concerns that Till might use "MMA tactics" if he falls behind.
"If the money is right (I’ll save the show), why not?" Jones said. "(Misfits Boxing head Mams Taylor) knows me. Mams has my number. Mams knows how to call me and say, ‘Roy, Tommy Fury doesn’t have an opponent, and we can pay you X amount of dollars to do it’
"You saw how Mike Tyson got treated. I might not get $20 million, but it would still be something close to it."
Jones, who said he would need six weeks to prepare for a Tommy Fury bout, is well aware of the risks of fighting a much younger boxer.
"It’s not an easy fight," he said. "Anytime you go in there with these young guys, they’re young, strong, and athletic. I don’t have the legs and the defense I used to have, so you’ve got to be kind of smart about how you do it.
"These guys are looking for one shot to take you out because they know the older you get, the less you’re able to take a big shot. So they’re trying to get you out in one shot, and you’ve got to be very cognizant of that and prepared."
Jones on potential Jake Paul fight: If I'm instructed to lose, 'I'm not doing it'
Jones was also connected to last month's Jake Paul-Mike Tyson mega-fight on Netflix, providing commentary for the eight-round bout which Paul won via unanimous decision. He believes a Paul-Jones fight would be bigger than Tyson-Paul and has no intention of rolling over against the YouTube sensation-turned-fighter.
"Roy still has his legs, and he's going to find your chin," Jones told Covers. "So you better get to me first because I will find your chin. If Mike could have pulled off some of the things we saw him doing in training, I think it might have been a better fight. But I think his legs didn’t allow him to do it.
"Jake’s a big kid – he’s a power puncher – but I just feel that my legs at 55 are much better than Mike’s legs at 58. I used to use my legs when I fought; Mike never really used his legs when he fought. My legs are in better shape, and I could get to Jake a bit easier than Mike did. Since we’re in this social media era, the era of influencer boxers, big names make big events. What bigger names are there than Roy Jones and Jake Paul?"
Jones also made two things clear: The fight would need to be real (post-fight chatter from Paul-Tyson questioned whether the former heavyweight champion was urged to give less than 100%), and the money has to be right.
"We’re not holding back," Jones said. "You’ve got to knock Roy out, or Roy is going to keep coming. We won’t be holding back at all. If it’s going to be that way, then I’m going to do it. I don’t care what the money is. If you say ‘I’ve got to lose,’ I’m not doing it."
He's also not doing it for anything less than the going rate.
"I was the last person to fight Mike, so why would I take anything less than $20 million? Don’t waste my time," he said.
Jones riffs on Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Jon Jones
Jones offered his thoughts on several other wide-ranging topics in his exclusive chat with Covers:
On what Muhammad Ali would have thought of Jake Paul: "Of course, Muhammad Ali would have been a Jake Paul fan. He probably would have done an exhibition with him. He definitely wouldn’t have lost to him, but he would have done an exhibition. Muhammad Ali was at one point the biggest athlete on Earth, so the fact that Jake Paul could show all these new kids who Muhammad Ali really was by fighting him would have been a big deal for both Muhammad and Jake."
On whether he would welcome a Mike Tyson rematch: "Mike was a different animal against Jake than he was against me. When he fought me, he fought for the full eight rounds. He didn’t do that with Jake, he didn’t fight him for the full eight rounds. If there was demand to see me and Mike do it again, I think Mike would do it. The reason we became champions was to entertain people and give them what they want. So if the demand is there to see Mike and me do it again, why not? That’s what we should do."
On the potential of a tag team fight vs. the Paul brothers: "I would most definitely (do a tag-team matchup against Jake Paul and his brother). That idea sounds great to me. I’d probably choose Lennox Lewis as my partner. Lennox is a big heavyweight, and both those brothers are big heavyweights. Lennox was a heavyweight champion, and I was a heavyweight champion. But I was never a true heavyweight. So if I’m going to fight two heavyweights, why not give me a heavyweight, too?"
On the biggest draw in boxing today: "Jake Paul is not the biggest draw in boxing because he’s not in boxing. (Canelo Alvarez) is still the biggest draw in boxing if you put him against another pound-for-pound fighter. But in social media boxing, yes, Jake Paul is the biggest draw."
On the outcome of a Deontay Wilder-Francis Ngannou fight: "Wilder will beat Ngannou because he knows how to box, he knows what boxing is about, and you saw what Anthony Joshua did to Ngannou, well Wilder is known for having a much more devastating punch than Anthony Joshua. If Anthony Joshua hit him like that and did that to him, what's going to happen when Deontay Wilder lands? But I wouldn't say it's a mismatch because if Ngannou can keep the right hand off of him he will give Deontay Wilder hell, you understand me, so I'm not going to call it a mismatch. (But) it would be slaughter in the cage. People don't realize that in boxing we don't do wrestling we only do boxing and in the MMA world they do boxing, they do wrestling, they do Jiu-Jitsu, all kinds of stuff. We only know how to box."
On the possibility of a Jon Jones-Tom Aspinall mega-fight: "That's a good fight but (Aspinall) he better have his mind right when he sees Jon Jones because Jon Jones will be able to make adjustments and Jon is a very clever guy. Aspinall may have the advantage going in with the striking but he better be able to hurt Jon or get Jon out of his rhythm early because if you don't and you let Jon figure you out, Jon will win, that's IQ. But I'd be asking for $20 or $30 million or don't waste my time."
On the one fight Jones still wants the most: "The fight that really started this crossover boxing, even before Conor McGregor got involved in it, the first fight that was on the horizon that we said would be a big event would be Roy Jones versus Anderson Silva and I'm never going to back away from that and say that's not one of the biggest events that could happen today."
