Comments on: Report: Roy Jones Jr. agrees to fight Anderson Silva under MMA rules; Dana White turns it down

By: wardog

wardog — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:16:42 +0000

GetitOn, I know plenty of people, many of them boxers or trainers, who do not watch MMA and think it is unskilled fighting. Hell in a recent interview with Fight! Freddie Roach said he never watched MMA and found the ground game boring. Mayweather and other boxers were saying it as well at times. There are alot of boxing fans who believe that MMA fighters are failed boxers (my brother is one) and would never last in a fight with them. I say it is time to put a nail in that coffin and kill that argument once and for all. And if the UFC is not willing to do it someone else should. Personally I want to see Affliction convince someone to get in that ring with Fedor.

By: MMA-LOGIC

MMA-LOGIC — Fri, 08 May 2009 09:35:38 +0000

If a past their prime wrestler comes to MMA everyone says “well he is a level1 superduper wrestler he is welcome in MMA” If a past their prime boxer wants to fight in MMA people say it is a freak show or something. Go figure. I’ve seen a lot of boxers and K1 fighters do well in MMA.

By: Lee Gerowitz

Lee Gerowitz — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:36:21 +0000

Sorry, I meant he’s never had to defend any sort of takedown attempt.

By: Lee Gerowitz

Lee Gerowitz — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:23:35 +0000

Roy Jones would get killed. He’s never had to defend any sort of kick. He’s never had to defend any sort of takedown defense. He wouldn’t know how to defend himself against a submission hold if his daddy was in the octagon with him.

The supposed intrigue of seeing these two fight is whether Silva’s great stand up skills can translate over to a pure boxing match….not whether RJJ’s diminished boxing skills can translate over to an MMA match.

This would be about as exciting as seeing Brett Favre in a Vikings uniform.

By: Iconoclastic

Iconoclastic — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:20:43 +0000

I completely disagree with Dana (again). This match would bring tons of new fans (boxing, casual) to the UFC. Additionally, A. Silva has a very good chance of knocking R. Jones out and would motivate him (unlike his last few fights) and provide him with a new challenger – as he has cleaned out the middleweight div.

Dana tries to make it seem as though he is above making this match (not an original position there have been a few promoters who have made this argument) , but how is this any different from Hughes vs Gracie. Where there was a legit MMA fighter (Hughes) vs a one dimensional (Gracie,Jiu Jitsu).

I think his reasons for not making this fight are simply that he rather not give A. Silva the opportunity to shine because (i think) he a few fights left under contract and he would prefer to have one of his home grown boys beat A.Silva because he is not “easy” to promote.

“We don’t do that because we love the sport. That’s a Pride or K-1 matchup. It’s not what we do.”I personally don’t like a freak show but sometimes you got to flip the script. Pride was great at that (Grand Prix and Open weight tournmts.) Fighter A fights Fighter B winner of that gets Fighter C (Champion) that gets boring at times. I love the UFC but sometimes I think they’re creatively bankrupt

By: GetItOn

GetItOn — Wed, 06 May 2009 23:35:10 +0000

wardog – There are still people out there that don’t accept boxing, let alone MMA. Never have and never will.

I honestly don’t know a single person that loves boxing and hates MMA. Maybe the business aspect of boxing hates MMA but I’m sure they still watch it and certainly enjoy it.

By: MMASwami

MMASwami — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:50:44 +0000

I’m glad DW doesn’t cater to the lowest common denominator when it comes to the UFC. There’s a reason other orgs have to do it and as a fan of MMA, I’m glad that the UFC doesn’t need to.

By: wardog

wardog — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:34:30 +0000

I know people will jump all over me and say “yeah it was banned becasue of that” but MMA started out proving what fighting style was best, and that still holds true. MMA has been growing and evolving ever since, but it is still not accepted amongst many people. And I am just getting tired of having to defend the sport to people who herald boxing over it. Now here is an opportunity with a legitimate boxer who is willing to step into the cage with a top level fighter, and it is not like Jones has not had a fight in a while or is some hack. Let these two do it! It does not make MMA a freak show, but it does make it look like the boxers who say a trained boxer would kill an MMA fighter appear right to others (and I have already heard this at the gym today because of this!)

By: Angry Mike

Angry Mike — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:51:51 +0000

Putting the two of them in octagon as a novelty act suggests that MMA is some sort of sideshow or that it isn’t a legitimate sport. Let Jones train MMA for a while and test his MMA skills in some regional promotions. Chances are he loses to a journeyman and that’s the end of it. Why sully your org. or your champ by suggesting that some over the hill boxer is worthy of a fight?

By: Rich S.

Rich S. — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:21:13 +0000

Silva wins the MMA match.
Roy wins the Boxing match.

but i don’t think either of them should ever happen..
gah, i wish he would drop this infatuation with roy jones, and start FOCUSING on MMA so he can actually perform up to par for his last couple fights before retirement..

stuff like this REALLLLY pisses me off..

just like BJ constantly wanting to move to WW, and not fight for his LW title, in the class that he’s actually dominant/good in..

Anderson got bored after a few wins at MW, and now he wants to box..
and you can see that he’s rather bored with MMA in his fights these days..
he just wants to box.. for some reason..

By: Cathedron

Cathedron — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:56:25 +0000

I kind of agree with Dana White here. It would be a little bit freakshow, but that’s just assuming that Roy Jones won’t get some solid MMA training under his belt by then. Maybe he could. I mean, Randy is older than Roy and he’s still relevant. I’m probly giving Jones way too much credit. He’s probably just trying to get some publicity and a big payday.

By: ctownhood

ctownhood — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:30:43 +0000

I can’t see any athletic commission sanctioning this fight anyways…not without special rules at least.

By: wardog

wardog — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:20:03 +0000

I wonder if anyone at Affliction is thinking about this? I mean you get a legit HW boxer and throw them in the ring with Fedor. No cage and MMA rules. Might just be what the promotion needs. But I say Dana needs to stop saying how these guys in the UFC and MMA would kill a boxer under MMA rules and then get a legit challanger (Jones still has a following) and not take the fight. It just gives the boxing crowd more ammo anyway. Let him go in Silva destroys him and when anyone says “Jones is past his prime” then the UFC can say “give us some one in there prime then and see what happens.”

By: jj

jj — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:45:47 +0000

Sooner or later this is all going to blow up in Dana’s face. While I agree, it’s a good move to not make this fight, Dana is going to have to start allowing the top tier fighters more freedom to make their own decisions about these sorts of things. Between Anderson Silva, Liddell and Couture’s recent issues (and whoever down the line that doesn’t like being owned by the UFC), someone is going to make a contract challenge under the Ali reform act or something similar. Anderson probably has the best chance of them all, since he is dying to fight RJJ under boxing rules.

Dana needs to give his fighters a little elbow room before the courts give the fighters _a_whole_lot_ more power over the decisions that affect their livelihood and dreams. Sure the UFC has perfected the formula, but at the end of the day it’s all about the fighters, not the logo.

By: ultmma

ultmma — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:44:15 +0000

Hate to do this but i think i agree with D white here. If Silva wins he beats a boxer in his 40s who is clearly past his prime

If Silva loses it makes all of MMA look bad, boxing would never let this go

I’m a fan of both sports. If anything give us two fighters who are at their peak

Manny P vs. Miguel Torres or Maywwather vs. Penn would get my dollars

Never going to happen though

By: Stan

Stan — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:35:27 +0000

I remember a few years ago Dana White calling out Floyd Mayweather challenging him to fight Sean Sherk under MMA rules. So either A) Dana would only accept a boxer coming in for this kind of circus if they are currently an elite-level boxer, or B) Dana White is better at talking the talk than walking the walk. I’m guessing B.

Calling out high profile boxers after they make anti-mma statements is solid press. It gets the attention of the rubes. The thing is, eventually someone does actually pick up the gauntlet you threw down. Still, this would be a terrible fight and ridiculous to make it. Jones has no interest in MMA and wouldn’t have offered to take the fight if there’d been any chance he’d be taken up on it.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:24:13 +0000

I agree with Dana on this one.

Leave these type of match ups for other promotions. If Jones really wants to fight MMA then he can he can join the Dream card and fight Canseco.

By: wilfredo

wilfredo — Wed, 06 May 2009 12:30:13 +0000

Fedor Emelianenko best pound for pound fighter of the work // silva is a joke aftrer his last two wins, he was scare to go to the ground in his last fight.