Roy Jones Jr Will Face Former UFC Champion Anthony Pettis In A Boxing Bout

On April 1st, 2023, 54-year-old Roy Jones Jr will go up against Anthony Pettis, a former champion of the UFC lightweight division, in an eight-round professional boxing match at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Jones, who has previously been a champion in four different weight classes, hasn’t had a professional fight since 2018. While that may have been the case, he has since then been forging a name for himself in other areas of boxing. 

In 2020, he did participate in a well-publicized exhibition fight against Mike Tyson. In addition, Jones has been giving back to the wider boxing community, having worked as a trainer alongside other fighters: case in point, Chris Eubank Jr. 

Jones had a boxing match planned for January 28th, 2023, versus bodybuilder ‘NDO Champ,’ yet it was moved to May 13th. With that being said, Jones’ focus is firmly on Pettis. 

The latter has never participated in a professional boxing bout, but he does have a UFC career to rival the best of them. He was the UFC lightweight champion from 2013-2015 with a 25-14 MMA record.

Despite this being the case, he has lost four of his last five MMA fights in the Professional Fighters League. The fight will be the featured event of a pay-per-view show organized by Gamebred Boxing, a company owned by UFC welterweight fighter Jorge Masvidal.

In his comments to Ariel Helwani on ‘The MMA Hour,’ Masvidal said: “Always wanted to work with Roy Jones in some capacity. He’s going to be fighting someone that inspired me in my career numerous times. WEC champion, UFC champion, I think both his wins for the UFC title were finishes. [Pettis] has knockouts and finishes at 145, 155, 170. It’s crazy what this guy has done in his career in MMA. Great striker.”

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