Long before Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather engaged in a war of words about how one’s skills would translate to the other’s sport, there was another mixed martial artist versus boxer rivalry.
In 2009, talk ramped up about middleweight great Anderson Silva trying his hand at professional boxing in a bout against former multi-weight world champion Roy Jones Jr.
The discussion never got to the stage at which the potential McGregor vs. Mayweather match-up has now reached but, every now and then, the question would pop up in press conferences or one of the veterans would drop the other’s name into answers about their respective dream fights.
Silva has maintained that one of his career goals was a boxing match against Jones Jr., an Olympic silver medallist, but his watertight UFC contract has denied him that opportunity.
“I think everyone’s got something they’re focused on and that’s my own desire, something I’d like to do,” Silva told the New York Post in 2013. “Maybe one day when I’m done my UFC career I will box Roy Jones … “That’s something I’d really be interested in, maybe [UFC president] Dana [White] should do this fight.”
Jones Jr., even at 48 years of age, is still competing and knocked out his most recent opponent only last week.
And he is keen on piggybacking the pay-per-view potential of a cross-sport McGregor vs. Mayweather showdown by granting Silva his wish.
On Wednesday night, Jones Jr. posted the below message to Twitter, suggesting one hell of a co-main event for what would be, without a doubt, the most lucrative combat sports spectacle of all time.
Roy Jones vs Anderson Silva and Mayweather vs McGregor double headline card UFC invasion. Would be biggest event of all time period
— Roy Jones Jr. (@RealRoyJonesJr) February 23, 2017
Suggestions have been made that McGregor’s next bout will come opposite Mayweather and the Irishman recently travelled to Las Vegas to iron out his issues with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which could have acted as an obstacle in the booking of a bout against the 49-0 boxing great.
At the weekend, ‘The Notorious’ insisted that “a lot has happened over these past couple of days,” in relation to negotiations.
We can only wait and see but the curiosity in us means that we give the card suggested by Jones Jr. a resounding thumbs-up.
