By Alexey Sukachev

Roy Jones Jr. (59-8, 42 KOs) reminded fans of his ancient magic, effectively annihilating Egyptian Hani Atiyo (14-3, 10 KOs) within 75 seconds this past Friday in Krasnodar, Russia. He followed it up with verbal challenges of every champion in the cruiserweight division. It looks like his joy will be cut short though, as his fight against Atiyo seems to have been unsanctioned.

According to sources in Russia and Egypt, both Jones Jr. and Atiyo were disallowed to fight each other under the jurisdiction of the Professional Boxing Federation of Russia and/or Egyptian Professional Boxing Association.

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman explicitly stated this in his letter to various boxing federations, according to the same sources.

“I want to make it absolutely clear that the World Boxing Council has taken no part in this shameful arrangement. We shall raise this question and oppose [others] to stop this horrible practice," Sulaiman was cited by Boxko.ru.

According to Boxrec, the fight was sanctioned by the bogus Interregional Professional Boxing Federation.