Former four division world champion Roy Jones Jr. has no problem with the cross-sports boxing match between five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC superstar Conor McGregor.
There are ongoing negotiations for Mayweather and McGregor to fight each other in a boxing ring, on a pay-per-view date in the early fall.
Jones is a but biased on the topic, because a few years ago he attempted to finalize the same type of fight. Back then, there were negotiations for Jones to fight Anderson Silva in a boxing match. At the time Silva was regarded as the best fighter in the UFC. Both fighters were on board - but in the end the UFC would not allow Silva to take part in the contest.
The Jones-Silva fight would have never been able to bring in anywhere near the amount of money that Mayweather-McGregor could potentially generate - as both Mayweather and McGregor are both crossover stars with worldwide followings.
There are many fans and fighters, especially in boxing, who firmly against the idea of Mayweather fighting McGregor in a boxing match - as they believe the contest will be a complete mismatch.
“Being a fighter, I can’t hate on either side because I understand why they want to do it, and I wanted to do the same thing. Me and Anderson tried to do this years ago. Anderson had a little bit more boxing experience I think than Conor has, but I’m sure Conor is no fool. Conor has been going to the gym now, I’m sure, getting experience, because he knows he’s going to need that against Floyd Mayweather," Jones told Ariel Helwani of the MMA Hour.
At the same time, Jones gives McGregor little to no shot of being able to pull off the upset - even with Mayweather being 40-years-old and inactive since retiring in September 2015.
“Here’s how you have to look at it though,” Jones said. “In a boxing field, I feel that Floyd Mayweather is definitely the superior athlete. He should have all the advantages going in. I’m sure Conor McGregor thinks, ‘[some of Mayweather’s training partners] are southpaws, they gave Floyd a little trouble in the gym, being southpaws. I’m a southpaw. If I can get in there in there and duplicate that and land one big punch, I have a chance.’ That’s what Conor is supposed to think. That’s the way fighters are supposed to think.”
“On the other side, Floyd Mayweather is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters on earth, and he’s a defensive specialist. So, to not discredit Floyd, in a boxing ring, Floyd should be able to defeat damn near anybody in that weight class. Conor McGregor especially because he doesn’t have the experience that Floyd has. So I can’t really see Conor dealing with Floyd because of that experience factor, and Floyd proving why he was one of the pound-for-pound very best to ever do it. So it’s very hard to see Conor beating Floyd in a boxing match.”