Why didn't Dariusz Michalczewski & RJJ ever fight?

[IMDAZED]

No in general. Jones walks away from huge paydays at Heavyweight to move back down and fight Tarver. Strange decision. All the while, one of the biggest scandals in sports history is going down. And Roy looks like **** in his subsequent fights.

Strange? Really? Why?

[Dirk Diggler UK]

Strange? Really? Why?

Strange that he wouldn't stay at Heavyweight where the money was.

[IMDAZED]

Strange that he wouldn't stay at Heavyweight where the money was.

Strange? He and Evander Holyfield agreed to fight next and then Holyfield pulled out. What were his other options? Fight superstar Hasim Rahman? You're reaching here.

[Dirk Diggler UK]

Strange? He and Evander Holyfield agreed to fight next and then Holyfield pulled out. What were his other options? Fight superstar Hasim Rahman? You're reaching here.

Yeah his only option was to drop 20lbs and fight superstar Antonio Tarver

[IMDAZED]

Yeah his only option was to drop 20lbs and fight superstar Antonio Tarver

Jones stated that he only wanted big money fights at HW or he wouldn't stick around since he wasn't natural there. He negotiated with Holyfield:

http://edu.sina.com.cn/en/2003-06-05/12638.html

Fight didn't happen when Holyfield felt Don King was taking too much.

Jones moved back then.

Strange, I guess.

[Dirk Diggler UK]

Jones stated that he only wanted big money fights at HW or he wouldn't stick around since he wasn't natural there. He negotiated with Holyfield:

http://edu.sina.com.cn/en/2003-06-05/12638.html

Fight didn't happen when Holyfield felt Don King was taking too much.

Jones moved back then.

Strange, I guess.

When did that fight fall through?

[robertzimmerman]

Roy didn't stay at HW, because he wanted mega money fights, and he couldn't them. He was a near 35 year old LHW, and according to Murad Muhammad, he'd been paid around $17m for the Ruiz fight. He had $20m on the table to fight Sanders, and Tua was his mandatory at one point. But he was looking for huge money against Tyson. They met in Miami in 2003, and talked of a fight the following year. Because at that point, Tyson had got a lot going on in his life. He'd split from Finkle, he didn't have a trainer, he wasn't in shape, he was up for an assault charge, and more importantly, he was embroiled in a huge lawsuit against Don King. But Roy's losses to Tarver and Johnson, and Mike's own defeat to Danny Williams killed the fight from ever taking place.

Roy and Murad also spoke to Lennox and his team late in 2003. Lewis had shown interest in a huge payday against Roy, before he fought Vitali, as well as speaking of having up to three more fights. But after the Vitali fight, he retired, stating that he no longer had the motivation and the desire to carry on.

Simply put, it wasn't worth the risk for Roy to stay at HW to fight Tua, Sanders and Vitali etc, unless he was getting paid mega money. Those fights wouldn't have brought half of the money that a Tyson fight would have brought, and they would obviously have been far riskier. Mike was pretty much done at that point. Also, Tarver had been baiting Roy althroughout 2003, which included crashing the post Ruiz press conference. He really did get under Roy's skin.

So Roy opted to fight Tarver, but he still had hopes of fighting Tyson in 2004. He said that in his post fight interview with Larry Merchant after the Tarver fight.

[HAY-B]

RJJ is happy to go to Russia nowadays and fight a bum,but wouldn't go to Germany to fight a good fighter.Either he was scared of losing or he needs the money now.

It's all about the money and a real CW title now. That's why he's going to Russia. DM should have come tot he states to face RJJ because RJJ had all of the LHW belts but the one DM had. RJJ was by far the bigger draw therefore giving him the right to say when and where he's willing to fight. No fear.

[IMDAZED]

When did that fight fall through?

I just told you. Read above. Or below. And note that Jones asked the WBA for an exemption so he could keep his belt and move back to HW after Tarver.

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/sports/holyfield-jones-ways-article-1.524388

Yeah, you were saying?

[richardt]

Do you have a source for the 8-10M for DM? That amount sounds unbelieveable.

The source at the time was fight news dot com but that was long ago. Recent readings show the negotiations for a fight there and Germany were in the 5-6 million range.