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Andre Ward reveals that Roy Jones Jr. turned down a huge offer of $40 million to fight Mike Tyson shortly after he’d beaten WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz in 2003. Ward says Jones turned it down the offer to fight Tyson, and went back down to the light heavyweight division to fight Antonio Tarver in November 2003.
Roy Jones fighting Antonio Tarver made no sense at all
The fight with Tarver likely was nowhere near the amount of money that Jones could have made fighting Tyson. Jones beat Tarver by a close 12 round majority decision. But instead of going back up to heavyweight to take the Tyson fight, Jones fought Tarver in a needless rematch, and was knocked out in the 2nd round in May 2004. Once Jones beat Ruiz to become the WBA heavyweight champion of the world, he was in a position to get big money fights against Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, and the Klitschko brothers. Instead of going after those fights, Jones decided to fight Tarver.
Ward says he wanted Jones to just take the offer to fight Tyson for $40 million, and then move off into the sunset to retire. Jones chose to take the lesser fight with Tarver, and basically undermined his own career.
WARD: ROY JONES JR. TURNED DOWN $40 MILLION TO FIGHT MIKE TYSON
“The thing after the Ruiz fight is we had the same manager James Prince,” said Ward to JRE Clips. “There was a [Mike] Tyson fight on the table, and I believe I’m accurate when I say this it was somewhere around $40 million guaranteed. There was an upside too. You stay at heavyweight, keep the weight on, and Tyson wasn’t quite Tyson at that time. He was still dangerous, but he wasn’t quite Tyson. I think they were working towards it. What I heard was Roy wanted more money.
James Prince was like, ‘Take this $40 million. There’s going to be an upside, it’s you and Mike Tyson.’ Roy somehow said, ‘No, the fight will be there down the road,’ and put his attention to Antonio Tarver, and the rest is history. I wanted to see him fight Tyson and ride off into the sunset. One more and your out. Roy could have had a full career, and rode off into the sunset, hunting and fishing, doing whatever he does, and still not been fundamentally sound. After he beat John Ruiz for the heavyweight championship of the world,” said Ward.
It’s an understatement for Ward to say that Mike Tyson wasn’t the same fighter by 2003. He was 37-years-old, and had recently been knocked out by Lennox Lewis in an 8th round stoppage in 2002. For all intents and purposes, Tyson was over-the-hill. Tyson only won one more fight for the remainder of his career in beating Clifford Etienne in 2003. He then lost his last two fights against Danny Williams andKevin McBride before retiring in 2005. As such, Jones Jr. missed out on a huge fight against Tyson that was winnable for him in 2003.
https://www.************.com/2019/09...urned-it-down/
Roy Jones fighting Antonio Tarver made no sense at all
The fight with Tarver likely was nowhere near the amount of money that Jones could have made fighting Tyson. Jones beat Tarver by a close 12 round majority decision. But instead of going back up to heavyweight to take the Tyson fight, Jones fought Tarver in a needless rematch, and was knocked out in the 2nd round in May 2004. Once Jones beat Ruiz to become the WBA heavyweight champion of the world, he was in a position to get big money fights against Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, and the Klitschko brothers. Instead of going after those fights, Jones decided to fight Tarver.
Ward says he wanted Jones to just take the offer to fight Tyson for $40 million, and then move off into the sunset to retire. Jones chose to take the lesser fight with Tarver, and basically undermined his own career.
WARD: ROY JONES JR. TURNED DOWN $40 MILLION TO FIGHT MIKE TYSON
“The thing after the Ruiz fight is we had the same manager James Prince,” said Ward to JRE Clips. “There was a [Mike] Tyson fight on the table, and I believe I’m accurate when I say this it was somewhere around $40 million guaranteed. There was an upside too. You stay at heavyweight, keep the weight on, and Tyson wasn’t quite Tyson at that time. He was still dangerous, but he wasn’t quite Tyson. I think they were working towards it. What I heard was Roy wanted more money.
James Prince was like, ‘Take this $40 million. There’s going to be an upside, it’s you and Mike Tyson.’ Roy somehow said, ‘No, the fight will be there down the road,’ and put his attention to Antonio Tarver, and the rest is history. I wanted to see him fight Tyson and ride off into the sunset. One more and your out. Roy could have had a full career, and rode off into the sunset, hunting and fishing, doing whatever he does, and still not been fundamentally sound. After he beat John Ruiz for the heavyweight championship of the world,” said Ward.
It’s an understatement for Ward to say that Mike Tyson wasn’t the same fighter by 2003. He was 37-years-old, and had recently been knocked out by Lennox Lewis in an 8th round stoppage in 2002. For all intents and purposes, Tyson was over-the-hill. Tyson only won one more fight for the remainder of his career in beating Clifford Etienne in 2003. He then lost his last two fights against Danny Williams andKevin McBride before retiring in 2005. As such, Jones Jr. missed out on a huge fight against Tyson that was winnable for him in 2003.
https://www.************.com/2019/09...urned-it-down/
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