Skip navigation
Tune in Saturday nights
at 2 a.m. ET/PT on NBC.
sponsored by 

Silva, Jones in talks for boxing match

UFC champ could face former pound-for-pound king in catchweight fight

John Gress / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. and UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva could meet up in the boxing ring later this year.
Video: MMA from NBC Sports
MMA Fight Weekly: Pulver vs. Faber, Economics of MMA, and "A Day in the Life"
May 15: In this expansive show, we preview Pulver vs. Faber, break down the financial troubles of Elite XC and the IFL, and more!

Click here to email MMA Fight Weekly

INTERACTIVE
Fightin' photos
Check out hot shots of the 2008 year in MMA so far.
  UPCOMING MMA EVENTS  
  

UFC 84 - May 24

UFC Lightweight title match:
B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk
Keith Jardine vs. Wanderlei Silva
Wilson Gouveia vs. Goran Reljic
Lyoto Machida vs. Tito Ortiz
Thiago Silva vs. Antonio Mendes
Rousimar Palhares vs. Ivan Salaverry
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
Rich Clementi vs. Terry Etim
Jon Koppenhaver vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida
Dong-Hyun Kim vs. Jason Tan
Shane Carwin vs. Christian Wellisch

EliteXC - May 31

EliteXC Middleweight title match:
Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith
Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson
Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young
Jon Murphy vs. Brett Rogers
Phil Baroni vs. Joey Villasenor

  Ask the MMA reporter: Mike Chiappetta
Got a question? A comment? A tip? General hate mail?
Click here to send an email
Image: Mike Chiapetta
INTERACTIVE
The Girls of MMA
The ladies usually walk the fringe of the cage or ring, but here they get center stage.
EXCLUSIVE
By Mike Chiappetta
NBCSports.com
updated 2:21 p.m. ET March 24, 2008

Image: Mike Chiapetta
Mike Chiappetta

E-mail
Undisputed welterweight boxing champion Floyd Mayweather made waves earlier this year when he discussed the possibility of participating in an MMA match.

Though it never happened, we might have a different undisputed champ testing the waters in the opposite direction.

Representatives of UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and boxing great Roy Jones Jr. are actively engaging in talks that would pit the two in a boxing match, NBCSports.com has learned.

Story continues below ↓
advertisement

Alan Hopper, director of public relations for Don King Productions confirmed that talks are ongoing, and characterized them as "preliminary."

"Roy likes the idea and is up for it," Hopper said. "It's being discussed. Roy will only agree if the match takes place under the rules of boxing, and UFC would have to clear Silva's participation."

  Weigh in

The bout would be a legitimate match sanctioned by a state athletic commission and not an exhibition, according to Hopper. He added that the two would probably meet at a weight between 170 (Jones' last fight) and 185 (Silva's weight class).

Silva (21-4) is considered by many MMA experts and fans to be the top pound-for-pound MMA fighter in the world, and has won seven straight fights. The 32-year-old Brazilian is 6-0 in the UFC and has finished four of those bouts by TKO.

The wiry middleweight is thought to be one of the top boxers in the sport and possibly the best equipped striker to handle the challenge. According to the website FightMetric.com, which calculates MMA fight stats, Silva is accurate on around 70 percent of his strikes, twice the average of most fighters. He also rarely gets hit, as his opponents whiff 76 percent of the time. Not surprisingly, he has never been knocked down with a punch in his MMA career.

The 39-year-old Jones is 52-4 in his career and was considered one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world by the time he was 25. He captured titles in the middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight classes, and in 2003 he beat John Ruiz for the WBA Heavyweight championship. With that effort, he became the first former middleweight champ to win a heavyweight title in 106 years.

Silva first voiced an interest in boxing in an interview with NBCSports.com prior to his UFC 82 main event fight with Dan Henderson. After being asked what challenges awaited him should he beat Henderson, Silva said, "...after this fight, maybe I'll put the UFC belt up against a 185-pound boxing champ I'd love to beat up."

The fight would still have several hurdles to clear. First, UFC would have to allow Silva to participate. Second, Silva would have to be apply for a boxing license in the state which would host the fight. And finally, the two sides would have to agree on a money split.

Nevada Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer said that the commission would have to gather information about Silva's boxing capabilities before granting a license for such a bout.

"It's [Silva's] burden to prove," Kizer said. "He'd be taking on a future Hall of Famer in Roy Jones. There's no question he can get licensed to box, the question is the matchup. We'd have to look at his training, his background, his history and gather the facts before a decision."

According to the site BoxRec.com, Silva has had two pro boxing matches and is 1-1, though his official website lists him as 1-0 with his only match occurring in 2005.

© 2008 NBC Sports.com
Rate this story LowHigh
 

Sponsored links