Roy Jones Jr. is giving boxing fans a unique gift this holiday season by serving as a commentator while cornering five of his fighters on a card he’s promoting at the Legends Casino Hotel at Toppenish, Washington on BLK Prime PPV ($12.99).
In the spirit of the holiday season, BoxingScene asked Jones which fights he’d like to see get gifted for fans in 2025, and the former pound-for-pound king and Hall of Fame fighter’s wish list included:
- Canelo Alvarez vs. David Benavidez
“That’s it. I don’t want to see Canelo fight anyone else,” said Jones.
- Naoya Inoue vs. Vasiliy Lomachenko
“You know what, to be honest with you, I’d like to see Loma come back down and they meet to see what Loma can do with it,” said Jones. “That would be a good fight because Loma has good technique. Loma is fighting guys that are way bigger than him now. Inoue is closer to his size. That’s a really good fight.”
- Zhilei Zhang vs. Martin Bakole
“Both of these guys are fighters that no one ever really gave a chance to, or tried to give a chance to. Both of these guys deserve a shot. They both can fight and having two big guys who can fight share the ring is an awesome thing in the heavyweight division. Why would we not do that? The best fight for those two is each other. They are both huge guys, great punchers, and they both have good boxing IQ. Why not make the fight happen? They’d both be opponents for Tyson Fury because they are big enough.”
Other fights Jones listed were:
- Gervonta Davis vs. Shakur Stevenson
- Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua
- Anthony Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder
- Terence Crawford vs. either Jaron Ennis, Sebastian Fundora, Tim Tzsyu, or Jermell and Jermall Charlo.
Most of the big-money fights, however, would likely require the involvement of Turki Alalshikh, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia.
“I think it will be sustainable moving forward,” said Jones. “I like their involvement because it allows these guys an opportunity to take the fights that people want to see, and they are getting paid for it properly. Why would you not take the fight? You just have to be ready for it, because you don’t want to jump in too early because of the money and get beat.”
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter whose work has appeared on ESPN, Fox Sports, USA Today, The Guardian, Newsweek, Men’s Health, NFL.com, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Ring Magazine and more. He has been writing for BoxingScene since 2018. Manouk is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.
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