Photo by Joe Scarnici / Triller
- Roy Jones Jr. said his body hurts everywhere Mike Tyson landed a punch.
- The two veteran boxers returned to the ring Saturday for a highly-anticipated exhibition in Los Angeles.
- Jones, 51, said Tyson, 54, hit him with two punches in particular which caused him a significant amount of pain. One was an uppercut which hurt his jaw.
- Regardless, he’s glad he did it, enjoyed the experience, and hailed Tyson as “an exceptional puncher.”
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Roy Jones Jr. said his body hurts everywhere Mike Tyson landed a punch.
“He is capable of fighting anybody,” the 51-year-old said of his opponent.
The two veteran boxers returned to the ring Saturday for a boxing exhibition at the behind-closed-doors Staples Center in Los Angeles for an eight-round heavyweight match.
Though Jones and Tyson’s showcase was never going to count on their pro records, it did top a six-bout card that featured some legitimate bouts — one of which was Jake Paul’s brutal second-round knockout win over the former NBA player Nate Robinson.
Jones and Tyson combined to throw 429 shots with the former landing 37 of 236 punch attempts (15.7%), and the latter landing 67 of 193 (34.6%), according to Compubox data sent to Insider.
After the 16-minute match, which was scored a draw, Jones told the media at a post-exhibition press conference attended remotely by Insider that he's "tired, but good — I survived it."
Jones said: "I'm happy to scratch it off the bucket list and move on with my life."
Speaking specifically about the challenge of coming out of a two-year retirement and 75 pro fights, to take on Tyson, one of boxing's biggest icons, when both are in their 50s, Jones said: "He hit harder, his hands hurt, his head hurts [my hands], everything hurt that makes contact.
"It makes you so fatigued trying to deal with him on the inside — you have to keep his arm locked up. I learned that from [his] Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield fights; lock his arms up [so he can't throw] uppercuts.
"I had to work on the clinches. Land punches on the inside of the clinch and get the hand back [inside the clinch]. That's what my strategy was going in. Clinch him on the inside, box him outside."
2 of Tyson's punches, in particular, caused Jones a lot of pain, he said
Photo by Triller
Jones said that while there were two punches which caused him a significant amount of pain, he was never dizzy and never considered dropping to the canvas.
"I never thought about dropping, but he hit me with one good body shot and he hit me with an uppercut straight-up and my jaw is a bit sore.
"It's all good, happens in a fight. But I never got dizzy, or that. I did feel them … but they never made me dizzy.
"He was throwing more power punches. I was throwing more jabs and other punches. It could go either way. I'm cool with the draw.
"He [said] he wanted to do it all again but that's a big, old, dude. He weighed 220-pounds but he's more massive than 220, trust me.
"I took a draw like Tyson, I mean, come on brah how can you get mad about that?
"He's capable of fighting anybody. If he catches you, you're going to have problems. I was feeling everything. He's an exceptional puncher, still. All it takes is one punch from either one of us for something to happen. He can do anything he wants to do.
"I thank God nobody got hurt, it makes it even better. People got entertained."
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