Roy Jones Jr. Rejected $40m to fight Mike Tyson; Wanted More Money

[Ruthless-RKO]

Roy Jones Jr reportedly rejected an eye-watering £33million offer to fight Mike Tyson back in 2003 because he wanted more money.

Boxing legend Jones Jr began his career as a middleweight but rose through the divisions to become a four-weight world champion.

He captured the WBA heavyweight world title by outpointing John Ruiz in March 2003.

A month earlier, Tyson had scored a brutal knockout of Clifford Etienne to return to winning ways, having been stopped by Lennox Lewis in his previous fight.

Tyson was approaching the end of his rollercoaster career and targeted one last super-fight with Jones Jr but it never materialised.

According to former pound-for-pound star Andre Ward, Jones Jr wanted even more money to get in the ring with Tyson and instead ended up pursuing a light-heavyweight unification clash with Antonio Tarver for a fraction of the money.

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JONES JR'S CAREER
Fights: 75
Wins: 66
KOs: 47
Defeats: 9
Debut: 1989-05-06
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 5′ 11″ / 180cm
Reach: 74″ / 188cm

MIKE TYSON'S CAREER
Fights: 56
Wins: 50
KOs: 44
Defeats: 6
Debut: 1985-03-06
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 5′ 10″ / 178cm
Reach: 71″ / 180cm
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Speaking to to JRE Clips Ward said: '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.

'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 you're 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.'

Tyson had two more fights after failing to lure Jones Jr into a blockbuster showdown.

He suffered a shock knockout defeat against Brit Danny Williams in 2004 before being pulled out against Kevin McBride a year later.

Jones, meanwhile, carried on boxing until he was 49 and closed the curtain on his illustrious career back in 2018 after winning 66 of his 75 fights

[Paci]

He outpriced himself and would love even more for that sort of fight.

Wouldn't see Tyson getting past Jones in any other way then knock the speedster out. Sad in some ways it didn't happend or good maybe. Would be one last great payday for Tyson. But, feels wrong when you look back at it. Tyson was no Ruiz, might been sort of the end. But he could still punch sort of back in 2003? Might been good it didn't happen or my feelings are mix'd. A dream fight more or less. Would looked good on Roy's record to face another legend who is among the heavyweights. But, sad to say I would love to see Tyson beating Jones then anything else.

Edit - also 40 million? For one fight? And he demands more? Wow... that ego Jones had back then.

[Tony1244]

Geez, he got knocked out for much much less.

[Noxy]

Jones started at middle.

[TheLeprechaun]

jones will regret not taking that fight and quite a few others

[Ruthless-RKO]

Jones started at middle.

didnt he start at 154?

His first world title was 160.

[bigjack]

Jones started at middle.

didnt he start at 154?

His first world title was 160.

yes he weighed 155 in 2 of his first 3 fights

[Noxy]

didnt he start at 154?

His first world title was 160.

yes he weighed 155 in 2 of his first 3 fights

Ta, I‘d forgotten about that.

[gilgamesh]

Definitely would've been a better career choice than what he wound up doing. Maybe he could've entered 2004 richer. Or simply retired after having beaten Tyson.

Here's a bigger question.

Let's say he fights Tyson in 2003, and beats him, and retires with his 40 Million dollar paycheck, and the decline we saw in 2004 and onward never happens.

How does it affect his legacy?

[jujigatame]

In hindsight it was the wrong move but you can understand the mental calculation Roy was making at the time. He was flush with cash and concerned with keeping his undefeated record. Tyson still looked quite dangerous. He had just crushed Etienne and he presented a very different sort of challenge from Ruiz who had a low workrate and only moderate power. Roy was also probably sharing the opinion of most fans at the time (myself included) who thought his razor-thin decision over Tarver was a fluke and that he would beat him more easily the 2nd time around.

[deadpan]

Definitely would've been a better career choice than what he wound up doing. Maybe he could've entered 2004 richer. Or simply retired after having beaten Tyson.

Here's a bigger question.

Let's say he fights Tyson in 2003, and beats him, and retires with his 40 Million dollar paycheck, and the decline we saw in 2004 and onward never happens.

How does it affect his legacy?

Good question! He's considered a Top 20 ATG at the very least.

[Onetimeonly]

Roy's father never wanted him at heavyweight. He wouldn't let him fight Douglas after his diabetic coma. Big money offered for vander too. I don't see that can be held against him, the dozen or so top 68 &75 guys you can.

[Syntax Error]

Tyson was a shot to shyte 4 round fighter with no stamina by 2004, but he may still have been very dangerous proposition for a small guy like Jones Jr.

Jones likely would have outsped Tyson for large parts, but Mike arguably would only have needed to trap Jones once & the fight would have been over.

If Jones gets to the fifth, it would have been his fight, but would he have got that far?

We will never know, because Jones wasn't daft & probably deliberately priced himself out of the fight.

[walter5]

There was actually a real offer for Roy to fight Evander Holyfield right after he won the title against John Ruiz. Instead he chose to go back down in weight and fight Antonio Tarver. It's one of the biggest "what if" moments in boxing history.

[Onamastus]

If Jones had been knocked out in one by Tyson and immediately retired, I don't think it would have tarnished his legacy in any way. What he did do instead of fighting Tyson absolutely tarnished his legacy.

[EduardosFist]

Good for him. $40 mil is peanuts. Pay him his just dues!

[Enlightened-One]

Roy Jones Jr. apparently received a $10 million guaranteed purse, in addition to money generated from pay-per-view sales, which allegedly resulted in him earning $25m+ in total for the John Ruiz fight.

Anyway, prime Tyson beats prime Jones (the size discrepancy would be too great to overcome.

However, the 2003 Tyson loses to 2003 Jones Jr. (Mike was badly faded by that time and Roy was still operating at a very high level).

[H8Usernames]

Im probably one of the biggest Roy Jones fans out there. That being said I think Roy would have gotten slaughtered in 2003 by Tyson and as far as legacy goes I dont think Roy has hurt his legacy any by fighting on. As for financials well there cant be any disputing those, 40m$ is alot of money.

[BroughtonRulesRefuge]

- Gonna let the great man speak to you in his full pomp.

"Y'all musta forgot!"

Well before Ruiz and most emphatically after, HBOs Jellyman and most of others proclaimed Roy as TBE, and so he was in the catbird seat as his own manager with promotional experience in spite of being tied to King for a year.

And also remember while in training for Ruiz, he and his trainer were signaling retirement messages claiming he was in the first phase of decline.

What he wanted was $100 mil to fight Lewis, but he sent out contracts to a host of heavies that included Tyson, Field, and Sanders who was the only one who accepted all his terms that I know of. This was hotly debated in the AOL days as Roy roused a hornets nest of interest.

None of the others did, but more importantly there was never the $100 mil for Lewis though I suspect Roy would take 80. Field was so miffed over the peanuts he was offered he took the Toney fight for not that much more.

So diva that Roy had become with a platoon of sycophants blowing smoke up his shorts, he took the easy Tarver fight to let the heavy division marinate in his magnificence and for the first time looked less than superhuman.

$100 mil never materialized with King cut out his share and the rest is history in a series unfortunate judgements as Roy lost his Mojo.

[ewenhay]

I always think Jones missed a trick not trying for the cruiserweight title on the way down from heavyweight rather than going back down to light heavy to face Tarver.

Still might not have stopped him losing to Tarver eventually but would have been a more sensible weight loss regime.

Although I get the feeling Tarver was all wrong for Jones in the same way Forrest was all wrong for Mosley

[Onetimeonly]

I always think Jones missed a trick not trying for the cruiserweight title on the way down from heavyweight rather than going back down to light heavy to face Tarver.

Still might not have stopped him losing to Tarver eventually but would have been a more sensible weight loss regime.

Although I get the feeling Tarver was all wrong for Jones in the same way Forrest was all wrong for Mosley

Roy didn't like southpaws. Quite a coincidence so many of the guys he could have fought were.

[Ruthless-RKO]

I always think Jones missed a trick not trying for the cruiserweight title on the way down from heavyweight rather than going back down to light heavy to face Tarver.

Still might not have stopped him losing to Tarver eventually but would have been a more sensible weight loss regime.

Although I get the feeling Tarver was all wrong for Jones in the same way Forrest was all wrong for Mosley

Yeh. I mean he weighed 193 pounds for the HW fight. I think on fight day, he went up to around 198 pounds.