Roy Jones Jr can't go more than a couple of months without the idea of him boxing some MMA dude coming up, and while that long and pointlessly discussed fight with Anderson Silva certainly isn't going to happen now -- actually, maybe it would now that they're both pretty much dunzo -- Nick Diaz has entered the conversation.
Diaz, of course, has made his desire to box professionally known in the past. He negotiated with Jeff Lacy for a fight a couple of years ago, before UFC stepped in and gave him a big fight and put the kibosh on that noise. I said then that I thought Lacy, a pretty washed-up pro boxer, would give Nick Diaz a pretty thorough kablonking under boxing rules, and I think if you matched those guys tomorrow, the same would be true.
I also think Roy Jones, who is 45 years old, flat-out shot and has been for years, and is now little more than a traveling novelty act, would smoke Diaz, too. But Diaz thinks Roy should buy out the UFC contract Diaz is still under, so that they can fight:
"Tell this guy to buy my contract so we can fight. Get a real fight. ... (On weight for that fight) I'd like to fight 167 if I was fighting boxing, but whatever. That's the weight that I fought at originally. I've had, like, one pro fight. I've had a lot of boxing experience, of course, you know, worked with a lot of different fighters. Of course, sparring is different than fighting. I'd love to see what I can do. Love to get something going. I'm trying to work something for this year."
... "I'd like to make a boxing run and see how I do. I put a lot of work in with these guys sparring in the gym. I have a lot of experience. I know who's who and what's what and what they're capable of. I'd love to make a run, but of course, I'm with the UFC right now. So it's always up to Dana White. It's always up to who's got the real money. We'll see. It's whatever. I'm always game."
Some thoughts:
- Roy Jones Jr isn't going to be buying out any UFC contracts. He's not fighting in front of a dozen people in Atlanta, then in Poland, and then in Russia because he's wealthy beyond his wildest dreams.
- What's the upside of a Jones-Diaz fight? Where do you put it? Jones' career is dead in the United States. His last U.S. fight in Atlanta against Max Alexander was a depressing affair. Is there any reason to suspect this could draw more than 50,000 pay-per-view buys? Jones-Hopkins II did about 150,000 in 2010, and that was a long rivalry between two name boxers, even if it was a crap fight that had no reason to happen.
- Roy Jones Jr now fights as a cruiserweight, so about 200 pounds. Diaz fights in MMA at 170. Roy could probably get down to about 180 at this point, and I guess that's not the worst fight weight for either of them.
- I do have an admiration for Diaz's desire to try his hand and see what he can do in boxing. I'm not trying to dump on the guy at all. I think he'd lose to Jones or Lacy, but if he got some tune-up or water-testing fights in to start, and had a few of those, did well, trained exclusively for boxing, maybe he could do a little something. I don't know. Diaz is more likely to be a legitimate boxer than Kimbo Slice, at least. And the guy is a true fighter in every sense of the word. I would watch Nick Diaz-Roy Jones Jr, I just fear that I'm in the vast minority that would want to pay for that, and it's not like HBO would buy it (although in all reality, maybe they should, given the main event fighters we're seeing this year).
- That's all I've got to say. About that. It's whatever.