In the aftermath of Roy Jones’ exhibition fight against Mike Tyson over the weekend, resulting in an unofficial draw, Jones appeared for a post-fight press conference to discuss his thoughts on the event and what happened during the fight. Check out some excerpts of what Jones had to say about it below...
“He hit harder, everything hurts,” Jones said. “His hands hurt, his head hurts, everything hurts when I make contact, so I was like ‘Wow!’ And it makes you so fatigued trying to deal with him, ‘cause on the inside you gotta keep his arm locked up. I learned that from watching the Lennox Lewis and Holyfield fighting — you gotta lock his arms up or he’ll hit you with them uppercuts.
“So I was trying to keep his arms locked up, the referee talking about ‘let him go’. What you think I’ma let him go so he can kill me? Nah, bruh. It’s not gonna happen like this. So I had to work on the clinches...I was able to land punches on the inside of the clinch and get him back before he could throw anything good. So that’s what my strategy was going in...box him outside, clinch him inside.
“I never thought about dropping but there was two good shots, one good body shot he hit me with and he hit me with an uppercut straight up and threw my jaw off a little bit — my jaw still a little sore — but it’s all good. It happens in fighting...I never was dizzy or anything, I did feel ‘em but they never had me dizzy so I was good.
“I’m cool with the draw. I hear him talking about he want to do it again but it’s a big ol’ dude. He bigger than he weigh. He weigh 220 but nah, he more massive than 220. Trust me.
“Mike can fight anybody if he keeps going and stays in shape like he’s doing now because it surprised me that he was able to go them eight rounds like that. So with him going eight rounds and strong like he was, he’s capable of fighting anybody because truthfully, people gonna have problems trying to get out of the first couple of rounds with him. That was the hardest part, trying to get past them first two or three rounds. If he catch you, you gonna have problems because, I mean, like I said, I was feeling everything so I know that he’s really an exceptional puncher still and he can do anything he wants to do.”