Coming out of the first Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr. press conference, we’ve been left with far more questions than answers following a bizarre, but also entertaining Zoom call.
When Mike Tyson announced his comeback fight against Roy Jones Jr a few months ago, it seemed like all of the combat world paused for a moment. After all, this is ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson, arguably one of the most famous boxers of all-time, and one of the best heavyweights of all-time, returning after 15 years off to face another Hall-Of-Famer in Roy Jones Jr. Granted, he would be facing off against Jones in an eight-round exhibition, however, it was coming up quick and there seemed to be a decent level of excitement.
That was until the fight was quickly postponed until November 28, in what was a bizarre move that was allegedly done for more time to market the fight. More details would leak out, such as Youtuber Jake Paul joining the undercard, and news that the WBC would score the main event. News also came out that the WBC would be putting a “Frontline Battle” belt on the line in the main event, drawing criticism from many in the boxing world for having a belt on the line in an exhibition bout. However, both Jones and Tyson seemed to like the idea, saying that acquiring belts was “like drugs” to the two greats.
After the delay, a lot of the buzz surrounding the immediate match-up was gone. In order to boost the card’s profile, with the event coming up next month, Triller hosted a press conference that allowed media members including Cageside Press’ own Gabriel Gonzalez and Josh Evanoff to ask questions to the main card fighters over Zoom.
What then ensued was one of the most entertaining, if not also bizarre, press conferences in recent memory. The press conference itself was relatively tame up until the co-main event players came on screen, as a clearly damaged Jake Paul was seen wearing a mask shielding what seemed to be massive cuts on his face. There was also an issue with Paul’s audio, as no media members could hear Paul during the duration of his interview. However, it seemed that opponent Nate Robinson and host Ariel Helwani could hear him, as Paul and Robinson traded jabs throughout the segment.
When the main event fighters came on screen, all (online) hell seemed to break loose. It appeared that the Zoom meeting that was holding the event was crashed by multiple fans. Who seemed to be yelling about how Tyson was “going to kill you,” a quote that made Roy Jones Jr. break character and start laughing at one point. A rare slip-up from the former world champion, who was fired up Thursday.
Outside of the unintentional comedy of the bizarre main event segment, we did learn a bit about the fight. The venue has been changed to the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Which makes the card the first sports event in the arena since March. We also learned that the eight-round bout will feature rounds of just two minutes each, prompting Roy Jones Jr and Mike Tyson to exclaim that “we’re not women,” and that there is no reason for the bout to only have two-minute rounds.
On the bright side, we did get an amazing promo for the event, that takes place on November 28.
