Executive explains why Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. fight was delayed
The highly anticipated boxing match between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. has been delayed and many have questioned whether the event will even take place.
The fight was originally scheduled to take place on Sept. 12. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the event was postponed to Nov. 28 and will now take place at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif live on pay-per-view for $49.99.
Reports surfaced that the promotion of Classic Entertainment & Sports will be promoting the fight.
CES COO Jimmy Burchfield Jr. spoke to reporters.
“That’s not an easy question to answer,” Burchfield told MMA Fighting when asked about being the card’s promoter. “We’ve been brought on by a company called Eros (Innovations) to help create a unique platform of this Legends Only League.
“What we’re trying to do is not do it in a traditional sense where the promoter is up front, but make it more about the fighters. We will continue to have the traditional responsibilities with dealing with commission issues, fighter issues, but we’re focusing on trying to create this Legends Only League that will be different than the way combat sports has done it in the past.”
Roy Jones Jr. was not pleased with the delay and even threatened to pull out of the fight if he isn’t compensated for the delay.
“We sat around and looked at what was going on, the Mike Tyson, Roy Jones legends fight was resonating, plus putting together these other fights that were gaining traction and we realized that people were demanding tickets, wondering how to view this live,” Burchfield explained. “We looked at it and said, ‘Hey, maybe there’s a possibility of pushing this back where we can have some spectators. So that was one factor to consider.
“Another factor to consider is the Saturday after Thanksgiving is a huge night and we thought the potential of that particular night would be huge from a marketing standpoint—giving us more time to market the event. There were real business issues involved in it which facilitated it being pushed back.”
When asked if the celebrity boxer and YouTuber Jake Paul would still be on the card, Burchfield answered.
“We have no reason to believe that Jake’s not gonna be able to fight,” Burchfield stated. “We’re excited. That’s a high profile fight for us, a high profile matchup between those two guys. An elite athlete in Nate Robinson against Jake Paul who’s shown that he has the ability to throw down. We don’t see any issue based on the information that we have.”
“The game plan is that this is the first of many,” Burchfield said. “This is something that we feel is going to have legs. Thinking outside of the box, taking legends like Mike Tyson and Roy Jones, having them showcase and bringing in the traditional boxing fanbase, having these other matchups pitting personalities from the social influencer world, from the NBA, having some legitimate—as we would know—fighters from the history of boxing competing against each other, it’s gonna give this thing a bigger reach than it would have normally.
“That’s what is so exciting about this, to have a reach with live boxing events, live musical acts, and this is going to be showcased to so many people in and out of the boxing world.”
Burchfield revealed other high profile names have expressed interest in fighting for the promotion in the future.
“It’s been incredible,” Burchfield explained. “You name them, everybody is interested in being involved in this. The feedback has been amazing. Again, this Legends Only League isn’t just about boxers and MMA fighters, it’s about anybody that is a legend in the sport that have an interest in competing against each other. This is the first as many, the test event. As most people know, you can’t get much bigger in this world than Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. This is the big one that we’re starting off with.
“It’s been an incredible journey and it’s going to be an incredible couple of months leading up to the Nov. 28 event.”
