Roy Jones vs. Anderson Silva in MMA Could Actually Help the Sport
Apparently, things have changed.
On Tuesday, CBSSports.com reported that Jones was approached by his manager a few weeks back regarding the possibility of fighting Silva under MMA rules and the UFC banner. He was willing to consider it, but the UFC's President wasn't.
"You won't see a Silva versus Jones fight while Silva is under contract with me," White told CBSSports.com. "I don't want to say anything bad about Roy Jones, I like Roy Jones and was a fan of his, but he mattered like fifteen years ago. He's not anywhere near the best boxer in the world. He must've spent all his money."
"I could do it, make it huge, make money, but I could have done a fight like this when we were bleeding money," White continued. "The fight would make some money, but it hurts MMA in the long term. We don't do that because we love the sport. That's a PRIDE or K-1 matchup. It's not what we do."
Here's the question: Would that fight really hurt MMA? If the match goes to the ground, it ends in like 25 seconds in Silva's favor. Even if the fight stayed standing, with Silva's clinch and ability to connect with kicks and knees, a win still might be in order. Said another way, if Silva fights the smart fight, he wins hands down, and everyone knows that Jones Jr., even if he is beyond his prime, is still a very big name in boxing. A Silva win over him would only serve to boost MMA's popularity.
Perhaps White doesn't want the fight because he's worried of the damage it could do if Silva didn't fight the smart fight. Maybe he thinks Silva could be goaded into an MMA style boxing match with his adversary. If not, this looks like a win-win situation. Silva wins the fight; MMA wins some fans and notoriety.
In the end, who wouldn't want to see this one go down?
Comments
I don’t want to see this fight. Most of your points are valid but what you seem to overlook is that this is similar to the fights set up in the early UFC, before Dana White took it from a “blood sport” as referred to by McCain to one of the popular and respected sports today. I understand they would fight under MMA rules, which has changed help evolve the sport, but the main point is that everyone watching this is not seeing two talented individuals but seeing two styles ,which take away some of the much deserved respect from the fighters. Boxing and MMA/Jujitsu has been tested over and over with boxing walking away defeated, not to say that I would not love to see Silva defeated by pure boxing technique but it is very unlikely. The fight is likely to start and finish looking like an unmatched fight.
the only thing that RJJ vs teh Spider would hurt would be the UFC… MMA as a whole would benefit, with increased exposure to the sport.
The UFC’s game is being the top-level MMA league in the world, bar none… They issue the only meaningful belts in the sport, and to promote something that is less than top-level MMA diminishes the value of what the UFC tries to stand for.