Roy Jones Jr. shares interesting theory as to why Mike Tyson bout was delayed

Roy Jones Jr. has an interesting theory as to why his anticipated exhibition boxing match with fellow legend Mike Tyson was delayed.

Jones and Tyson were originally expected to fight on September 12, but the bout was ultimately pushed back to November 28. The bout’s promoters attributed this delay to needing more time for marketing and publicity, but Jones is skeptical.

Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, he shared his belief that Tyson and his team influenced the delay to give themselves more time to prepare after realizing the initial six-week window would not be sufficient.

“I’m like, six weeks, that’s right around the corner,” Jones said. “[Tyson] ain’t been fighting. I can get ready, I’m pretty sure I can get a little bit more ready than he can because he’s been inactive a lot longer than I have. So six weeks, he’s still Mike Tyson and he still can punch, but six weeks, there’s no way he can get prepared for this.

“Lo and behold, something happens and they’ve changed [the date],” Jones added. “They told me something about marketing, but I don’t really believe much of what they said. I just can’t believe it because we had a September 12 date before the football season starts. People at home had nothing to do. And they said, ‘Well, we got more attention than we expected to get, and this happened and that happened so we want to move it.’

“It ain’t like I’m scared of Mike Tyson, it’s just that I know that in six weeks he had no chance to deal with me,” Jones continued. “In 12 weeks he’ll have a better chance to deal with me, but his chance is still gonna be rough, but it’s gonna be better than it would’ve been.

“Six weeks, he didn’t have a chance.”

The postponement of this bout isn’t the only reason Jones believes promoters are attempting to give Tyson an advantage in this matchup. The boxer also revealed to Rogan that the bout will now be contested over eight two-minute rounds, rather than the originally planned three-minute rounds.

“They’ve got me doing eight two-minute rounds now,” Jones said. “That’s to his advantage too. Everything’s to his advantage, that’s to his advantage too. At this point, the fans are so excited about it, I wouldn’t want to pull the rug from under the fans… and [Tyson and the promoters] will try and sue me. It’s not really worth it, so I’m going to go in and do these [two-minute] rounds , but I’m going to have to work a little bit faster than I expected to.”

What do you think of this theory from Roy Jones Jr.?