Jorge Masvidal’s ‘Gamebred Boxing’ promotion is going all-out for it’s 4th event on April 1st with a stacked card on UFC Fight Pass pay-per-view that features a headliner pitting former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis against boxing legend Roy Jones Jr alongside a slew of other well known former UFC stars.
Despite being on April Fool’s day the card isn’t a joke, but it is an odd one, for a number of reasons.
For example, for many many years there was talk of Jones Jr competing in a boxing match with the UFC middleweight champion at the time, Anderson Silva, but despite interest from both parties it never came to fruition.
Jones Jr is 52 now though and the only time he’s fought in the ring in the past five years was a heavyweight exhibition match against Mike Tyson in 2020 that ended in a split draw verdict.
With that in mind it’s something of a headscratcher why he’s now being pitted against the 36-year-old ‘Showtime’ Pettis, who is multiple weight classes below that and has lost four out of five fights in the PFL promotion, not to mention the fact that he’s never fought in a professional boxing match before.
The rest of the card continues in the same theme of being somewhat intriguing, yet at the same time weird.
Jose Aldo has long pined for the chance to fight in the boxing ring, and after having retired from MMA competition after his final UFC fight last year.
Now he finally gets that opportunity, but rather than fighting an actual boxer, Aldo is instead going to be taking on fellow ex-UFC fighter Jeremy Stephens, who he already beat by TKO in the first round back in 2018.
There’s also another rematch of another former UFC fight between big-name middleweights Vitor Belfort and Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, but also this time it’s in the boxing ring as Belfort seeks to avenge a first round TKO loss to his opponent back in 2016.
With Paul Daley also making his boxing debut on the night after retiring from MMA last year there’s no doubt that Masvidal has assembled an impressively star-studded event, even if it is curiously compromised of mostly MMA fighters competing against each other in boxing, and you can check out the full line-up below.
Anthony Pettis vs. Roy Jones Jr.
Jose Aldo vs. Jeremy Stephens
Vitor Belfort vs. Ronaldo Souza
Paul Daley vs. Anthony Taylor
Pearl Gonzalez vs. Gina Mazany
Dillon Cleckler vs. Josh Burns
Devin Cushing vs. Damian Marciano
