It’s been almost a decade since UFC legend Anderson Silva and boxing hall-of-famer Roy Jones Jr first started floating the idea of fighting each other, and even now it seems that they haven’t given up on the idea.
“I’m still trying to fight Anderson Silva right now,” Jones Jr confirmed on the ‘Ask Gary Vee Show.’ “Me and Anderson Silva have been trying to fight way before Floyd Mayweather and McGregor ever thought about this. We’ve been trying to fight for nine years now, and they would not let him get free to fight me. . . Me and him could have did this a long time ago, and we were at the pinnacle of our careers when we first started talking about it so why they still won’t let us fight right now, I don’t know.”
That being said, Jones knows that neither he nor Silva are getting any younger, and so there’s an increased sense of urgency now to make it happen sooner rather than later.
“Both of us want to fight right now still and the UFC won’t let him free to fight. I’m 48, going on 49 in January, and because of how big it is, and how big of an event it is, and I know what it means to him, I’m still willing to fight Anderson Silva tomorrow if he was free to do it.”
Silva has since responded to RJJ indicating that he is also still interested in making the superfight happen.
“Ok Roy Jr this is everything I’ve wanted for years, long before all this happened, it will be a pleasure to step into the ring with you,” Silva wrote on Instagram. “I have great respect and admiration for everything you’ve done in boxing and everyone knows that this has always been my great dream. Let’s make this event happen. I think we have this right, in fact this is something that both You and I are willing to do. So. Let’s make it happen, Mr. Roy.”
Saying this is one thing, but actually making it happen is another as Silva is still under contract with the UFC and is currently under suspension pending a hearing in relation to a failed drug test back in October.
