Gamebred Boxing 4 took place last night headlined by Anthony Pettis vs. Roy Jones Jr with a number of other MMA stars competing on the line-up, and you can check out all the results below.
In the main event former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis picked up a huge win in his pro-boxing debut by defeating the legendary Roy Jones Jr via majority decision (76-76, 77-75, 78-74).
Of course we have to stress the fact that this was a 54-year-old version of Jones, with the decorated multi-division world-champion’s last pro-fight being five years ago, though he did take on Mike Tyson in an exhibition bout in 2020 which ended in a draw.
So clearly Jones is well past him prime, but nonetheless it was still a big challenge for the 36-year-old Pettis, who it has to be said has spent the last decade struggling to live up to the highs of his early career run when he won both the WEC and UFC lightweight titles.
In fact, Pettis came into this fight with four losses from his last five MMA fights, while he also had to take a huge step up in weight, competing close to 200lbs at cruiserweight, having previously only fought as high as 170lbs in MMA.
As for the fight itself, Pettis did use his relative youth to his advantage by staying more active than Jones, and while he did struggle to break through Jones defense to get to the head, he did make good use of body work throughout the fight. Jones warmed up a little as the fight went on and found some success with the uppercut in particular at times, but Pettis never seemed particularly phased by that and continued to outwork him to earn a majority decision victory, with two judges seeing it in his favor and one calling it a draw.
So that’s a feather in Pettis’ cap in some respects, but while it doesn’t feel as deeply uncomfortable as when Vitor Belfort beat Evander Holyfield in a fight that should never have happened, it will still always be seen as a somewhat hollow victory given the large age gap between them.
Speaking of the 46-year-old Vitor Belfort, he fought in the co-main event in a rematch with the 43-year-old Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, who had previously TKO’d him in the UFC back in 2016, but was now going up against again in the boxing ring.
Belfort landed the more hurtful punches throughout this fight, with his biggest round coming in the third when he dropped ‘Jacare’ twice. Bloodied, but not beaten, Jacare continued on and tried his best to battle his way back into the bout, but was unable to and eventually it was Belfort who emerged with a unanimous decision victory (58-54 x2, 57-55).
There was another boxing rematch between former UFC stars on the main card as Jose Aldo looked to add to a first round TKO victory over Jeremy Stephens in the UFC back in 2018.
However, while the 36-year-old Aldo is trying to make a late-career switch into boxing he wasn’t able to overcome the also 36-year-old Stephens in what proved to be a competitive fight. Aldo was the technically superior boxer and worked well behind the jab, but Stephens looked to make up for that with his toughness and aggression, and that seemed to impress the judges as when the fight went to the scorecards it was surprisingly declared a majority draw with only one judge clearly seeing it in Aldo’s favor (58-56, 57-57 x2).
That might throw a spanner in the works for Aldo, who had been trying to set up an exhibition bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr later this year, but is now entertaining talk of a trilogy fight with Stephens instead.
Main Card
Anthony Pettis def. Roy Jones Jr. by majority decision (76-76, 77-75, 78-74)
Vitor Belfort def. Jacare Souza by unanimous decision (58-54, 58-54, 57-55)
Jose Aldo vs. Jeremy Stephens ends in a majority draw (58-56, 57-57, 57-57)
Luis Feliciano def. Clarence Booth by unanimous decision (78-74, 77-75, 79-73)
Devin Cushing def. Damian David Marchiano by TKO, Round 3, 2:59
Gina Mazany def. Pearl Gonzalez by majority decision (57-57, 59-55, 58-56)
Dillon Cleckler def. Josh Burns by TKO, Round 1, 1:20
Bi Nguyen def. Andy Nguyen by unanimous decision (39-37, 39-37, 39-37)
Prelims
Markus Perez def. Joe Riggs by TKO (ref stoppage — injury), Round 3, 1:19
Mandeep Jangra def. Ryan Reber by TKO, Round 2, 3:00
Cade Howell vs. Christopher Wingate by unanimous decision (40-36, 39-37, 39-37)
