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In a story that came out of nowhere, former UFC light heavyweight champion and current Bellator fighter Quinton Jackson is reportedly going to fight Roy Jones Jr. in a PPV boxing match towards the end of the year. MMA Junkie's Steven Marocco has the details:
Viacom is expected to announce plans to go head-to-head with pay-per-view juggernaut Zuffa LLC and its UFC 168 offering at next week's Bellator 97 event on Spike TV.
An unveiling of Bellator fighter Quinton "Rampage" Jackson's plans with the promotion will likely include a pay-per-view boxing match with former multi-division boxing champ Roy Jones Jr.
The fight is expected to take place at the end of the year, though a date and weight class for the bout could not immediately be confirmed. It's also unclear how the event will be branded given Bellator and parent company Viacom's focus on MMA.
Rampage (32-11) signed with Bellator after closing out his UFC contract on a 3 fight losing streak, which included a January 2013 loss to Glover Teixeira at UFC on Fox 6. It's been over two years since he last won a fight, and it's approaching 5 years since his last KO win (Wanderlei Silva, UFC 92).
Jones Jr. (56-8) was once the cream of the crop in boxing, having won championships in multiple weight classes spanning from middleweight (160 lbs) to heavyweight. At 44 years of age he's clearly a shell of his former self yet is still "active" in the boxing ring. His last fight was an extremely controversial unanimous decision win over Pawel Glazewski in Poland. Over the last few weeks his name has been in MMA circles over the (already ridiculous) idea of him possibly fighting Anderson Silva.
Bellator 97 is next week so more details will probably come out on July 31st, but for now just sit back and stare at your monitor and then imagine a world where Roy Jones Jr. is boxing Rampage Jackson in 2013.
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