Well that didn't take long. Boxing star Roy Jones Jr. has flirted with the idea of taking on a top MMA star in the boxing right for a while now, and the man he wanted to fight was former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. But right after Silva suffered a gruesome broken leg in his main event bout with Chris Weidman at UFC 168, RJJ had already changed it up since that fight was obviously off the table. So who is his new target? MMA Fighting will fill you in:
The former boxing champion, who attended UFC 168 in Las Vegas Saturday night, told MMAFighting.com that his top choice has always been to box Silva but now that that's off the table, he's very interested in boxing Nick Diaz. Jones Jr. said he told UFC president Dana White about his desire to box Diaz, and White told him he'd think about it. Given Diaz's contract with the UFC, White would obviously have to be on board with the idea for the fight to happen.
Jones (57-8) turns 44 next month, so he obviously doesn't want to wait around. He's still active though, just winning a bout in Russia last week (his first in 18 months). Diaz has talked about boxing many times, and was even discussed as a possible opponent for Jones back in 2009. In 2011 there was a contract on the table for him to box Jeff Lacy as well, but that never materialized either.
Diaz has stated that he's retired from MMA, but is still under contract to the UFC and has been offered fights lately. He told Dana White that he'd possibly like to return in May, but that remains to be seen. His last bout was a UFC 158 loss to Georges St-Pierre.