Chris Lytle in Negotiations to Have His Ass Whooped by Roy Jones Jr.

by Dr. Octagon, J.D.

Ariel Helwani reports that Chris Lytle is in negotiations to box former pound-for-pound boxing champ Roy Jones Jr., who MMA fans may not realize, was virtually unhittable for most of his career.

Lytle was always a fan favorite and I don’t wish him ill, but I don’t see how the hell he’s going to make his way out of the first round. When it was rumored that Anderson Silva, one of the most sublime MMA strikers of all time, was thinking about fighting Roy Jones, Jr. I thought he was crazy.

I’m sure I’m going to get some more hate mail for this, but if you can’t outbox Chris Weidman, you can’t outbox even a badly faded Roy Jones, Jr. Boxing and MMA striking are really different. You don’t need to be as sharp with your hands when your opponent has to worry about kicks and takedowns. In the same way, I don’t think a boxer would last very long in the octagon either, which was (sorta) proved by James Toney’s crappy fight against Randy Couture.   

Lytle is the former Indiana Boxing Association’s Light Heavyweight champion, but he’s no Antonio Tarver. I’m not a big fan of novelty fights, but if Roy is really considering a boxing match against an MMA fighter, he should fight against someone who is young and in his prime. That would at least be sporting. I don’t think that’s going to happen, and hopefully this rumored fight doesn’t happen either.