The first couple of times I heard that UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva wants to box Roy Jones Jr., I just thought the whole thing was silly. But a lot of fight fans are talking about it, so I guess it's worth addressing. For those who haven't heard, the manager for Silva, the most dominant fighter in UFC, told MMA Weekly, "Anderson really would love to fight Roy Jones, Jr. in a boxing match. It's not just talk, we really would like to put that fight together."
But what I can't figure out is why. Silva would almost certainly lose to Jones, but on the off chance that he won, everyone would just say it's because the 32-year-old Silva is in his prime and the 39-year-old Jones is past his. What does Silva have to gain from such a fight?
I can sort of see why a boxer might want to try mixed martial arts: Although he'd have to learn a lot of new skills to successfully fight in MMA, a boxer could at least use all of the skills he has honed in boxing and try to take mostly a stand-up fighting approach to MMA.
But going in the other direction, from mixed martial arts to boxing, makes no sense. Silva has spent years working on Muay Thai-style kicks and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu grappling. Why would he now want to try a sport in which those skills aren't used?
The whole thing makes no sense, and I don't think it will happen. But it has had a lot of fans talking in the last couple of days, and that answers the question of why Silva would want to do it: Enough fans are curious about it that it would make him more money than any UFC fight will.
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