Roy Jones Jr has fought several vicious punchers at the peak of their powers.
From heavy-handed Russian great Sergey Kovalev to aptly nicknamed three-weight world champion James ‘Lights Out’ Toney.
But the boxing legend insists nobody hit him harder than a 54-year-old Mike Tyson when they duked it out in an exhibition bout four years ago.
To make his statement even more remarkable, their contest included a ‘no knockout’ rule, meaning ‘Iron Mike’ was actually pulling his punches.
“Mike Tyson hit me harder in my chest than I have been hit in my whole career. He still has that legendary power, trust me,” Jones Jr told talkSPORT.com.
“But there’s a guy in my early days called Eddie Evans that hit me with the hardest headshot.
“And I can promise you that Merqui Sosa missed me with the hardest shot I’ve ever been missed with.”
When Tyson’s most recent outing with YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul was announced, the expectation was that their fight would have been an exhibition bout as well.
After all, Paul is 31 years Tyson’s junior and has competed in 10 professional bouts during his adversary’s near five-year hiatus.
However, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, in their infinite wisdom, has sanctioned Paul vs Tyson as a professional heavyweight clash under a modified rule set.
Both men are set to box over eight, two-minute rounds rather than the traditional three-minute stretches while they will duke it out in 14oz gloves instead of the 10oz mitts pros usually wear.
Tyson hasn’t competed in the paid ranks since retiring on his stool against the unheralded Kevin McBride in 2005.
Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson predictions and betting tips
Yet Jones Jr thinks his former foe still has enough left in his tank to overcome Paul.
“He can do one of two things and I don’t think he’ll do the first option because he doesn’t have to – that would be to go out and get Paul out of there and put a barrage on Paul,” Jones Jr added as he laid out how Tyson can win the fight.
“I don’t think Paul can take his punches as good as Paul can take his punch.
“However, Paul is a good puncher. Don’t get it wrong. And if he takes a good shot from Paul, Paul will get him out.
“But right now, I think, because of the experience, if they get into a dog fight. Tyson would definitely win a dogfight right away.
” But if he chooses to go out and take Jake and spend some rounds with him, to try to educate Jake on boxing then it gives Jake a better chance.
“Jake has to hope that Tyson gets tired while he’s teaching these lessons, and then maybe sneak and get Tyson out there, you know. So we’ll see.
“But I think Tyson wins the fight, probably on points. But one shot and it could be all over if he chooses to do that.”
Paul had his second professional fight against NBA star Nate Robinson on the Tyson vs Jones Jr undercard.
The event sold an estimated 1.6million pay-per-views and raked in over $80m in PPV revenue alone.
Paul vs Tyson is expected to supersede those viewership numbers tenfold, with all of the action on Friday night being broadcast live on Netflix free of charge to existing subscribers.
The streaming giant boasts over 282.7m paid subscribers as of the first quarter of this year, and that number will no doubt continue to increase as fight night creeps closer.
It may fall short of topping the 300 million people who tuned in to watch the ‘Fight of the Century’ between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1971.
But it will certainly be up there amongst the most-watched fights in the sports’ long unforgiving history, especially in the modern era.
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