In his first fight in more than three years, boxing Hall of Famer Roy Jones Jr. was defeated by former UFC champion Anthony Pettis by majority decision on Saturday night in Milwaukee.
Two judges scored the bout 77-75 and 78-74 for Pettis, while a third judge scored it a 76-76 draw.
Jones, 54, was competing in his first fight since a non-scored exhibition match against Mike Tyson in 2020. He looked much more agile and landed more punches Saturday night compared with his bout against Tyson three years ago, but he still was not able to best Pettis, who was the busier fighter and put together more combinations than Jones.
Pettis, who was making his professional boxing debut, and Jones embraced in the ring as the final bell sounded following their eight-round main event of Gamebred Boxing 4 from Fiserv Forum.
The two men showed respect for one another despite their different backgrounds throughout the week leading up to the fight, which continued after the bell Saturday. Pettis, the 36-year old former UFC lightweight champion, called Jones one of the greatest of all time and said it was an honor to be in the ring with him.
“He’s a legend of the sport,” Pettis said of Jones. “I’m going to take it one fight at a time. I’m 1-0 as a pro so I’m excited to see what the future holds. I had a great team behind me and I wanted this.”
Jones said he was proud of the dedication it took to get himself down to 200 pounds for this bout. He used the fact that one judge scored the match a draw as fuel to angle for a possible rematch with Pettis in the future.
“I want to go out on my shield and be able to do it again as many times as I want to,” Jones said in the ring during a postmatch interview. “So at 54 years old, that’s a beautiful thing.”
In the co-main events, the rematch between Jose Aldo and Jeremy Stephens was declared a majority draw and Vitor Belfort defeated Ronaldo Souza via unanimous decision after Belfort dropped Souza twice during the third round.
