Roy Jones Jr.: "Don't Play With Opetaia, Go Straight to Usyk"

0:00 And the beautiful thing about Benavidez was that when I saw him

0:03 at the weigh-in when I saw the picture of his face after the weigh-in,

0:06 he looked like a guy that pulled down to make 200.

0:11 That's crazy.

0:11 That's crazy.

0:12 He makes 68, he makes 75, and he pulled down to make 200.

0:18 I was the guy who had never been up to 200

0:20 before in my life when I fought for the heavyweight title.

0:22 I couldn't make 195.

0:24 I couldn't make 190.

0:25 Real eyes, I was just fat.

0:26 So, it was like it was crazy to see that he made 200,

0:30 but he pulled down to make 200.

0:32 This guy is scary, man.

0:34 This guy could be the next guy that was once super middleweight

0:36 champ that could become heavyweight champ because if Canelo don't fight him,

0:41 he got to focus on the cruiserweights,

0:42 but after he beats the cruiserweights, he may well try the heavyweight division.

0:45 You know, I think him and Usyk would be a really good fight right now.

0:48 I really do.

0:50 That's the fight that that I'm hearing that Turkey wants to make this year.

0:54 Is That's a really good fight.

0:56 Oleksandr Usyk and David Benavidez.

0:59 At what weight?

1:00 I don't know.

1:00 That is a really good fight.

1:01 But it's going to have to be at at at You got to be heavyweight.

1:03 You got to be heavyweight cuz cuz yeah, Usyk can't come back down.

1:06 Makes no sense.

1:07 You can't do it if you ain't fighting for heavyweight.

1:08 Makes no sense.

1:09 Makes no sense if you're not fighting for a heavyweight title.

1:11 You won a super middleweight, you get the cruiser,

1:13 and you got the light heavy, now heavy, you got the top four weight classes.

1:17 That's a chance to make more history.

1:18 It's a huge risk for both fighters, but Benavidez uh you know,

1:22 obviously Usyk has a has a major advantage of being at the weight,

1:25 and he ain't just no sloppy heavyweight that that Benavidez can punch on.

1:28 He he got skill with that with that size.

1:31 Uh that man, that's a generational wealth type of payday that night.

1:35 Yep, I agree.

1:36 And I like the fight with Jai.

1:38 I think that I think the Jai Opetaia fight at cruiserweight is the fight for me.

1:42 That's the fight that I want to see.

1:43 Jai has been well demanded that weight class for a very long time.

1:46 And now you got a new player in the division with a hot

1:48 name and whose stock and whose star star power is only rising.

1:53 That's the fight I believe that needs to be made at the cruiserweight division.

1:56 Would love to see Bivol,

1:57 but for some reason the light heavyweight division just just

2:00 is not as appealing to me right now for David Benavidez.

2:04 And I And again, I'm not sure that that's the right weight for him

2:06 to fight being that he's fought this weight and looked the way that he did.

2:10 I think it's cruiserweight or maybe go up and fight Oleksandr Usyk.

2:13 Since everybody's making these business decisions, Dre,

2:16 and everybody's doing things things the business way, right?

2:20 It is not smart for David Benavidez to give Janibek Alimkhanuly

2:24 I shouted his name right now because he's hot right now.

2:28 You go up and fight Usyk while you're hot and it makes sense.

2:31 You can always come back down and fight Janibek if you want to.

2:34 You know what I'm saying?

2:34 If you lost to Usyk, Janibek fight still there.

2:37 If you lose to Janibek, Usyk fight gone.

2:39 So, be smart about this thing.

2:41 Go take Usyk while the iron is hot.

2:43 If you beat Usyk, you don't never have

2:45 to see Janibek unless he want to come to heavyweight.

2:47 But if you go fight Janibek and lose, you don't even get a chance to see Usyk

2:51 and you don't get a chance to make history.

2:52 That's crazy.

2:53 You're on a rail right now to do something that ever done before.

2:56 I went middleweight, super middleweight, light heavy,

2:59 heavy cuz I was doing what Bob Foster did what I thought Bob Foster did.

3:03 I didn't get stopped at cruiser cuz there was nobody there for me

3:05 to stop at and I really didn't care for the weight class.

3:07 Now, he can go super middleweight, light heavyweight, cruiser, heavy.

3:12 Go for the Hey, go like they say,

3:14 go for the whole thing if you're going to go for it.

3:15 Don't waste time with these other guys yet.

3:17 If you While you're on this roll, go see Usyk.

3:20 Don't play with second Why would you play

3:22 with a guy who's just as dangerous as Usyk, not as known as Usyk,

3:27 not going to bring you as much money

3:29 as Usyk when you can just go straight to Usyk?

3:31 That's kind of crazy.

3:32 That's how we miss That's how boxing misses out on big fights.

3:35 They go make these other small fights that they think are safe

3:38 okay fights and then they those four small fights destroy the big ones.

3:42 That's why up to this day we still have never

3:44 gotten a chance to see Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua.

3:49 Every time it gets close,

3:50 they put him in another fight and something bad happens.

3:53 Let's not do that.

3:54 Let's know from boxing that in a boxing ring

3:57 with those 10 oz gloves on, anything can happen.

4:00 Forget if if if Canelo not fighting you, forget about everybody else.

4:04 Go straight to Usyk.

4:05 Don't play with nobody else.

4:07 All right?

4:07 Anything else can take the Usyk fight.

4:09 The Usyk fight is one of the biggest fights of this decade right now.

4:13 Take it while it's hot.

4:14 Don't play with him.

4:15 And don't let him play with you.

4:16 And that's my words to David Benavidez because I know he listens to me.

4:20 He looks up to me, thinks a lot of me.

4:21 I'mma tell him it's okay to say no,

4:24 Patera, that you haven't proven yourself right now.

4:26 I want somebody who's proven like I am.

4:28 I want Usyk.

4:29 That's what he should do or do without a question.

4:31 Listen, Opetaia has proven himself, but he's not the name.

4:35 He's not the name as an Usyk, not as big money.

4:37 Who's he Who's he Who's he beat?

4:39 We going to do that today.

4:41 He's been at the weight class at that cruiserweight weight class.

4:44 You know there's not a lot of big names.

4:45 It's not a lot of big names at that cruiserweight weight class.

4:48 Am I Am I Am I making that up?

4:50 Has it historically been big names at the cruiserweight weight class?

4:53 That's That's That's That's why I skipped the cruiserweight Right right right.

4:55 So, I'm just saying I can't say that a man that's won a title,

4:58 defended his title as long as he had I can't say that he hasn't proven himself.

5:02 I'm not going to say that.

5:03 But, the namesake is different.

5:05 Yeah, I understand.

5:06 Yeah, okay.

5:07 Yeah, so the the money the money is different, right?

5:09 So, I'm with that.

5:10 I like that decision.

5:11 I believe that's going to be the decision that's on the table.

5:14 So, it's going to be very very interesting to see what happens next.

5:16 But, that is That's a play right there.

5:19 That That That is the play right there.

5:22 And when I say prove yourself, the world don't know you like that yet.

5:25 That's why I say [clears throat] prove yourself.

5:27 I'm not saying he's not good enough.

5:28 I'm not saying he's not good enough to do it.

5:29 The world don't know him like that yet.

5:31 So, he hasn't proven himself the way the world knows him.

5:33 The world knows Benavidez.

5:34 The world knows who Usyk is.

5:36 A lot of people in boxing because the cruiserweight division

5:38 has always been kind of lackluster as far as names go.

5:41 They don't know who the cruiserweight champions are.

5:43 Yeah, I don't I only know Patera.

5:45 And And I knew Ramirez,

5:46 but I don't know the other cruiserweight champs and I am in boxing.

5:49 So, if you don't have a name like that, then you're not really proving your