Gamebred Boxing 4: Anthony Pettis upsets Roy Jones Jr, wins professional boxing debut

Gamebred Boxing comes to us tonight, April 1, 2023, for Gamebred Boxing 4, going down live from Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Headlining the event, immediately following Jose Aldo vs Jeremy Stephens II and Vitor Belfort vs Jacare Souza, was an epic clash of boxing versus mixed martial arts when former four-division world champion (WBA, WBC, IBF, IBO, WBF, IBA, & Ring Magazine) Roy Jones Jr faced former WEC & UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis in the main event of the evening, a 200 lb cruiserweight bout.

This matchup in particular surprised a lot of people, especially considering Pettis had never fought above 170 lbs before. In fact, he did his best work at 155 lbs, and has fought as low as 145 lbs in the past. But he is the much, much younger party of the two.

Jones ended his professional career in 2018, though he came out of retirement tonight, as well as in 2020 for an exhibition bout with fellow former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, while Pettis made his professional boxing debut tonight.

Jones came into the bout with a record of 66-9, 47 of those wins coming via knockout, and while Pettis came in with a record of 0-0, he does boast a 3rd-degree black belt in Taekwondo with some underrated boxing of his own.

Continue reading to see how this epic main event of the evening went down:

Official Result: Anthony Pettis def. Roy Jones Jr via unanimous decision (76-76, 77-75 78-74)

Pettis controls the center of the ring throughout round one; it was a measured approach early on by each man, and each did well defending the other’s punches.

Pettis is utilizing good footwork in the second, and he’s having success striking to the body.

Jones lands a hard right hand at the end of the second, the most substantial strike of the fight thus far.

Pettis continues to look good in the third, landing to the body which is opening up his shots to the head.

Jones is getting outworked early in this fight, but he lands a vicious left hook at the end of round four, though Pettis remains unfazed and we go into a fifth.

Pettis’ body work is winning him rounds in this fight and Jones just isn’t quite active enough. He’s landing good punches here and there, seldom, but really it looks like he’s finally beginning to age.

Jones is starting to look better as the fight goes on, but he’s still being outpaced, and Pettis’ pace never lets up.

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Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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