Boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. did not hold back when asked about Zuffa Boxing and the UFC’s push into professional boxing. Speaking at the grand opening of his gym during an interview, Jones raised serious concerns about the structure of Zuffa Boxing, athlete pay, and what promotion ultimately means for the sport.
Jones opened by addressing the idea that Zuffa Boxing would introduce its own belt while refusing to recognize existing titles, arguing that the move would only add more fragmentation to an already divided sport.
“There’s enough division in boxing already, now you’re going to bring a new belt that ain’t going to deal with the old belts. Come on, man. Get out here with that,” he said.
From there, Jones zeroed in on the concentration of power under one person, widely understood to be Dana White. He questioned whether a single authority figure should have the ability to determine champions and contenders.
“If you’re undisputed champion, what are you? What is Zuffa? That one man controlling everything. Is that okay? Y’all okay with that? No, that’s not fair,” he said. “Because if he don’t like you, you’re not going to get you in fair share.”
He continued: “It’s going to be who you want to be champ. He can make who he want to be champ, he can make who he want to make, no more contender. That’s not how it should be,” he said.
Jones continued by contrasting the current structure of boxing, where multiple sanctioning bodies create different paths to a title, with what he believes Zuffa would offer under a centralized system.
“These other organizations, at least they got four of them. They got the options. If this guy don’t think you number one, this guy can… You got four chances to be number one contender or be good enough for somebody to think you good enough to be number one contender. With the Zuffa belt, it’s one person doing everything. So you piss that person off, you never get no title shot. Is that really fair? That’s how UFC is,” he said.
On the subject of athlete pay, Jones pointed directly at how wealth is distributed inside the UFC, suggesting that the promotion benefits far more than the athletes competing inside the cage.
“Who makes all the money in UFC? He’s rich. How many of the athletes are rich besides the one that didn’t go to boxing and make money in athletics? How many of them are rich? How many of them can go back, sit back and say, ‘Okay, I made so much money in MMA, they ain’t got to compete no more,'” he asked.
Jones also signaled agreement with fellow boxing promoter and former champion Oscar De La Hoya regarding the financial structure of the two sports.
The host quoted Oscar De La Hoya, saying, “In UFC, it’s the promoter. UFC makes all the money and the athletes get some. But then in boxing, it’s the other way around, the boxers make the money and the promoters don’t make a certain… something like that.”
Jones agreed, saying, “And that’s how it should be. The boxers are the ones putting their life on the line. That’s how it should be,” he said.
Finally, Jones offered direct advice to rising welterweight contender Jaron Ennis about what the Zuffa belt could mean for his long-term legacy. He warned that aligning with the promotion could limit his chances of becoming an undisputed champion in the traditional boxing system.
“Give up that Zuffa belt and return to regular boxing, because that Zuffa belt is not going to allow you to become undisputed champion. It’s not for you, because undisputed champion goes years, years beyond that Zuffa belt. If he don’t like you, he ain’t going to even rank you. You have no chance. If he don’t like your manager, your promoter, you’re never going to be world champ. And it’s not fair,” he said.
