With little to gain, legend Roy Jones Jr. is still eager to box Anthony Pettis on Saturday in Milwaukee

There’s no career upside for 54-year-old Roy Jones Jr. to fight Saturday night at Fiserv Forum.

If he wins, he did what’s expected when a four-class world champion takes on someone boxing in his first professional bout.

If Jones loses, the perception is he’s a shadow of a greatest self, 20 years past his peak, who got taken down by a smaller mixed martial arts fighter who first gained attention with his feet.

And that’s OK with Jones.

He’s also at the point in life when he can do what he wants to do, whether it makes sense to anyone else or not.

The fight with Anthony Pettis at Fiserv Forum is one 'that people want to see,' Roy Jones Jr. says

“There’s no real gain,” said Jones, who will square off with Milwaukee-born former WEC and UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis in a six-round main event on a card promoted by MMA star Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebred Boxing.

“My gain is to give everybody an opportunity to get together to put on an awesome card for people to see. Because that’s my whole goal in boxing is always to entertain people and give people what they want to see. And I know what Dean (Toole, Gamebred Boxing president) and Jorge are trying to do, and they’re trying to give people a new way of bringing fights together, fights that people want to see.”

Saturday night is the first boxing card for Fiserv Forum, although the Milwaukee Bucks’ arena did host a UFC event in 2018.

It’ll also be the fourth promotion by Gamebred, which is in part opening doors to traditional boxing for athletes from MMA and other combat sports. Of the 12 scheduled bouts, 10 include at least one competitor known better for MMA or bare-knuckle boxing.

More:His career interrupted for 2½ years, undefeated Milwaukee boxer Luis Angel Feliciano is eager for opportunities

More:Milwaukee and Fiserv Forum are getting yet another pro boxing card. How is this one different?

Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor cashed in on Jones' idea, he says

Jones takes some credit for launching the crossover phenomenon, with the 2017 match between Floyd Mayweather and UFC champion Conor McGregor being the most notable. Mayweather, who won by technical knockout in the 10^th round, reportedly earned about $275 million and McGregor $85 million.

“Anthony wanted to cross over and go into this sport,” Jones said in a Zoom news conference to promote the Milwaukee event. “Him and Masvidal, everybody that’s involved, they all made it such a good situation where it’s a win-win for everybody. It’s a good situation. It’s pay-per-view.

“It’s something I wanted to do, which was have a crossover fight with a good name in the MMA. I was the first one that came up with that idea. I didn’t get paid for it, but I came up with that idea. So Floyd and Conor got to get paid for it.

“So it’s like I’m at the end of my career, I still want to do it, here’s a perfect opportunity.”

Perfect?

MMA star Anthony Pettis is committed to boxing now

Pettis had his greatest success at 155 pounds – including his memorable kick off the cage in his 2010 World Extreme Cagefighting title match with Benson Henderson – and more recently had fought at 170 in the Professional Fighters League. But he said he was 205 and fit before the opportunity to face Jones even came up and has had plenty of high-quality sparring opponents in Las Vegas, where he lives and trains.

“It’s straight boxing now,” Pettis said. “I went and got motivated to box. How can you not, fighting one of the GOATs in Roy Jones?

“I come to win fights, and this is a whole different world that I haven’t been in at this level. The sparring I’m getting is preparing me for it, and I’m ready.”

Jones (66-9) won the IBF middleweight title in 1993, IBF super middleweight title in 1994, WBC light heavyweight title in 1998 and WBA heavyweight title in 2003, and he last held a world title in 2009. Save for an exhibition draw with Mike Tyson in 2020, Jones has not fought since 2018.

“Training’s been pretty good,” Jones said. “It’s just in boxing, as you get older, as you know, you can’t abuse your body like you used to when you were younger. You’ve got to take care of your body a little differently, you have to take a few more days off. But the real thing is, and this is the other reason I’m on the card, one thing you gotta know about Roy: He’s gamebred.”

That is, able to fight through pain and fatigue, as Masvidal’s nickname implies.

How much do Jones-Pettis tickets and pay-per-view cost?

In Jones’ mind, he’ll have boxing experience on his side, Pettis will benefit from being 18 years younger and they’re both innovative in their style.

“He’s done things in the MMA ring that nobody else has,” Jones said. “For me to get the opportunity to face somebody who has the same kind of creative mind in their own respective sport as I have in boxing, I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. Should you say no to this?’

“And I’m like … it’s Dean, it’s Gamebred, it’s Milwaukee. Have I ever fought in Milwaukee before? No. So the pros, I guess, outweighed the nos. Here we are.”

Jones insists this will be his last fight.

While he wasn’t holding it up for comparison to Gervonta "Tank" Davis vs. Ryan Garcia in April or Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Devin Haney in May, Jones referenced those as fights fans would want to see. Similarly, he said, fans watching in person (starting at $98) or watching the pay-per-view ($49.99) should enjoy Jones-Pettis, a match featuring a boxing legend and a talented fighter looking for a new challenge.

“Would I rather be out of shape, 230 pounds or would I rather get in shape and come down and give fans something to look at?” Jones said. “And give him an opportunity that he can gain experience in a win or gain experience in a loss.

“Either way it goes, he’s going to gain a hell of an experience because I can promise you he ain’t going to see many people in the ring again with the IQ that I have. I may not have the youth that I had with it, but I still have the IQ.”

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Roy Jones Jr. says Anthony Pettis fight in Milwaukee will be his last