ONE Championship: Belfort Claims Fight With Jones Jr Happening

Vitor Belfort has yet to get his feet wet with his new promotion but the "Phenom" is already making sure that he will restart his mixed martial arts career with a bang. It won't be in the cage but in the boxing ring against Roy Jones Jr.

Belfort revealed this development via his Instagram account, saying that the 50-year-old Jones Jr. has agreed to face him to a match. ONE Championship has yet to make an official announcement to back up the 41-year-old Brazilian mixed martial artist's claim.

If confirmed, it would be another one of those fantasy matches involving iconic fighters from different sports. Floyd Mayweather Jr. started everything when he faced Conor McGregor in a boxing match. So far, it has been the boxer who has come out on top for obvious reasons.

Originally, Belfort had initially announced his retirement back May 12, 2018, following a second-round knockout to Lyoto Machida at UFC 214. Later in December, he sent feelers that he was considering coming out of retirement and all that was made official last March 1, 2019, Manila Bulletin Sports reported.

Jones is on a four-fight winning streak and is considered one of the greatest boxers of all time, MMA Mania reported. Despite his age, the three-time ESPY winner feels he can still go toe-to-toe with other fighters and is confident of handing "The Phenom" a beating should their match be made official at some point moving forward.

ONE Championship has been known to explore staging fights outside the mixed martial arts circle. They did that last year when they arranged for a boxing match pitting Srisaket Sor Rungivisai against Iran Diaz, a protege of Juan Manuel Marquez, in Bangkok, Thailand. The Thai boxing champ won that one via unanimous decision.

However, the rapport that the rare boxing card had did not exactly hit it well with ONE FC. With Belfort, the case could be different since it would pit two familiar names in boxing and the mixed martial arts scene.

When ONE Championship announced the signing of Belfort, the immediate thing that came to mind was a fight in the cage. Brandon Vera and some middleweight fighters like Aung La Nsang, Vitaly Bigdash, and Igor Svirid were suggested. It is possible that Belfort may be looking for a warmup fight before clashing with these ONE FC fighters.