ROY JONES JR is in talks to finally fight UFC legend Anderson Silva, with a Mike Tyson rematch also in his sights.
SunSport can reveal the pair are in early stages of negotiations, following years of missed opportunities.
Silva, 45, had always wanted to fight Jones, 51, by crossing over to the boxing ring, but his UFC contract blocked the move.
But following his release from the premier MMA promotion this year, the Brazilian legend is free to make the step into the ring.
It comes after Jones came out of retirement to face heavyweight icon Mike Tyson, 54, in an eight-round exhibition bout in November.
The pair ended up with a draw, and Jones’ trainer revealed the former four-division champion will be tempted to fight again against either Silva or Tyson.
Coach Tom Yankello said: “I think that rematch and Anderson Silva are the two fights that he’s looking at.
“Anderson Silva would be the first choice for him as he feels like he could really do what he wants with him and it would be worth his while.
“He’s been talking about fighting Anderson Silva for a long time and now he’s not in the UFC they can make that happen.
“If that fight was presented he’d fight again. I know he’d do the Tyson fight, he said that right after, we’ve talked about it.
“He’d definitely contemplate it anyway, in my opinion, I think he’d do it from our conversations. I could use the word ‘might’.
“I know he’d definitely do the Anderson Silva fight if there was enough public interest that wanted to see them fight.”
Silva has boxed twice before, losing his debut in 1998 before returning in 2005 with a win, a year before signing with the UFC.
Jones only retired professionally in 2018, and insisted he would only fight on if it was against long-time rival Silva.
But the all-time American great then faced Tyson in a non-sanctioned box office spectacle two years later, which sold over 1.6million pay-per-views.
Both Jones and his cornerman feel they should have won the fight.
And after experiencing the aura of sharing the ring with Iron Mike, Yankello is adamant his man would be better prepared in a rematch.
He explained: “I think he would definitely take the Tyson fight again, we both think he could do better.
“We know Tyson can’t do any better bar catch Roy with one shot and that’s how we felt going in.
“I feel like this time he’d be even more confident as now he’s been in with Tyson, he knows the unknown but now he knows what to expect.
“I don’t think Tyson can fight Roy and better than he did but Roy could have landed better and we would love that fight again.”
