Two Fights in One Night? That’s What Jones Wants

For his next strange boxing trick, International Boxing Federation super-middleweight champion Roy Jones Jr., who is set to fight Eric Lucas tonight in Jacksonville, Fla., hours after playing in a U.S. Basketball League game, wants to fight two championship fights in one night, and he wants to do it in Southern California.

“They’ll have an uphill battle to have us approve it, at best,” said Richard DeCuir, executive director of the California State Athletic Commission, which has not yet been asked to sanction the event. “Are we doing right for the health of even somebody as talented as Roy Jones to let him possibly fight 24 rounds in a night?”

According to sources in his camp, Jones’ handlers have offered spots on the doubleheader to World Boxing Assn. light-heavyweight champion Virgil Hill among other major fighters, but so far have had no takers.