By Andrey Bazdrev

Roy Jones Jr. and Denis Lebedev held a press conference in Moscow, Russia, only a few days before facing each other in the non-title fight in the cruiserweight division. There was a lot of tension, some words exchanged and some big names in attendance.

“I’m very proud to be here today. It’s a great opportunity to come and show my talent here. I promised you a song – and I did it for you. And I promised a beautiful performance and I’ll give it to you…I’m going to put a good show, because it’s all I know. I don’t pay attention to the critics, how they treat me. They didn’t give me my talent to become champion”, Roy Jones said.

Somewhere in the course of the action the fans asked Roy to perform his new song ”Heart of a champion”, which he did. ()

“I don’t really have problems with southpaws. The only problem I have is how to spell their names. That’s why we’re fighting Denis on Saturday – to figure it out. You know, I can’t have my face messed up too bad, ‘cause my looks are my money”

After some laughter, Denis Lebedev had his turn to answer: “I will be careful punching you in the face. I’m going to work on your kidney” – which produced another burst of laughter.

The fighters were definitely in the good spirits, Roy produced a short poem making fun out of his friend and opponent’s coach Kostya Tszyu:

“Float like a butterfly sting like a bee, His trainer is just as old as me!”

‘’There was a time when Roy and myself were the best boxers in the world, pound-4-pound. Now we’re friends facing each other in the opposing corners of the ring. This happens, sometimes this is what boxing is about”. – Tszyu said.

On the undercard of this boxing event, former lightweight world champion Nate Campbell is facing local fighter Sherzod Nazarov, super bantamweight Alexander Bakhtin is fighting a quality opponent to be determined yet, and Ismail Sillakh is defending his NABF light heavyweight title against Kenian Hamza Wandera.