It’s not often you get a crossover between boxing and the UFC, and it may be the case that Conor McGregor’s big money bout with Floyd Mayweather wasn’t the first of its kind.
Back in 2014, boxing heavyweight legend Mike Tyson became a trend-setter with a joke street brawl with MMA hard-man Jon Jones.
A perfect warm-up opportunity for the then-UFC lightweight champion, who was preparing to defend his belt against Daniel Cormier in Las Vegas.
Both fighters saw an opportunity when they met in the middle of a street, with a friend filming the pair sparring.
A playful affair that included a comical slap by Jones on his fellow American, who last fought in 2005, but they both took to it well and laughed it off at the end.
Jones would then go on to successfully retain his title against Cormier, but his title got stripped from his waist after failing a drugs test.
He came back to rectify that mistake after being taken all five rounds by Dominick Reyes in the Octagon in February.
Comparing himself to his boxing adversary, he said: “Unfortunately for some of my fans, Thiago Santos and Dominick Reyes, I couldn’t put them away and they challenged me.
“And there is good in that.
“One of Mike Tyson’s biggest problems was that he was so dominant, people lost interest.”
Tyson’s record in the sport was 50-6 with a gargantuan 44 knockouts, with Jones showing slightly similar dominance in UFC with 26-2 with 10 by knockout at the prime age of 32.
There is so much potential in Jones to go that step further in his fighting career, but it always seems that his poor decision making continues to cause himself problems, with the American arrested on a firearm charge yesterday.
If he were to keep his head screwed on and only focus on his career, he could become the greatest to ever step foot inside the cage.