Roy Jones has somehow managed to make himself public enemy No. 1 in the Ukraine.
A day after the legendary US boxer met with Russian president Vladimir Putin during his Crimea visit — asking for citizenship — Jones has been placed on Ukrainian black list of “traitors," “separatists” and “terrorists," according to rt.com.
Crimea is a territory, which is highly disputed between Russia and Ukraine.
“American boxer Roy Levesta Jones was included into the ‘Peacemaker’ database as a violator of the state border,” Ukrainian MP and Interior Minister’s top adviser Anton Gerashchenko wrote on his Facebook page.
Gerashchenko wants to open a “criminal case” against Jones as well.
“In order to attract worldwide attention, especially from the American public, I turned to the head of the SBU with my deputy mandate to open a criminal case under Article 332-1 against US citizen Lavesta Roy Jones for violating the state border of Ukraine,” Gerashchenko wrote.
Jones for his part believes it’s the work of the Klitschko brothers.
"I came to Russia with peace in mind as I have been doing regularly for the past 4 years. I didn’t come here to offend nobody. I’ve boxed here, I’ve performed my music here, and my company, Square Ring Promotions, promotes or co-promotes fights and fighters here, including current IBO Champion Eduard Troyanovski. And over this time, I have seen how these people love Roy Jones and I love it when people love me,” said Jones.
“I know the Klitschko brothers have been itching to fight me, and it could be that this is their way of calling me out. So hey, if Vitali or Wlad want to settle this over a friendly sparring session for 12 rounds for the world heavyweight title anywhere in the world outside of Ukraine, including Crimea, they know how to reach me. Otherwise, this nonsense of Ukraine blacklisting me is a transparent attempt to politicize a legitimate business endeavor that we are pursuing with peace in our heart to help restore and build bridges between the East and the West.”
This entire situation got really weird, really fast.
By Glenn Erby
