According to the latest reports, ticket sales for this Saturday’s bout between Roy Jones Jr. and Felix Trinidad (42-2, 35 KOs) have been less than impressive, to put it kindly. In fact, many of the most expensive seats at New York’s Madison Square Garden have been drastically reduced from $15,000 to a mere $5000. Part of the problem is caused by the New York Giant’s football team, which has a playoff game with the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
I guess the fans aren’t particularly intrigued with the idea of dumping a bunch of cash on a fight that many of them consider little more than an old-timers bout between two former champions Trinidad, 35 and the 39 year-old Jones. At this point, we can only only that Madison Square Garden gets a big walk up crowd on the night of the fight. Aside from that, the PPV numbers might end up disappointing as well, for the cost of the fight – $49.95 – is what I consider an absurdly high amount for two non-champion, mostly part-time fighters. It wouldn’t be bad if Jones & Trinidad were still champions, but both of them are far beyond that at this stage in their careers with zero chances of ever winning another title.
However, the winner of the bout, incredibly, will likely get a chance at one of the titles, perhaps against either Joe Calzaghe, who wants an easy fight for a lot of money, and someone like Bernard Hopkins or Kelly Pavlik. Both Jones and Trinidad have mentioned Pavlik and Calzaghe, and Jones appears to really want to take on Joe. He might get his wish, as once Calzaghe gets finished pounding Hopkins in what will likely be a one-sided thrashing, he’ll be looking for another easy fight against a big named fighter like Jones.
Depending on how good Jones looks against Trinidad on Saturday, Calzaghe will over look his advanced age and probably push for the fight. If fighting a 43 year-old Hopkins doesn’t bother Calzaghe, then fighting a 39 year-old Jones will be no issue.
Jones himself has said that he has no problems about traveling to the UK to fight Calzaghe, showing how much he wants the fight. It seems that now that Jones has gotten older, and he’s experienced several defeats, he possibly feels that the pressure is off of him, that it doesn’t matter if he loses the fight. I’m thinking that Jones is more focused on the tremendous upside of having a small chance at beating someone like Calzaghe, since if he were to pull off an upset of that kind, Jones would swimming in money and more important, the public’ adoration.
At this stage in his career, money isn’t really a factor for Jones, as he’s been wealthy for a lot of years. I personally think he still wants to compete on the world stage and feel significant. It probably bothers him a little to see fighters like Floyd Mayweather Jr. getting a lot of attention, the type that seem to elude Jones in his career because of his avoidance of risky fights. Like many have said recently in the media, it’s too bad that Jones had to wait until now to get brave with his career. Whatever the case, Jones will still likely earn a shot at a big fight if he defeats Trinidad, and will be once again propelled back into the publics eye.