Roy Jones Jr. - “I’m still Superman, and I’m still the guy that nobody wants to fight”

Despite accomplishing little in his career in recent years, eight-time title winner Roy Jones Jr. (52-4, 38 KOs) has firmly set his sights on the winner of Jermain Taylor vs. Kelly Pavlik or the Joe Calzaghe vs. Bernard Hopkins bouts which are coming up. Of the two bouts, Jones would prefer to fight Calzaghe, 35, who figures to be the one that will emerge as the winner over the 43 year-old Hopkins. However, from a fan’s perspective, the thought of a champion like Calzaghe or Pavlik having to face a 40 year-old Jones, at least to me, seems rather disappointing. Jones may have had a handful of die-hard fans in the 90s, with his Floyd Mayweather Jr. like pot shotting style of fighting, but I think there’s just as many fans who disliked watching him fight.

It was insane for Jones to avoid these fights, as he was missing out on huge paydays that would have made him rich beyond his imagination. However, by this stage in his career, Jones had become risk adverse, and seemingly wanted no part of tough fights against fighters that could potentially beat him. The thing of it was, Jones would have beaten any of them quite easily, including Michalczewski, who some people thought would have a chance at beating Jones. Now, unfortunately, Jones is no longer in the driver’s seat for any big bouts against today’s champions, nor does he have much of a chance at beating any of them. He put off taking risks for so long, that now that he actually is seeking them out, it’s too late for him to be successful at winning the bouts.

After Saturday’s bout with the washed up Felix Trinidad, Jones seemed almost delusional, saying “I’m still Superman, and I’m the guy that nobody wants to fight.” He seemed detached from reality, as most of the top fighters would, in fact, be interested in fighting him, but only because they realize they would get a good payday - and an easy win - because of his name. However, Jones, like Oscar De La Hoya, can only go to the well so many times before the public is finally turned off by them.

If Jones takes a beating from Pavlik or Calzaghe, which is what most people expect, he’ll be in a weakened position to try and call out other champions. So far, De La Hoya has been getting away with it, but he’s mixed in set up fights against washed up fighters like Ricardo Mayorga in between, to at least give the appearance that he’s not over-the-hill. I suppose that’s what Jones accomplished by fighting Trinidad. However, in the beatings that Jones will likely be taking in the near future to either Calzaghe or Pavlik, will be far worse than the ones that De La Hoya has been experiencing in recent years, so it will be tougher for Jones to try and continue on after losing.

Add to that fact that Jones never was as popular as De La Hoya, due to the fact that Jones stopped taking risky bouts relatively early in his career, and most of the new fans don’t have any recall of his early career.