Jones vs. Taylor In June?

By David Lahr: In the latest boxing news, former WBO/WBC middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (27-2-1, 17 KOs) is reportedly considering fighting light heavyweight Roy Jones Jr. (52-4, 38 KOs) for June of this year. Based on reports, Taylor, 29, who recently lost again to Kelly Pavlik on February 16th, would be willing to take a lesser portion of the purse, letting the 39 year-old Jones taker the bigger portion. If the fight does indeed materialize, it would be a good move for both Jones & Taylor, for each of them are in need of wins over quality opponents, especially Taylor who is coming off of back to back losses to Pavlik.

In choosing Jones, Taylor would be getting an opponent that he could possibly beat and look good in doing so. However, Jones, even though considered well past his prime by most in the boxing public, he still posses fast hands, and decent power to go along with them. More importantly, Jones is the bigger fighter having fought at light heavyweight for the past 11 years, and is accustom to taking punishment from bigger fighters that Taylor.

Both Johnson and Tarver, as it turns out, brutally knocked Jones out. With Hanshaw, Jones got the victory but took an abnormal amount of punishment from a fighter that Jones should have been able to handily beat. This would seem to suggest that Jones will have big problems with Taylor, who is even better offensively than Johnson or Tarver. However, Taylor also suffers from a low punch output, which means that Jones may have a good chance at beating him. Jones’ defensive skills are still good, at least when he’s in the center of the ring, so if he can keep Taylor in the middle of the ring for most of the fight, this is a winnable fight for Jones.

The problem is, Jones has had a difficult time staying off the ropes in his past seven fights, spending much of the time playing rope-a-dope while resting up against the ropes. It’s clearly a way for Jones to rest his weary legs, because he no longer can run around the ring like he used to. Taylor, however, would take full advantage of a trapped opponent like Jones, and would blister him with shots to the head and body. This could very well end in a knockout unless Jones suddenly gets a new set of wheels.