Roy Jones Jr. To Move To Heavyweight Division?
December 31st, 2008
By Eric Thomas: In an interview with Roy Jones Jr. (52-5, 38 KOs) at BoxingTalk’s website, Jones, 39, said that if he can’t land a rematch with Joe Calzaghe, then Roy will be moving up to the heavyweight division. Jones also said that “Calzaghe’s people” are interested in a rematch with him, and that he’s waiting for the word from them, which he should be getting after the Christmas holiday.
Jones is reportedly eager for a rematch with Calzaghe, presumably to try and avenge his lopsided 12-round unanimous decision loss to the Welsh fighter on November 8th at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Though why Calzaghe would be interested in another fight with Jones, given the one-sided nature of the first fight, is beyond me.
Fans are interested in Calzaghe facing unbeaten Chad Dawson, the best fighter in the light heavyweight division, a rematch with Bernard Hopkins or Mikkel Kessler, or fights with Lucian Bute, Carl Froch or Jean Pascal. Another fight with Jones would probably be more than anyone could stand right about now, and it would doubtful that the cable networks would want to see another farce like this.
By fighting Jones again, it would give the perception to many fans that Calzaghe is perhaps afraid of Dawson and Froch, and is looking for non-risky fights rather than real challenges. It hasn’t helped Calzaghe’s case that he has few real quality opponents on his resume, with only a small handful of good opponents occurring in the past two years of his career.
He may be as good as some people say he is, but without having faced many quality opponents during his career, it’s hard to see Calzaghe as a special fighter. One would hope that he’d be bigger than this and would avoid a rematch with Jones like the plague. If Calzaghe does plan on continuing his career, he needs to seek Dawson or Froch, otherwise hang them up.
Jones hopefully isn’t serious about moving back up to heavyweight, where he previously won the WBA heavyweight title in 2003 with a 12-round decision over John Ruiz. That was quite an accomplishment, but Jones is now five years older, much slower and not capable of throwing a lot of punches like he used to.
Beyond that, the heavyweight champions now, the Klitschko brothers and Nikolay Valuev, would seem to be much too big for Jones to beat. Fighting any of them would probably amount to a severe beating for Jones, likely ending in an early knockout. He might give Valuev some problems, but then again, by the time that Jones gets around to fighting Valuev, he probably won’t be the heavyweight champion any longer.
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If Calzaghe does give jones a rematch, it may be a major mistake on his (Calzaghe’s) part. I believe Jones would win a rematch with ease. During the fight with Calzaghe; he stood in front of Jones and left himself open several times, begging to be knocked out but it just didn’t happen. Many fighters would never take a chance like that and those who did.. paid dearly.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPT6E_ouBnM If a rematch happens, I bet Calzaghe will take Jones even more serious the second time around because he knows Jones is on a mission and pressed for time.He isn’t washed up, all it takes is a win from a fighter with a big name and a belt.Roy is still good enough to get a win on any given night from any current champion. If they don’t bring their “A” game against Roy “Superman” Jones the end result will be a Jones victory.
i think that jones should go for the rematch. i think he was doin well against calzaghe until he got off his game plan. that cut definitely changed things. I really wana see a rematch of calzaghe jones and this time with jones winning.
Why has a Roy Jones thread turned into another Calzaghe bashing fest? What does he have to gain from fighting Dawson? A guy only famous himself for outpointing a washed up 40 year old.
Calzaghe himself is 37 and has had 47 fights, he has no one left to beat and should retire now while he is on top rather than end up like Roy Jones who is only 2 years older than himself.
The only reason all the american fans are clammering for a Dawson match is that they can sense this happening and long for Joe to go on one fight too many and be beaten by an american.
And for the record Joe is still far too much for Chad Dawson to handle, even at the age of 37.
Whats the point in Calzaghe fighting Dawson? I dont get it.
Calzaghe aint on a quest to prove hes the best light heavy in the world, he was fighting at weights that had been negioated by Hopkins and Jones.
IF Calzaghe wanted to set out to prove hes the best LIght Heavy then Dawson would be the fight he should consider but it isnt the path hes been plannin to set out on.
Ohhh and Jones should retire. Hes got 4 or 5 rounds in him against the better fighters and for a true legend of the sport i dont wana see him either getting beaten up by quality or beating up on nobodies. And it aint like he needs the money.
Jones should retire and stop wasting everyones time!!!……. Calzaghe MUST face Froch or retire….Froch is already mouthing off about Calzaghe dont faaancy a tear up with him, so JCs gonna have to get in there and give it to him!!! Froch is exciting to watch, but another dude with a big mouth, so sometimes its good to see them get shut the F*k up!!!! But i reckon Joe is wary of Froch, but thats the fight id like early this year please Santa!!!
Have you checked your facts, Eric Thomas? All of your speculation is based on double checking that Calzaghe really does want to fight Jones again?…Thought so.
PS, the last bit of my post (above) refers to Roy Jones incase you dont guess staight away seen as I didnt actually refer to him by name.
To fight Jones again would be a serious mistake, in the build up to the last fight it was seen as being competitive, many predicted the Calzaghe win but not the manner of it. Therefore to do it all again would see Joe’s credibility seriously eroded.
Heres what I think of all Calzaghe’s potential opponents;
Froch – has only just won a world title, he has plenty to do before he can claim a right to face Calzaghe, and although he could establish himself in that company I think Calzaghe will have sailed into the sunset by then. If I remember correct he’s looking to fight Jermain Taylor next, good match.
Pascal – Put on a great fight with Froch but no sense fighting him whatsoever, a match with Froch would at least bring an audience and hype by virtue of it being an all UK fight. So surely it’d make no sense to fight Pascal over Froch.
Kessler – Put in a brilliant performance against Joe the first time and landed some very flush shots on Calzaghe’s chin, but Joe really pushed on in the second half of that fight to take what rightly was a UD. Had he beaten top class opposition since his loss to Calzaghe then he may be justified in seeking Calzaghe again. I want to see more of this guy but like Froch by the time he has re established himself with a few more names on the resume then Joe will be long gone.
Dawson – One for the future and therefore should Calzaghe fight him now and win then in time it may provide a good name on his record. However at the moment he represents a lot of risk without huge immediate reward. His record could still be improved upon, fighting Tarver again makes little sense.
Hopkins – His win over Pavlik puts him firmly back in the frame, he is still the ring number 4 in the p4p rankings. Furthermore given the fact that a number of people believe he beat Joe he brings something to the table in that sense. However in the close of that fight Hopkins was hanging on, many citing as evidence the delayal tactics when he claimed low blows . It wouldn’t be the most exciting fight to hit tv screens and Hopkins is the kind of boxer you would only want to fight once, a wiley boxer you’d want to beat and get out the way, according to the judges that night Calzaghe has done this and he gives no indications he would want to do it again.
In any case given Calzaghe has questioned his own hunger to fight on and the fact that he often mentioned how strenuous it was making weight at super middle I don’t see why he’d go back there so any fights would surely be at light heavyweight meaning Kessler and Froch would have to move up in weight.
Oh and back to the subject of the original post, I seriously hope he retires and does not go up to Heavyweight or after Calzaghe. As Calvin says his motivation is clearly money because either option defies logic.
The way i see it for jones is that money is his only motivation now,had he retired when he defeated ruiz im convinced he’d be up their with sugar ray robinsion.
Calzaghe for me is treading water at this point in his career,boxing should be like any other sport in the sense that they should show the public who really is the best,dawson is the next in line and hopkins is still a major force and a threat to peoples unbeaten records.
To be honest, I think a re-match with either Jones or Hopkins would have little point. Jones wouldn’t stand a chance, and with Calzaghe winning 4 of the last 5 rounds of the Hopkins fight makes me think he’d have his number if they went into the ring again. Obviously Dawson would be the best choice of opposition with the winner being universally recognised as the best Light Heavyweight in the world, and it just comes down to whether Calzaghe thinks he’s got enough left in the tank to beat him. In his peak, I’m convinced Calzaghe would beat him hands down, having too much speed and endurance for Dawson, although he seems to have lost some of this since going up in weight. However, Dawson would likely be caught in one of his dips in concentration and made to be punished in the way that his current caliber of opponent haven’t been able to leaving Calzaghe to win a unanimous decision. My only worry would be Calzaghe’s chin, having been knocked down in each of his last 2 fights, I question whether he still has the chin to take solid punches at the top level.
good article im a big calzaghe fan but feel he can fight on and silent all his critics (mainly american) by beating Dawson or Hopkins.