Where Does Roy Jones Jr. Go From Here?

By Adam Fillingham: Ring legend Roy Jones Jr. put on a fanatical performance against a past his best Jeff Lacy last weekend. Jones pulled it out of the bag and for me won every round against the 32 year old. This is all well and good but where does he go from here. A fight with Danny Green is all but signed up for and the pair could go toe to toe on the 21st of November. Green is a good but not great fighter that has fought no one of much calibre in his 8 year career. He also chose to retire instead of defending his WBA light heavyweight belt.

If he does go on to defeat the Australian who does he fight next? He has proven he can’t take on the best in his defeats to Joe Calzaghe, Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson. Although a rematch with Tarver could be on the cards as he has lost his last 2 fights to a young Chad Dawson.

Jones Jr has been scared of Johnson since his 9th round KO defeat to the Jamaican. So that fight is off the cards. Chad Dawson is another viable opponent but there are better opponents out there for Dawson to face.

The only other class act opponent for Jones to face is Bernard Hopkins in a late come rematch. Jones has called out Hopkins on many occasions but Hopkins just doesn’t want to no.

From there, there are no other real opponents, in the light heavyweight division, for Jones to take on unless he took on a small name. This would be a big risk for Jones as he is obviously past his prime at 40 years old. There are the likes of Clinton Woods, Zsolt Erdei or Jean Pascal to fight but is it worth the risk.

Jones could always move up in weight to the cruiserweight division. There are a few big names in that division that have there flaws including Tomasz Adamek, Steve Cunningham, Marco Huck, Ola Afolabi and Enzo Maccarinelli. I think Jones could defeat all of these fighters with the exception of Tomasz Adamek the IBF champion. I believe he is a step too far for the 40 year old. Adamek though is looking for a big money fight and would likely accept a challenge from Jones.

There only other option is to move back up to heavyweight. In my opinion this would be a big mistake for Jones as he is too small and although he could defeat small fighters like Monte Barrett and John Ruiz he would have no chance against the likes of the Klitchkos or Valuev as fast as he may be.