Roy Jones Jr. stops Paul Vasquez in 1st round TKO

By Boxing News - 03/29/2015 - Comments

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By Jim Dower: 46-year-old former four division world champion Roy Jones Jr (61-8, 44 KOs) defeated an over-matched 36-year-old Paul Vasquez (10-7-1, 3 KOs) by a 1st round knockout last Saturday night in cruiserweight action from the Pensacola Bay Center, in Pensacola, Florida, USA.

Jones Jr cornered Vazquez late in the 1st round, and flurried on him until he hit the canvas. After Vazquez got up, the referee halted the fight after seeing that he was unsteady on his feet.

For much of the round, Vasquez got the better of Jones in nailing him with hooks, and backing him up against the ropes. Some of it was Jones playing possum, but a lot of it just appeared to be just plain old age showing in Jones.

Despite winning the fight, Jones looked far from being sharp. He was missing punches, his timing looked bad, and his hand speed was nothing like what it was in the 80s and early 90s.

For Jones Jr, this was his 7th straight victory since being stopped by Denis Lebedev in May of 2011. Jones has backed up from facing high caliber opposition since the loss to Lebedev, and not surprisingly Jones has a small winning streak.
In losing to Jones Jr, Vasquez loses his third straight fight by 1st round knockout.

Jones could be facing WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck next for his World Boxing Organization title. There’s been talk of Jones facing Huck for his title, although nothing is official as of yet. With the way Jones Jr. looked last night, it might be a really had idea for him to face Huck.

Jones is too easy to hit now, and he’s got nothing in his arsenal to keep a slugger like Huck off of him. If Jones still had his hand speed and/or some foot speed, he could at least stay out of range of Huck and maybe get lucky to win a decision. But Jones is too slow now and much too hittable for him to have a chance of being able to beat Huck.

The chances of Jones getting knocked out by Huck are very high. Huck is considered by some boxing fans to be the best fighter in the cruiserweight division. You’d have to assume that if Jones can’t beat guys like Lebedev and Danny Green, then it’s likely that he’ll stand no chance of beating Huck.

For Jones, I think it would be a moral victory if he can even 12 rounds with Huck. Unless Huck decides to carry Jones out of respect for the fighter that he was many years ago, I think this is going to go really badly for Jones with him getting knocked out.



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