By Jeff Aranow: Roy Jones Jr. (64-9, 46 KOs) and his opponent Bobby Gunn (21-6-1, 18 KOs) successfully weighed in on Thursday for their cruiserweight match-up this Friday on February 17 at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. The 48-year-old Jones weighed in at 199 pounds and looked in good shape for someone his age.
The 43-year-old Gunn weighed in at 197.4 pounds. Jones Jr. and Gunn will be fighting a 12 round fight for the vacant World Boxing Foundation World cruiserweight title.
The Jones vs. Gunn fight will be shown on pay-per-view starting at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.
Jones has a two-fight winning streak going for him since getting stopped in the 4th round by Enzo Maccarinelli on December 12, 2015 in Moscow, Russia.
Jones Jr. had just picked up his Russian citizenship, and it was a big having the card in Moscow. Unfortunately for Jones, he picked the wrong opponent, because Maccarinelli still had too much punching power for Jones. The ending of the fight was a disaster for Jones with him getting knocked unconscious in the 4th.
This is a fight that Jones probably would have won with ease if he had fought him 18-years earlier in his career in 1997. Back then, Jones was blazing fast, and it’s hard to imagine Maccarinelli being able to lay a glove on him. But Jones is an old fighter now, who only beats poor opposition for the most part. He didn’t belong inside the ring with a guy like Maccarinelli.
The good news for Jones is he’s got an opponent that is very beatable in Gunn. He’s lost his last three fights, and hasn’t fought in four years since losing to Glen Johnson by an eight round unanimous decision on December 18, 2013. It’s doubtful that Gunn has found the fountain of youth during the last four years to make him a younger fighter. But even if he was younger, he probably wouldn’t be able to beat a fighter with the boxing skills of Jones.
Even the deteriorated Jones we’ve seen in the last few years will likely dominate Gunn. Besides his loss to Glen Johnson, Gunn was beaten by James Tony in 2012 and Tomasz Adamek in 2009. There was a three year gap between Gunn’s fight with Adamek and his fight with Toney in 2012. It’s unclear why Gunn doesn’t fight a little more often. Staying out of the ring for close to four years probably isn’t the best way to prepare for a fighter like Jones Jr.
Gunn has never beaten any talented boxers during his career. He was stopped by Maccarinelli in a 1st round knockout in 2007. The outcome of that fight was utterly predictable, because doesn’t have the same background in boxing like Maccarinelli.
Jones will likely focus on boxing Gunn during the early rounds until he figures him out. Once Jones sees what Gunn has got, he’ll likely toy with him and then shoot for a knockout. There’s such a huge gulf in boxing skills and overall talent between Jones and Gunn. As long as Jones doesn’t get hit with one of Gunn’s hard power shots, he should be OK.
You just never know though. Gunn can punch, and he’ll likely be head hunting all the way. Jones has lost his hand speed and reflexes. He’s fairly to hit nowadays. Jones Jr. just needs to be smart and stay off the ropes. He likes to take rest breaks against the ropes. Normally this practice doesn’t hurt Jones due to his opposition being so poor, but it cost him big time in 2011 when he was knocked out in the 10th round by Denis Lebedev.
It also hurt Jones in 2009 in getting stopped in the 1st round by Danny Green. Jones was knocked out by Glen Johnson in the 9th round in 2004, and by Antonio Tarver in the 2nd round in May 2004. Those defeats marked the beginning of the end for Jones as a major player in boxing.
Some fans believe that Jones’ body was hurt by him bulking up to 193lbs to fight WBA World heavyweight champion John Ruiz in March 2003. Jones won that fight by a 12 round unanimous decision. Jones then took off nearly 20 pounds of weight to fight Tarver in November 2003. Jones won the fight, but it was a really hard fight and he took a lot of shots. When Jones fought Tarver in a rematch in May 2004, he was stopped in round 2.
Jones is going to retire one of these days. Hopefully, Jones doesn’t stick around as long as Bernard Hopkins did with his career. Jones doesn’t need to put himself in danger of getting knocked out by someone else.
Gunn might do the job on Jones if he can land one of his big power shots. Gunn has a high percentage of knockouts on his resume. While most of those knockouts have come against lesser opposition and not world class guys, it still shows that Gunn has excellent punching power. What we don’t know is how Gunn’s four-year layoff from boxing will impact his skills. It can’t be good for Gunn that he’s been out of the ring for such a long time.
Other weigh-in results on the card:
Kanat Islam 154.2 – Robson Assis 154.6
Frank De Alba 130.2 – German Meraz 129
Joey Tiberi, Jr. 136 – Bryan Timmons 138.2
Dan Biddle 214 – Lamont Singletary 204.8
Olimjon Nazarov 119.4 – Dagoberto Aguero 118.6
Henry Stewart 176.6 – Martez Williamson 190.6
Eddie Ortiz 162.2 – Jeff Chiffens 157.4