By Aaron Klein: Going into their fight on November 8th at Madison’s Square Garden, it’s very difficult for me to spot any real advantages that Roy Jones Jr. (52-4, 38 KOs) has going for against unbeaten Joe Calzaghe (45-0, 32 KOs) other than perhaps size. That’s a quality that I probably shouldn’t be overlooking too much, because Jones might end up being too big, too powerful and too fast for Calzaghe to handle. However, now a ripe 39, just doesn’t look on Calzaghe’s level at this time, and it takes me quite awhile of digging to find a time when I think Jones could possibly beat a fighter of Calzaghe’s talent level.

Jones not only looks physically old in appearance, looking like a 40 year-old, but he’s also fighting like a fighter that is old in the fact that he’s lost three out of his last six fights in the past four years. Jones, of course, would probably try and excuse the losses away by saying that they were the result of him having to strip off close to 25 pounds of muscle after he moved down from heavyweight after capturing the WBA heavyweight title against John Ruiz in 2003. That may or not be the reason for Jones’ sudden decline in ability, but even if it was, it wouldn’t be any kind of excuse for how average he looked in a losing effort to Antonio Tarver 2005, two years after Jones had taken off the weight to move back down to the light heavyweight division. His body should have been well adjusted to the new light heavyweight division by then, shouldn’t it have? Jones has rebounded and won his last three fights since his loss to Tarver, but the victories over Prince Badi Ajamu.

Anthony Hanshaw and Felix Trinidad, are less impressive than they would normally because none of them are at the top of the division. Hanshaw, a good fighter, gave Jones all kinds of problems, keeping him pinned to the ropes for most of the fight and hitting him often with hard shots. It looks for all practical purposes like a replay of Jones’ fight with Glen Johnson in 2004, which saw Jones resting against the ropes for nine rounds and absorbing tremendous punishment until Johnson eventually knocked him cold in the 9th round.

Even against Trinidad in January, Jones needed to rest against the ropes for long stretches in the fight, looking as if his old legs couldn’t carry him around the ring anymore like they used to. He still was able to muster some of his old speed on occasions, hitting Trinidad with flurries and knocking him down a couple of times, but Jones would slow down and rest after his brief outbursts. His lack of energy is going to be a major problem for him against Calzaghe, who averages 1000 punches thrown per fight.

Calzaghe may not be a big puncher, but when you land an enormous amount of even slapping shots like Calzaghe’s, it does a lot of damage to a fighter in almost the same way that a harder punch would. This is why I don’t like Jones’ chances in this fight and I see a very real possibility of him taking another beating like the ones that he absorbed from Johnson and Tarver.