By Jim Dower: In an interview with The Sun, Joe Calzaghe gave 40-year-old Roy Jones Jr. (52-5, 38 KOs) a vote of confidence about his fading career, saying “Jones still has a lot left…I believe Jones has a bit of gas left in the tank and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as a world champion again.” However, it’s hard to take serious what Calzaghe says, because Jones, with the exception of the 1st round in which he knocked Calzaghe down, looked poor throughout the 12-round fight, having difficulty in pulling the trigger with his punches, even with Calzaghe standing directly in front of him and daring him to throw punches.
It seems that Calzaghe is trying to make his victory over Jones more than it was, because if Calzaghe can make Jones look like a still talented fighter, in turn it raises Calzaghe’s stature with the boxing public. As things stand now, few people are impressed with Calzaghe’s choice of fighting the 40-year-old Jones and don’t give him much credit for having beaten him.
Indeed, the fight had little meaning that the once incredibly talented Jones had lost three out of his last six fights leading up to his fight with Calzaghe, and hadn’t beaten any true top level fighters for many years. Because of that, many boxing fans and experts alike, saw Calzaghe’s fight with the faded Jones as little more than a money grab, a fight to get a good payday at the expense of a quality fight.
With fans wanting Calzaghe to fight a rematch with Bernard Hopkins, or take on Chad Dawson, the best light heavyweight in the division in the minds of most fans, Calzaghe instead opted to fight Jones. It was a fight almost guaranteed to prove noting for Calzaghe. In other words, a no win situation for him.
In fighting Jones at this stage in his career, Calzaghe’s not facing the same Jones that ruled the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions in the 90s. If Calzaghe had met that fighter in the ring, it’s hard to imagine him being able to get the same results as Joe did in their November bout.
Calzaghe is hoping that his victory over Jones will look different when Jones fights again in the future. Jones will have a chance to possibly prove Calzaghe correct when he steps back into the ring on March 21st against former super middleweight contender Omar Sheika at the Civic Center, in Pensacola, Florida.
However, even in beating Sheika, who hasn’t fought in well over a year, Jones would still have a lot of work to do before he proves Calzaghe correct in showing his ability against the upper echelon fighters in the light heavyweight division. Jones is still ranked high enough, sitting at the number #5 spot in both the WBA and WBO, to get a shot at light heavyweight title holders Zsolt Erdei and Hugo Garay.
Unfortunately, even under the best case scenario, I can’t see Jones doing little more than losing by a lopsided decision against either of them. Against IBF light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson, Jones would be decimated, likely taken out before the 6th round by the blinding fast and powerful Dawson.
In theory, it’s possible that Jones could end up winning another championship before he retires – proving how good Calzaghe was in beating him – but in reality, I give him little chance of actually doing that.
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