By Jim Dower: Roy Jones Jr. (52-5, 38 KOs) turns 40 today, a ripe age for a fighter that many boxing fans thought would have retired a long time ago. Given his record in his last seven fights, three wins and four losses, perhaps Jones should have. However, what can you say to a person that loves the sport enough to stay on well past their prime, even when they don’t need the money?
For that, I have a lot of respect for Jones, although he’s crazy for staying on and diminishing himself in losing to fighters like Joe Calzaghe that Jones probably would have toyed with in his prime. Who really knows why Jones is staying on and continuing to fight?
Maybe it’s because he wants to try, like Bernard Hopkins, to get the money that he didn’t get in his prime. To be sure, Jones had few fights that would be considered mega bouts in terms of a big PPV payday.
The problem was partially his fault and partly due to the lack of quality competition out there. However, Jones could have helped himself immensely if he had gone after and lined up fights with Julian Jackson, Gerald McClellan, Nigel Benn, Darius Michalzewski, a rematch with Hopkins, and a fight with Calzaghe earlier in Jones’ career.
Those fights would have earned Jones a lot more money and made him even a bigger name than he is today. It’s questionable whether he could have beaten fighters like McClellan, Benn and Jackson in their primes, as each of them punches incredibly hard and had the ability to end a fight with one punch.
But with Jones’ speed, he would have had a good chance at beating them. As for Darius Michalzewski and Calzaghe, I have no doubts that Jones would have easily beaten them. Both were good but not nearly as talented as Jones was in his prime and the fights would have likely been very one-sided.
Still, Jones has a lot to be proud of in his career. With wins over Montell Griffin, Hopkins, James Toney, Virgil Hill, Reggie Johnson, Clinton Woods, Erik Harding, John Ruiz and Antonio Tarver, among many others. Jones accomplished much more than most fighters, even though he had a lull in terms of quality opposition towards the later part of his prime. Aside from Michalzewski and Glen Johnson, Jones beat all the best fighters in the light heavyweight division during his reign at the top of the division.
However, after he moved up to heavyweight and beat Ruiz in 2003, Jones seemed to be a changed fighter. After struggling to defeat Tarver by a 12-round majority decision in late 2003, Jones was shockingly stopped in the 2nd round in their rematch in May 2004.
Since that fight, Jones has struggled badly, losing three of six fights while beating mostly lesser quality fighters for his only wins. The recent defeat to Calzaghe, an embarrassing 12-round decision loss, seemed to highlight that Jones had stayed a little too long in his career. Many people thought that if Jones was beaten badly, he would turn around and retire.
Sadly, it doesn’t look to be happening. According to the latest news on Jones, he’s thinking of returning on March 21st against an unnamed opponent. Hopefully, he picks an easier opponent, someone he can beat and look good against and not absorb as much punishment that he did in his last fight against Calzaghe.
Comments are closed.