By Sean McDaniel: Former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. (52-5, 38 KOs)
has a March 21st match against Omar Sheika in Jones’s home town of Pensacola, Florida. The fight figures to be a showcase for Jones to display some of his old boxing skills in front of his loyal home town crowd, and Sheika, 32, will be Jones’ lucky opponent for the fight.
But in looking past this fight, which Jones should easily win over the ring rusty Sheika who hasn’t seen action in two years, Jones still has a lot of potential mouthwatering fights still out there for him despite losing badly in a 12-round decision to Joe Calzaghe in November 2008.
Many boxing fans feel that Jones should retire given that he’s lost four out of his last seven fights, but why should he retire now when there are still a lot of big money fights on the table for him? It would be crazy for Jones to get out when he still has many other options out there to keep him from retiring. Unlike Joe Calzaghe, Jones isn’t afraid to stay on beyond his prime and risk his legacy.
He does this for the love of the sport and doesn’t see a loss as the end of the world. And besides, his fans don’t hold it against him for losing and still keep coming back seven though he’s been beaten more often than not in his last seven fights.
Ideally, Jones needs to steer himself into fights against similar aging fighters with big names like himself, someone preferably like Oscar De La Hoya, Antonio Tarver, Bernard Hopkins, Glen Johnson, Felix Trinidad, or maybe even a rematch with Calzaghe. In addition to the older fighters, a younger fighter like Jeff Lacy (24-2, 17 KOs) would be a perfect opponent for Jones to fight.
It would be a good fight for both of them, win or lose. Lacy, 31, was recently soundly beaten in November by Jermain Taylor in Nashville, Tennessee. Lacy is at the point in his career where he could use a fight against Jones to elevate his game, while at the same time give him a much needed nice payday.
Still ranked high in the super middleweight division at number #8 in the IBF, Lacy would be a good feather in Jones’ cap if he can beat him. I think it’s a winnable fight for Jones if he has anything left in the tank. If he can avoid Lacy’s big right hand bombs for 12 rounds, I can see Jones giving Lacy a lot of problems and beating him by a decision.
At the same time, I can see Lacy wearing Jones down with his heavy shots and knocking him out much in the same way that the smaller Glen Johnson was able to do to Jones in September 2004. A fight against Trinidad would be less appealing due to Jones’ recent 12-round decision win over him in January 2008. However, he remains an option, one certainly much better than Sheika.
I wouldn’t advise Jones to fight Hopkins, Johnson or Tarver at this time because all of them seem to have a little more left in the tank than Jones. That’s not to say that any of them could have beaten Jones in his prime, because I see them all losing to a young Jones. Hopkins already had his chance at against a young Jones in May 1993 and he blew it, losing by a 12-round decision.
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