By Matt Flanagan: Last Saturday Roy Jones became the first fighter to stop Jeff Lacy. Anyone who has seen the fight cannot deny that the manner of Jones’ victory was impressive. He won every round, was never really troubled with Lacy having no answer to his hand speed and superior technical ability. His performance seemed to have the commentators and fans drooling, falling over themselves to proclaim that Jones ‘is back’.
Think again. It is not unfair to say that Lacy’s only ever threat was going to be if he landed a big punch. If Jones boxed sensibly, he was always going to be able to beat a one dimensional Lacy.
As I was watching the fight I found Jones’ antics increasingly embarrassing. Showboating is one thing, but continuously looking away and talking to the crowd while in clinches seemed a little bit much, not to mention disrespectful. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching showmen, and I am no Jones hater, but his antics in this fight reminded me of a father showing off while beating his child at a game in the back yard.
The bottom line is, if Jones was to fight a top level opponent, he would be taken to the cleaners as he was last November against Joe Calzaghe (Ok he dropped him in the first round with a forearm smash, but lost the next 11 rounds and would have been stopped had it not been for the compassionate Calzaghe).
So is anyone really fooled by Jones’ latest victory?
Ultimately, the fight proved that Jeff Lacy has become nothing more than a punch bag, and so given the pedestrian nature of his opponent his show boating was a little hollow. I wasn’t bothered either way who won, but I felt a bit sorry for Lacy while all this was going on. It would have been poetic justice if he had landed a big punch and KO’d Jones.
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