By Chris Williams: In going through the last six fights for both fighters, I’ve come to the conclusion that former IBF super middleweight champion Jeff Lacy (25-2, 17 KO’s) will not only beat Roy Jones Jr. (53-5, 39 KO’s) tonight but will do it in an impressive style by knocking Roy out inside the distance at the Gulf Coast Arena, in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Lacy, 32, has much more power than any of Jones’s last six opponents, including Antonio Tarver. Even without Lacy’s left hook at full strength, he still hits hard enough with that punch and with his right hand to plant Jones firmly into the canvas and keep him there.
Indeed, I see this as another one-punch knockout loss for Jones. If he could move enough to keep out of the way of Lacy, I would give Jones a good chance of surviving and winning the bout due to his superior boxing skills.
However, the 40-year-old Jones is unable to fight in the center of the ring like he used to do in his youth, and needs to spend more and more time nowadays against the ropes where he takes rest breaks. During one of these rest breaks, Lacy will have a golden opportunity to land one of his big shots and will end up taking Jones out of there.
I think Jones has really underestimated Lacy’s still lethal power. Granted, Lacy hasn’t looked impressive in recent years in his close wins over Peter Manfredo Jr., Epifanio Mendoza and Otis Taylor, but those fighters all took some major shots from him and were only able to stay on their feet because of their strong chins.
Jones doesn’t have the punch resistance needed to take the kind of monstrous shots that Lacy will be tagging him with and I can see Jones folding at some point in the fight, likely from one of Lacy’s big right hands. Jones should have retired in 2004when he started getting knocked out for the first time.
Jones stuck around, unfortunately, and tasted the canvas again in a 9th round knockout loss to Glen Johnson in the same year. Jones still has good hand speed, but his work rate, ability to throw a lot of punches, and his stamina have all taken a big hit. Jones is now only able to fight hard for a half a minute of every round.
The rest of the time Jones either moves around, throwing an infrequent pot shot or he pays with his back against the ropes clowning. What Jones’ really doing is trying to disguise the fact that he needs the rest because he can’t fight hard for like he used to do.
Against Joe Calzaghe, Jones was finished after fighting hard for one round. Jones was a spent fighter for the next 11 rounds, only rarely able to summon up the energy to throw a punch. Jones rebounded from the defeat against Calzaghe by beating Omar Sheika, an old fighter that came out of retirement to fight Jones, but the win proved nothing because of the opponent that Jones had in front of him.
Look for Jones to get caught by one of Lacy’s big bombs as Jones is laying on the ropes. The knockout can occur at any time, but my guess is that Lacy should catch Jones by the 5th or 6th rounds and put him down for the count. Hopefully, Jones get a clue and decides to retire after being knocked out. It’s high time Jones ends his career because he’s been shot for a long time now and is only ruining his legacy by continuing to fight on.
Comments are closed.