By Jason Kim: Roy Jones Jr. (53-5, 39 KO’s) and Jeff Lacy (24-2, 17 KO’s) will be fighting this Saturday night in a bout that will be shown live on pay-per-view. Although it’s hard to get a clear picture about what’s at stake here for the two aging stars, one thing is clear, the loser of the fight will find himself in a situation where their career is pretty much over. Jones, 40, can ill afford to lose again at his age.
Jones has already been beaten in half of his last eight fights, but another loss here would probably put the final nail in his coffin and signal an end to his long 20-year boxing career. In their primes, there was no comparison who was the better fighter. Jones dominated boxing in the 90s, and was considered by many to be the best fighter in the sport.
The problem is Jones stuck around far too long and began to take losses by 2004 after Jones reached his mid-30s. Nowadays, Jones is very selective in choosing his opponents, looking for vulnerable fighters like Lacy, Felix Trinidad, Omar Sheika and Prince Badi Ajamu.
Don’t expect that to change if Jones comes out the winner in this fight. Jones will likely continue this trend, seeking out big named fighters from the past or else mediocre contenders of the present to fight. On Saturday, Lacy, 32, has got to find a way to land some power shots on Jones’ weak chin.
That’s really Lacy’s only chance at winning the fight. He doesn’t have the speed or the boxing ability to beat Jones in a straight up fight. Lacy has to turn the fight into a battle for him to get a win. The good news is that Jones is beatable if he’s hit just right by a big puncher.
Jones has been knocked out by Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson in the past, and there’s still questions about whether Jones can take a big punch without being stopped. Lacy, unfortunately, has only one real weapon in his toolbox – his right hand. Lacy’s left hook hasn’t been the same since he injured his left shoulder in a fight three years ago in 2006.
The power in his left hook never returned following surgery, which has made Lacy more or less a one-armed fighter where his right hand is his main weapon. Lacy has good power in the punch, but he’ll need to be able to land it in the early part of the fight because Lacy often isn’t able to sustain his power late in his fights.
Lacy’s career has slowed greatly since his defeat at the hands of Joe Calzaghe in 2006. Up to that point, Lacy was one of the most exciting fighters in boxing because of his powerful left hook and his ability to knockout most of his opponents. Hat the loss and subsequent injury Lacy’s shoulder not occurred, who knows how good Lacy could have been. Lacy looked like he could have been something special. However, Lacy clearly wasn’t ready to be put in with a fighter like Calzaghe at that point in his career.
This is kind of a no win situation for Lacy. If he loses to the 40-year-old Jones, Lacy’s career is pretty much over because many boxing fans feel that Jones has been a shot fighter since 2004. But if Lacy wins the fight, he’ll still get very little credit because of the advanced age of Jones.
If Lacy wants to win this fight, he’s going to have to go at Jones, get him backing him or moving a lot. Jones will do well initially when Lacy pressures him. But if Lacy continues to go at Jones hard, it will eventually start to wear Jones out to the point where he’ll be unable to move as much. At that point, Lacy can pound a stationary Jones with his power shots and possibly get him out of there.
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