By Jason Kim: I don’t want to take anything away from former HBO boxing Analyst Lennox Lewis, but I think Roy Jones Jr. did a bang up job as a replacement analyst for Emanuel Steward on Saturday night for the Miguel Cotto vs. Yuri Foreman bout at Yankee Stadium. I especially liked how relaxed Jones Jr. was in speaking, joking around, and critiquing the fighters. This is something that Lewis had problems doing in his years with HBO. He never seemed to like saying critical things about the fighters, whereas Jones seems more than comfortable with doing it.

I like the way Jones mixed well with the HBO team of Max Kelerman and Jim Lampley. I thought he was very comfortable with both of them. Jones was good at pointing out how desperate Yuri Foreman was early on in the fight as he found himself getting dominated by Cotto. Jones didn’t try to whitewash it like some of the HBO analysts sometimes do; He said exactly what he was seeing in the ring and wasn’t afraid to speak his mind.

I think Jones was a breath of fresh air for the team. They need new and young blood like Jones to loosen up the HBO team because as they’ve aged, they seem to have become uptight, cranky and rigid. Jones seemed totally relaxed on air, as if he was sitting in his living room with a group of friends. I like that about him. I hope HBO considers inserting Jones as the replacement for Lewis, because I think he would clearly help the team.

I think HBO needs younger people like Jones that can connect with the mostly younger viewing audience. I liked Jones delivery, his sense of humor and the knowledge that he showed. It helps having a former fighter in there that knows the sport and can talk about it with humor and make it more understandable to the casual boxing fans. For me, I thought Jones made an instant improvement on the current team. I just wish he was able to do most of the talking instead of Lampley.