Jones-Lebedev: Roy has a tough fight on his hands on 5/21

By Boxing News - 04/24/2011 - Comments

By Jason Kim: 42-year-old Roy Jones Jr. (54-7, 40 KO’s) may be facing the best fighter in the cruiserweight division next month in his May 21st fight against Russian Denis Lebedev (21-1, 16 KO’s) at the Sport Complex Krylatskoe, in Moscow, Russia.

Jones has lost his last two fights against Danny Green and Bernard Hopkins and isn’t coming into this fight with any kind of momentum to speak of. Only Jones knows why he picked out someone as good as Lebedev and agreed to fight in his own country rather than the United States or a neutral country. And if that’s not enough, Jones is also moving up in weight to take this fight from light heavyweight to cruiserweight.

Jones has successfully made the move from light heavyweight to heavyweight in the past in beating heavyweight champion John Ruiz in 2003. However, that was eight years ago against a heavyweight that wasn’t considered to be the very best of the lot at the time. Jones isn’t the same fighter he was back then, and Lebedev is a very good cruiserweight, perhaps the best in the division. Lebedev punches very hard and he’s a southpaw.

Jones has about everything you can think of stacked against him in this fight. He must have seen some kind of flaw in Lebedev’s game that he feels that he can take advantage of because that’s the only thing you can really think of why Jones would take some a dangerous fight like this.

Lebedev would likely beat guys that have knocked Jones out in the past like Green, Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson right now. In his prime, Jones would handle a fighter like Lebedev without too many problems and perhaps Jones’ mind is thinking in terms of what his younger body would have done with Lebedev. But that version of Jones is long since gone and he’s stuck with a body that no longer responds quickly.



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