By Lewis Croft: It seems that boxers themselves are last to realise when its time to hang the gloves up. In a sport that is so physically demanding the risk of injury is everywhere. Even with the advances in the safety of the sport serious injury or death can happen at any time.

Despite this many boxers continue to fight past there prime risking there health for as many can not let go of the sport they love. There are many fighters that have got out at the right time, where they can enjoy there wealth but still be around the game in some form or another.

In a career that has span over 20 years and a total of 61 fights, Roy Jones Jr (54-7, 40 KOs) will be remembered as one of the greatest fighters to grace the sport. Capturing titles from Middleweight all the way to heavyweight, Roy Jones Jr had it all. Blistering speed, great power and cat like reflexes Jones talent was endless. Capturing the hearts of the nation during the 1988 Seoul Olympic games, with his dominating performances on route to his Olympic silver medal. Despite outworking the South Korean he was not awarded the gold medal in a controversial affair in which later investigated found the judges to be involved in fixing.

Nevertheless Jones stared his pro career the following year and quickly made headlines. He won the vacant IBF Middleweight title in a bout against division rival Bernard Hopkins (51-5, 32 KOs). Wasting no time he set his sights on the super middleweight division, particular the undefeated champion James Toney. (73-6, 44 KOs). After several defences of his title, Jones Jr captured the WBC Light heavyweight title against Mike McCallum (49- 5, 36 KOs) to become a three weight world champion. Unifying the Light heavyweight division Roy Jones Jr was the lineal champion and the recognised pound 4 pound champion of the world. The sky was the limit for Jones Jr and in an attempt to create history he challenged WBA Heavyweight champion John Ruiz (44-9, 30 KOs). Despite almost a 30lb weight difference, the speed and skill was to much for ‘The Quiet Man’ and Jones became the first man in history to start his carer as a junior middleweight and win a heavyweight title.

Weighing in at 193 pounds he was forced to shed just under 20 lbs to make the light heavyweight limit and emulate the feat of Bob Fitzsimmons in winning the heavyweight title and then back down to light heavyweight to win a further title. But despite retaining his titles against Antonio Tarver (28-6, 19 KOs), it was not the same Roy that night and in the rematch was stopped for the first time. Take nothing away from Tarver or Glen Johnson (51-14, 35 KOs) in the following fight but the Roy Jones of old was no longer there, the cat like reflexes where none existent and the blistering speed looked to have faded. Despite this Jones was still involved in a few high profile fights against the likes of Trinidad (42-3, 35 KOs), Lacy (25-4, 17 KOs), Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KOs) and a rematch with old Nemesis Bernard Hopkins.

Clearly Jones is set on winning another world title this time at cruiserweight despite being dispatched by Danny Green (31-3, 27 KOs) inside one round last time out at cruiserweight on the 22nd May he will travel to Russia to take on top cruiserweight contender Denis Lebedev (21-1, 16 KOs). Despite recently being narrowly outpointed by champion Marco Huck, Lebedev is ranked highly in the division and is an awkward southpaw with plenty of power. We are familiar with him in the UK after his demolition of Welshman Enzo Maccarinelli back in 2009. This could be disastrous for Roy Jones. I am not talking in terms of his rankings in the division but for his health. Lebedev is a tough fighter and hits hard. Jones has always relied on his reflexes to avoid shots, they are no longer there and this could be disaster for Jones. He has achieved everything in boxing and become one of the greatest fighters in the sport. In my opinion he should have hung his gloves up a long time ago so taking this fight at this stage of his life is unnecessary. As a fan of Roy Jones I just hope he gets through the fight safely without any long term injuries.