By Dan Ambrose: 42-year-old Roy Jones Jr. (54-7, 40 KO’s) isn’t one of those type of fighters that bows out gracefully to end his career. Instead, Jones has stuck around way too long to the point where his skills, reflexes and ability to take heavy shots has eroded and he’s now losing repeatedly. Jones has lost back to back fights in his last two bouts against Danny Green and Bernard Hopkins. With that kind of record in his last two fights, Jones comes into his next fight against top cruiserweight contender Denis Lebedev (21-1, 16 KO’s) on May 21st at the Sports Complex Krylaskoe in Moscow, Russia.

It’s unbelievable that Jones, a fighter that never fought outside of the United States earlier in his career will now be facing a big puncher like Lebedev in his home country of Russia in what will likely be a fairly big crowd. Lebedev, 31, is all wrong for Jones. Not only is he bigger, younger and much stronger than Jones, but he’s also at the top of his game right now. Lebedev may be the best fighter in the cruiserweight division, despite losing a controversial decision to WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck in Lebedev’s last fight in December.

What makes Lebedev even tougher for Jones is that Lebedev is a southpaw, meaning that he’s going to be hitting Jones with left hands all night long. I don’t expect this fight to last very long because Lebedev hits every bit as hard as Danny Green, if not harder, and Jones was flattened in one round by Green in December 2009.

If Jones is smart, he’ll run from Lebedev and try to take him into the deep waters hoping that maybe Lebedev will lose some of his power and run out of gas. Jones isn’t too good on his wheels now that he’s past 40, so I can’t see him doing much more than shuffling around the ring a little while Lebedev uses his head as a punching bag. It’s not going to be pretty if you’re a fan of Jones.