By Jay Ross: I got home from work on Thursday evening to an e-mail off my mate saying ‘Watch the Roy Jones Vs Dennis Lebedev fight from Saturday night’. So I logged onto Youtube and typed both fighters names in, as soon as I clicked it I saw ‘Jones Brutally knocked out’ and ‘Knock out of the year’. Before even watching the video I was a bit saddened, after watching the video I felt a number of unhappy emotions.

Now Roy Jones Jr, for me, has been one of the greatest boxers of my generation. An Orthodox from Florida, in the 1990s there weren’t many better fighters about. I used to love watching Jones because he was so slick, he could brawl and he had one of the best boxing brains I have seen. I remember a great trilogy of fights with Antonio Tarver, especially the first two fights. Add to that he won belts in three different weight classes, he was just an incredible boxer and athlete. Fast forward a few years and I find myself sat here asking the question ‘Why hasn’t Jones Jr called it a day?’. He has lost his last three fights, two of them fairly bad stoppages to decent fighters, but not top class and the other was a points decision against Bernard Hopkins.

What motivates a boxer to keep fighting? The obvious answer is the money.

Looking beyond the financial aspect of things there are a long list of boxers that carried on for far longer than they should have done. Ali, Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson being the first three that spring to my mind. All you have to do is look at Tyson. The once ‘Baddest Man on the planet’ carried on for far too long, he was a shot fighter when he got destroyed in front of millions in front of Lennox Lewis, but he didn’t stop there. He went onto suffer two humiliating loses two journey in Danny Williams and Kevin Mcbride. Surely Iron Mikes career shouldn’t have ended like that?! I do fully understand that these guys are wrongly advised and get themselves into really bad financial situations, but outside the boxing ring there is still a lot of money to be made. Maybe not the millions they make for one fight, but for a lot of these guys now do dinner speeches costing up to £20,000 per time to book.

Then I look at Evander Holyfield. Still fighting at 48 years old and claiming he can be a world champion again. Someone seriously needs to grab hold of Mr Holyfield and say ‘Give it a break!’. Can you honestly see Holyfield getting in the ring with Vitali Klitschko? I could be wrong, but that would be very sad to watch. Yet again, Holyfield has massive financial difficulties. The last time i read he was behind on payments on his mansion and was having to fight to pay the bills. This too me is just so sad.

These guys are legends of the boxing ring, who gave us some of the most memorable nights in boxing history. They had guaranteed legacies.

But I will openly hold my hand up and say I wanted Lennox Lewis and Joe Calzaghe to have one more fight, but both these guys went out on top. Calzaghe went out after a points win at Madison Square Garden keeping his unbeaten record, where as Lewis chose to call it a day after his stoppage (on a cut) against Vitali Klitschko. I honestly do not fault them, there legacies are left intact and also there health is not at risk.

But as I continue writing this I wonder….do the likes of Jones & Holyfield actually want to quit?

I follow English light-middleweight champion Brian ‘The Lion’ Rose on twitter and was intrigued by one of his tweets. Rose, fought and defeated undefeated Welsh Fighter John Welsh 2 weeks ago, but his tweets were indicating he was bored not training and was desperate to get back into the ring again. This is two weeks after months of dedicted training and regiment. This again raised another question in my head about boxers whether it is the money or if it is in fact that the training and fighting that is drilled into them almost because likes an addiction.

I don’t really think there is an answer to my questions as to why some boxers don’t call it a day to keep there legacy, I suppose some are financial reasons where as others its just they have spent there whole life fighting and its what there used to. But will someone please tell Holyfield & Roy Jones Jr to call it a day, because seeing Roy Jones Jr face down after being knocked out by an average Russian Cruiserweight is not what any boxing lover wants to see!

Im sure some of you will have your own opinions on my article, so as always positive (and negative) feedback is appreciated! Cheers for taking the time to reed