By Jim Dower: 46-year-old former four division world champion Roy Jones Jr. (62-8, 45 KOs) defeated an over-matched replacement opponent Eric Watkins (12-10-2, 5 KOs) in stopping him in the 6th round on Sunday night at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut. Jones Jr. lined Watkins up for a short left to the head that put him down on his back for the knockout. It was a decent shot but not a really hard looking punch. Watkins just didn’t have the chin to take it.

The referee halted the fight immediately when it was clear that Watkins wasn’t going to get up. Watkins’ arms and legs were convulsed on the canvas from the knockout blow. He was clearly hurt. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:59 of the 6th.

Jones looked good in the fight in nailing Watkins at will with left hooks, jabs and right hands. Jones had his hands down most of the time and was picking off the over-matched Watkins and treating the fight like a glorified sparring session. Jones likely could have finished the fight in the 1st round if he wanted to, but he kept his offense in 1st gear much of the time. Watkins clearly didn’t belong in the same ring with him and Jones knew it and the crowd knew too.

Jones Jr. has a fight scheduled later this month on August 29th against Danny Santiago. In September, Jones will be fighting Ton Moran in the UK. It’s unclear beyond that what Jones’ long term plans are. He had talked about wanting to fight for a world title against WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck, but with him getting knocked out in the 11th round last Friday night, it might have derailed Jones’ plans. He can still fight Huck but there obviously wouldn’t be a title on the line now that he’s been knocked out.

I don’t think it would be a good idea for Jones to fight the southpaw Krzysztof Glowacki, because he’s a big fighter and he’s all wrong for Jones. If Jones takes that fight he might wind up getting knocked out again. If Jones is going to fight for a world title at cruiserweight, he’s going to need to beat a decent fighter so that he can get ranked in the division. Right now, none of the sanctioning bodies has Jones in their top 15 despite the fact that he’s been busy much of the time. Jones hasn’t fought good enough opposition to get ranked.

In other action on the card, lightweight Jason Litzau (29-3-1, 22 KOs) fought to a disappointing eight round draw against Hylon Williams Jr. (16-1-1, KOs). Litzau was making a comeback against a fighter that he would have likely easily beat in the past, but given the fact that he’s been out of the ring for the last three years since 2012, it was a tougher than expected fight for him. The final judges’ scores were 77-75 for Williams, 79-73 for Litzau and 76-76.

Featherweight Jonathan Arrellano (16-6-1, 4 KOs) defeated Mike Oliver (26-6-1, 8 KOs) by a 5th round stoppage. Arrellano knocked Oliver down with a left to the head in the 4th. The fight was then halted after the round had ended.