By Jim Dower: 46-year-old former four division world champion Roy Jones Jr. (61-8, 44 KOs) will be in action tonight against Eric Watkins (12-9-2, 5 KOs) in a scheduled 10 round bout in cruiserweight action from the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut.
This is just one of three fights that Jones has scheduled. He also has scheduled fights against Danny Santiago on August 29th, and then a fight against Tony Moran on September 12th.
Jones Jr. had reportedly been interested in fighting Marco Huck for his WBO cruiserweight title, but with Huck getting stopped last Friday night by No.1 WBO challenger Krzysztof Glowacki, it’s unclear where Jones Jr. goes from here. Unless he can arrange a deal with Glowacki to get a title shot against him, it looks like Jones’ dream of fighting for a world title is finished.
Jones has even come to the Huck-Glowacki fight in what appeared to be a scouting venture to look over Huck. Now it seems like Jones wasted his time. Glowacki wants to be a star in the U.S., and it’s doubtful that he’ll see a fight against Jones Jr. as a vehicle to make that happen.
Jones hasn’t faced a good opponent in four years since getting stopped by Denis Lebedev in the 10th round in 2011. Jones Jr. has fought seven times and won all seven fights since then, but he’s faced steadily worse opposition with each fight. In his last bout, Jones stopped Paul Vasquez in the 1st round last March in a terrible mismatch.
Jones has the talent still to beat a lot of the 2nd tier fighters, but you can’t count on him to beat any of the top tier guys at cruiserweight. Jones Jr. would be better off moving back down to light heavyweight to fight guys that are a little smaller, because he doesn’t have his blazing hand speed any longer and he’s not a big puncher.
If Jones winds up facing a powerful 1st tier or even a good 2nd tier cruiserweight with punching power, he’s going to be in for a world of hurt. Without his reflexes to get out of the way of big shots, Jones would be at the mercy of anyone with power and a shred of talent at cruiserweight.
The big question is why is Jones Jr. still fighting at 46? He’s obviously made a lot of money in his long pro career, and he’s got a good gig as an analyst with HBO Boxing. It would seem like a waste of time for Jones to be still fighting at his age, and it’s also potentially dangerous.
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