jones By Scott Gilfoid: In a battle of aging cruiserweights, 46-year-old Roy Jones Jr. (62-8, 45 KOs) will test his eroding boxing skills and power tonight against the 35-year-old Brit Enzo Maccarinelli (40-7, 32 KOs) in a fight in Jones Jr’s new adopted country at the VTB Arena in Moscow, Russia. Jones Jr. still has an unfinished goal of wanting to capture a cruiserweight world title before he eventually retires from the sport.

With a ranking of #11 with the WBO, Jones Jr. can keep moving forward towards that goal if he can beat the 6’3” Maccarinelli tonight. If not, then Jones might need to consider hanging up the gloves and focusing on his career in broadcasting with HBO.

A lot of people would love to be in Jones’ shoes in working with HBO Boxing as a broadcaster, because it’s a nice-paying gig. However, Jones has his reasons for sticking it out in boxing despite the fact that he’s been mostly just spinning his wheels in the last 11 years of his career since 2004.

That’s when Jones’ once promising career went belly up. It’s mostly stayed belly up all those years for Jones in terms of him winning important fights. Jones Jr. did beat a shot Felix Trinidad in 2008, and a past his best Jeff Lacy in 2009. Other than those two wins, Jones has been losing when he’s been fighting notable fighters in the last decade. The pay days for Jones must be good though for him to stick it out at this point in his career, because he looks visibly old now, thick around the middle, and almost feeble in the ring.

Judging by Maccarinelli’s last few fights, he would seem to have more in the tank at this point in his career than Jones. Maccarinelli can still punch as hard as ever, and he doesn’t seem to have lost any of what hand speed that he came into the sport with.

The main difference that I can see from the 35-year-old Maccarinelli, and the one that was performing at a high level back in 2007 is his ability to take punishment and his aggressiveness. Maccarinelli’s punch resistance doesn’t seem to be what it was back in 2007, when he was fighting at a high level and holding down the WBO World cruiserweight title. But more important than Maccarinelli’s lost punch resistance is his lack of aggression.

He’s no longer fighting with the same aggression that he was back in 2007. Not having a chin is one thing, but not fighting hard is something that hurts Maccarinelli even more. If you look at Maccarinelli’s fights nowadays, he looks like he’s walking on egg shells in the ring. He’s way too cautious now, and it keeps him from attacking his opponents with the aggression that he needs to beat the better fighters.

My prediction is that Maccarinelli will surely lose tonight if he fights like a timid rabbit that we’ve been seeing from him recently. Jones may be a flabby, old and shot fighter, but he can definitely still be timid sorts that aren’t courageous enough to throw punches.

I wish I could say that Maccarinelli will come out looking and fighting like his old self from 2007, but I can’t. I think there’s something broken there in Maccarinelli’s mind and/or body that keeps him from being the fighter that he was 3000 yesterday’s ago.

I don’t think Maccarinelli can find his way back to the fighter that he was back in 2007 no matter how hard he tries. 35 is not old for most boxers, but it sure seems old for Maccarinelli. Jones is 11 years older than Maccarinelli, but in terms of ring wear and physical appearance, I think Jones and Maccarinelli are about equal.

In other words, Maccarinelli is basically in his mid-40s like Jones Jr. in my view. However, Maccarinelli does have better punching power than Jones, and he is a legit cruiserweight unlike Jones, who is basically a pumped up and fat former middleweight.

The question can Maccarinelli use his superior size and punching power to get the better of Jones? The more I think about it the more I realize that Maccarinelli can’t take advantage of his superior size, power and youth, because he’s held back by his lack of aggressiveness and chin problem. And like I said, he’s roughly the same age as Jones in my view.