By Allan Fox: 47-year-old former four division world champion Roy Jones Jr. (63-9, 46 KOs) will be back inside the ring next month on August 13 against 40-year-old journeyman Rodney Moore (17-11-2, 7 KOs) in Pensacola, Florida.
This figures to be a mismatch for Jones Jr., as Moore hasn’t exactly been the busiest of fighters during the last 13-years of his career. Moore has lost his last nine fights since 2003. He was inactive from 2003 to 2005, and then from 2005 to 2012.
Jones Jr. was stopped in the 4th round last December by former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli in Moscow, Russia. The fight received a great of attention in the media in Russia, as Jones Jr. is now a dual citizen of both the United States and Russia.
Selecting the hard hitting Maccarinelli as his first opponent to fight in Russia was perhaps not the wisest thing for Jones Jr. to have done. Maccarinelli can still punch despite the fact that he’s been knocked out seven times in the past eight years. Jones didn’t have the punching power to get to Maccarinelli’s chin to KO him like the others had.
Jones rebounded from his loss to Maccarinelli by defeating Vyron Phillips by a 2nd round knockout last March in Phoenix, Arizona. The 33-year-old Phillips was making his pro debut in that fight.
It wasn’t exactly the most sporting of fights that you could imagine taking place, but it looks like Jones wasn’t going to take any chances of him getting beaten again like he was in the Maccarinelli fight. You can say the same thing about Jones’ fight against Rodney Moore next month. That’s a mismatch on paper, and hardly seems like a fair fight given Moore’s record in his last nine fights of 0-9.
There’s talk that the Moore fight could be Jones’ last fight of his long 27-year pro career. That’s hard to believe though. Jones just keeps plugging away with his career despite occasional setbacks. Before Jones’ loss to Maccarinelli, he hadn’t lost since 2011, when he was beaten by Denis Lebedev by a 10th round knockout. Jones didn’t fight anyone remotely good from 2012 until his loss to Maccarinelli in 2015.