Another weekend, another Roy Jones Jr. boxing match. The Pensacola, Florida, native returned to his hometown to defeat journeyman “Rockin’” Rodney Moore on Saturday night.
Moore had lost nine consecutive fights before Saturday night’s showdown against Jones, though only suffering one knockout in that run—a knockout which came against unbeaten Russian cruiserweight Murat Gassiev.
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Despite this, Jones was thoroughly expected to dominate the fight and add another knockout to the long list of victims you’d expect from a 47-year-old boxer who’s had a career spanning close to 30 years. However, that didn’t happen.
The 5,000 in attendance at the Pensacola Bay Center were treated to a slow and ponderous affair and the subdued atmosphere emanating from the crowd directly correlated with the glacial pace set by both men. Jones fought with his hands down and showboated plenty like the days of old, but it wasn’t the same—it just seemed a bit daft in this context.
Not only is Jones almost 50-years-old and considerably slower now than when he was in his pomp, he has also suffered a few devastating knockout losses of late—the latter of which coming against the unglamorous Welshman Enzo Maccarinelli last December in Russia.
The exhibition-style sparring match between two 40-somethings ended in a unanimous 10-round decision victory for Jones, with scores of 100-90 across the board. The former 1988 Seoul Olympic silver medallist comfortably controlled the severely out-matched Moore throughout.
The fight was unspectacular in every sense of the word. But, it turned out Jones had torn his right bicep in the fifth round and had to fight one handed for half of the fight—not that it would’ve impacted the intensity of action, necessarily. Jones fought and beat the likes of James Toney and Bernard Hopkins with a broken right hand, afterall.
The injury and the fact he won in his home city—the place where he fought his first ever professional bout—rendered Jones overtly emotional in his post-fight interviews. Speaking to the Pensacola News Journal, Jones said: “I was almost crying. It hurt me, because I thought it may be my last fight. I was like, wow, this might be my last one.
“It may have been the last one and I’m not mad if it is, because I had a great time. All my kids got to see daddy fight one more time. Everybody in Pensacola got to see Roy fight one more time. I knew it might be close to the end. My clock is winding down,” before adding “when you start seeing injuries like this, that’s telling you that you’re getting older. I’m concerned this might be the last time we get do this in Pensacola. This is how we started. This might be the end for us.”
I want to believe it. But, even if he retired tomorrow, Jones wouldn’t have bowed gracefully like most would have wanted. In his last fight, not long after earning his Russian citizenship, Jones faced off against 33-year-old MMA fighter Vyron Phillips in the latter’s boxing debut back in March.
Phillips had won the opportunity to face Jones by winning a Facebook vote, lured in by the promise of a $100,000 prize if he were to knock Jones out. He didn’t. Phillips tasted the canvas within two rounds and Jones had left yet another crushed can in his wake.
Ending your professional career in the place you begun is often a fitting way to hang up the gloves. But, the latter stages of Jones’ career have totally belied the phenomenal talents of a five-division world champion and an inarguable pound-for-pound great.
We’re at a catch 22. We don’t want Jones to continue fighting at 47 years old and as the hollowed-out husk version of a man we used to witness light up the world stage with his agile defence and lightning-quick hand speed. At the same time, to see Jones end his career against a boxing debutant plucked from social media—followed by a fight against a man who has now lost ten fights in a row—is bordering on sacrilegious considering the sheer boxing abilities once possessed by Jones.
Only Jones can decide his fate at this point with his pride and stubbornness proven by the last decade or so. But, a severe, yet non-concussive, injury ending his career following a hometown victory may be as good as we could possibly get in terms of a final salvo from the once-great Roy Jones Jr.
