Defiant Roy Jones Jr. Still Campaigning For Cruiser Belt

By Lyle Fitzsimmons

Roy Jones Jr. has a high-profile announcing gig with HBO, he hasn’t fought for a moderately recognized world championship belt in nearly five years and his recent run of opponents more closely resembles a Soviet-era track and field team than a recognizable list of modern title contenders.

But if you think that means his pursuit for real ring supremacy has ended, well, let’s just say “ya’ll must’ve forgot” just how long he’s willing to endure before another chance presents itself.

Now within three months of his 46th birthday – and in the long shadow cast by still-relevant two-time nemesis Bernard Hopkins – the Pensacola, Fla.-born Jones maintains that the same patience that he used while waiting for his first title fight in 1993 will serve him well until the next one comes along.

“Why would I walk away?” he said. “I hear people say it and I do understand, but it’s not like I’m going to the NFL, it’s not like I’m not going to Major League Baseball, it’s not like I’m not going to go on the golfing tour. I’m not doing any of that. So what else am I going to do? The only place where I can set a real example is in a boxing ring, because that’s what I’ve been doing my whole life.

“I’ll wait as long as I’ve got to wait. I’m going to get it, that’s my point, so I don’t care how long I’ve got to wait. I’m not an impatient person. I had to wait 24 years before I won my first world title, so, hell, waiting a little longer ain’t nothing to me.”

The specific quarry Jones is seeking at this stage of a career that began in 1989 is the WBO junior heavyweight (cruiserweight) title that’s been held for five-plus years by Marco Huck. The Serbian-born German resident has 13 successful defenses since winning the belt from Victor Ramirez in 2009 and has reportedly been contemplating a second venture into the heavyweight ranks.

Huck lost a majority decision for the WBA’s second-tier heavyweight title in 2012.

Jones has been a champion of one sanctioning organization or another at middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight, but has never reigned at 200 pounds and has never possessed a WBO-endorsed title belt. Should Huck indeed follow through on the would-be plan to re-invade the heavyweights, it’s a target the Canastota-bound would happily take aim at.

“I love fighting and I enjoy myself fighting and I’m going to try to get me a cruiserweight title before I leave,” he said.

Jones has fought exclusively among the cruisers in each of six appearances since a decision loss to Hopkins in their second fight in 2010. One fight before the Hopkins rematch at 175 pounds, he weighed 179½ and was TKO’d in one round by Danny Green in a failed bid for the IBO’s cruiserweight crown.

He weighed a career-high 198¼ for a 10th-round stoppage loss to Denis Lebedev in May 2011, but has since reeled off wins over Max Alexander (UD 10), Pawel Glazewski (SD 10), Zine Eddine Benmakhlouf (UD 12), Courtney Fry (TKO 5) and Hany Atiyo (KO 1) while scaling between 183¾ and 197½.

Only one of those five victims – Benmakhlouf, at No. 59 – is now among the top 100 cruiserweights as positioned by the Independent World Boxing Rankings, which have Jones placed at No. 17.

Still, the man who last beat him, Lebedev, is now the WBA’s cruiserweight champion (and is ranked No. 7 by the IWBR), which is all the evidence Jones warrants to fuel a claim that he’s a “top-three cruiserweight.” Incidentally, Jones led by a point on one official scorecard at the time of the Lebedev KO in Moscow, but trailed by three and nine on the other two.

Should they get together again, he said, things would end differently.

“I had basically beat him for 10 rounds and he caught me with 10 seconds left in the last round and stopped me, but if it wasn’t for stopping me – and if I was in better shape, like I am now, he wouldn’t have stopped me – I would have beat him,” Jones said.

“Common sense shows you that I’m still the best guy. He’s the WBA champ now. If I could beat him for 10 rounds out of shape, imagine what I could do to him over 12 rounds in shape.”

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This week’s title-fight schedule:

SATURDAY
WBO bantamweight title – Chicago, Ill.
Tomoki Kameda (champion/No. 7 IWBR) vs. Alejandro Hernandez (unranked/No. 16 IWBR)
Kameda (30-0, 19 KO): Third title defense; Second fight in United States (1-0, 1 KO)
Hernandez (28-10-2, 15 KO): Third title fight (0-1-1); Sixth fight in United States (4-1, 0 KO)
Fitzbitz says: Hernandez is a capable pro and he’s been in with some top guys among the lighter weights, but he hasn’t beaten any of them. That won’t change here with a young, hungry Kameda. Kameda in 8

Last week's picks: 4-0 (WIN: Yamanaka, Caballero, Budler, Mthalane)
2014 picks record: 76-24 (76.0 percent)
Overall picks record: 623-218 (74.0 percent)

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.