By Lyle Fitzsimmons
Roy Jones Jr. is fighting this weekend in Biloxi.
And assuming all goes as planned logistically, I'll be ringside to see it.
What I can't seem to decide is how I feel about it.
Travel-wise, it's a pleasant enough ride from my home base in lovely Marion County.
Straight up I-75, a quick left onto I-10 and a tranquil trip across the Gulf Coast that ends with snippets of Alabama and Mississippi.
Not exactly the French Riviera. But it beats Niagara Falls in mid-winter.
Work-wise, Roy's always been easy to deal with since I’ve been on his trail – whether two years ago in Biloxi, during two fight trips to New York in 2008 or for Lacy scouting last spring in Tampa.
He’s legitimately among my favorite fighters.
He’s certainly among my favorite interviews.
But as I'm making the ride to Mississippi, I'll wonder exactly what I'm going there to see – other than an inane “Hook City” promotion that had Jones donning pirate garb at a kick-off press conference.
Let’s just say I've been fooled by this Jones character before.
A few years back, while working for another media outlet, I told anyone who'd listen that he would wake up the echoes and pummel pretender Antonio Tarver in their third fight in October 2005.
Forget the second-round KO from their second go-round, I said.
Not only were Tarver's eyes closed when he threw the history-changing left hand, but Jones was using the surprising loss to fuel a white-hot "kill or die" fire heading into the final act of their trilogy.
I couldn't have been more sure.
But I couldn't have been more wrong.
Jones was anything but a confident assassin once the bell rang, instead choosing to shuck, jive and avoid serious combat while dropping a winnable unanimous verdict over 12 maddening rounds.
Subsequently, his highlights have arrived intermittently.
He took to the high road to reinvent himself post-Tarver, heading to Idaho and Biloxi for anonymous 2007 wins before landing returning big fish Felix Trinidad for a pay-per-view Madison Square Garden date in January 2008.
An impressive win yielded another PPV bow 10 months later in midtown Manhattan, this time against unbeaten pound-for-pound kingpin Joe Calzaghe, who was aiming for a defining win in a career swansong.
I was lured in again, thinking Jones was too big and too strong for a pasty challenger.
So I picked him by decision or late KO.
Instead, the exiting Welshman got the better of 12 punishing rounds, rising from the canvas to hand a bloody 39-year-old Jones the worst, and many presumed last, beating of a 20-year career.
Now 40, he presses toward an unclear end, with a familiar soundtrack.
Jones returned four months after Calzaghe against a shopworn Omar Sheika, looking predictably impressive while claiming that a corner reunion with father Roy Sr. – not the ease of an overmatched hand-picked foe – was responsible for a turn-back-the-clock performance.
And this time it's Jeff Lacy.
About four years after it would have made sense.
In a fellow Floridian, a fellow ex-super middleweight champion and a fellow Calzaghe victim, Jones gets a beatable opponent with enough name recognition to stay within reason of a final big-money score.
If nothing else, Roy still talks the talk.
“I do really feel the fight will not go the distance,” he said. “He’s a strong puncher and the only chance he has to win the fight is to knock me out. So when you come to knock a guy out, chances are you are going to get knocked out. I can’t see it going 12 rounds if he does what I think he will.
“If he can survive 12 rounds, OK, and he’s a better man than I thought he was. I don’t know how he’s going to take it for 12 rounds myself.”
Now 32, Lacy hasn't looked good since his Calzaghe undressing in 2006, and reports indicate Saturday’s winner gets a shot at the dubious IBO cruiserweight title, whose post-Johnathon Banks vacancy will be filled by Danny Green or Julio Cesar Dominguez on the Gulf Coast Arena undercard.
Assuming it's Jones, a championship at 200 pounds would fill the only statistical chasm on his resume, which includes title belts at middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight and a leap to heavyweight to beat John Ruiz.
And while widely ignored, the IBO trinket could nonetheless prove magnetic, perhaps drawing interest from consensus top dog Tomasz Adamek – who holds the division’s IBF crown and is unbeaten in seven fights since losing to Chad Dawson in 2007.
Or maybe old friend Bernard Hopkins, who hasn’t fought in 10 months but remains near the top of any proposed big-fight list from 160-200 pounds, and has long been mentioned as a dance partner for Jones in a reprise of their 1993 middleweight title bout.
Either would provide sizzle for another $44.95 spotlight event in the Northeast, where both have passionate fan bases – Adamek in Newark, Hopkins in Philadelphia – and where Jones was unbeaten in a dozen appearances before the ill-fated run-in with Calzaghe.
While undeniably durable and brave, Adamek is also slow and hittable, precisely the sort of counterpart to make a still-faster-than-most Jones look good in a big spot.
And Bernard, though as cagey as they come, has a long-standing weak spot for athletic foes that can triple his punch output and not be lured into tactical chess matches.
Either way, it would hardly be shocking to see a revved-up Jones make a last stand, cash a last check and toss a last jewel-laden belt over his shoulder before riding off to the Florida sunset.
No offense to Tomasz or Bernard, but they’re the perfect patsies for a legendary curtain call.
By this time next year, I fully expect him to have scaled the cruiserweight mountain and added another improbable page to an already Canastota-worthy scrapbook.
Or, now that I think about it… it might just be the gullible talking.
* * * * * * * * * *
This week’s title-fight schedule:
Saturday
Vacant IBO cruiserweight title - Biloxi, Miss.
Danny Green (No. 6 contender) vs. Julio Cesar Dominguez (No. 61 contender)
Green (26-3, 23 KO): Former WBA champion at 175 pounds; Unbeaten above 168 (14-0, 11 KO)
Dominguez (20-4-1, 14 KO): First title fight; Won four of last eight fights (4-3-1, 4 KO)
FitzHitz says: Green in 8
WBA light heavyweight title – Astana, Kazakhstan
Gabriel Campillo (champion) vs. Beibut Shumenov (No. 9 contender)
Campillo (18-2, 6 KO): First title defense; Split four fights outside Spain (2-2, 0 KO)
Shumenov (8-0, 6 KO): First title fight; Represented Kazakhstan in 2004 Olympics
FitzHitz says: Shumenov in 6
WBO featherweight title – Las Vegas, Nev.
Steven Luevano (champion) vs. Bernabe Concepcion (No. 1 contender)
Luevano (36-1-1, 15 KO): Fifth title defense; Unbeaten in Las Vegas (8-0-1, 3 KO)
Concepcion (29-1-1, 16 KO): First title fight; Unbeaten in 22 fights since 2005 (21-0-1, 13 KO)
FitzHitz says: Luevano by decision
Last week’s picks: None
Overall picks record: 23-8 (74.2 percent)
Lyle Fitzsimmons is an award-winning 20-year sports journalist, a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and a sucker for a 500-mile drive across Florida. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him at twitter.com/fitzbitz.