Don't let Jones fight in Britain!!!

As the once elusive boxer we had thought of as unhittable lay unconscious on the canvas for several minutes, we held our breaths. Please, Lord of Boxing, not another death in the ring." The late Budd Schulberg after Glen Johnson disposed of Jones in 2004. - - - The great Roy Jones Jr. has been in Britain over the last fortnight making personal appearances and hoping to set-up a money-spinning fight on these shores. There has been talk of Jones warming up against Michael Sprott, which would only be Jones' second bout at heavyweight, before fighting David Haye. I'd fancy Sprott's chances. Jones has also been suggested as fodder for Wales's rising light-heavyweight Nathan Cleverly, a contest that would make a lot of sense for Cleverly's promoter Frank Warren. Jones, despite no longer being amongst the best light-heavies, would be much bigger box office than, for example, IBF Champion Tavoris Cloud or WBA Champion Beibut Shumenov. However, Jones, 41, should simply not be sanctioned to fight in a British ring. It would demean the ring, it would demean Britain, and it would demean Roy Jones Jr. In his pomp Jones was one of sport's transcendental figures, a superman from planet Fistiana, whose frequent feats of impossible athleticism suggested he had a magic lamp in his corner. Nobody could demur when Jones recorded a surprisingly competent rap song and boasted: "Can't be touched, can't be stopped, can't be moved, can't be rocked." So quick was Jones, both in his actions and reactions, that he made his opponents look like they were trapped in a slow-motion replay of a fight he had already won. Enter Father Time. Since his finest hour, a historic win over heavyweight titlist John Ruiz in 2003, Jones has been in sad decline. He has lost six times in six years and last year he was knocked out in the first round in Australia by the unheralded Danny Green, prompting old rival Bernard Hopkins to remark, "That's why I never go to Europe." Hopkins, 46, then whupped Jones over 12 rounds in May. Jones, the Florida native they once called the Pensacola Pinwheel, is now the Pensacola Pincushion. The genie is gone from the lamp, forever. Jones' continuing career is a greater tragedy than any other sport enables. Usain Bolt will not be allowed to line-up in an Olympic final aged 41 just because he sells tickets, and, even if he were, only his ego would bruise. The same cannot be said for Jones. Margaret Goodman, chief ringside physician for the Nevada State Athletic Commission, fears for his health: "Roy is a fighter at risk. Red warning lights are flashing. "It's not whether or not Roy can pass the medical tests. I'm sure he can. All that will mean is that they're giving him the wrong tests." The British fighters linked with the American must realise that fighting Roy Jones Jr. in 2010 means stepping to with a memory. They should follow the Klitschko brothers' commendable stance towards the spectre of Evander Holyfield. Wladimir calls Holyfield "an icon" and the Ukrainians refuse what would be an easy, and lucrative, night's work. Their stance saves us the haunting sight of a sporting god reduced to mere man, and all those thudding echoes of mortality. It was such a scene that drove Miles Davis to tears as he watched the once peerless Sugar Ray Robinson being picked apart by Joey Archer in 1965. Afterwards, the jazzman visited the Sugarman in his dressing room. "Ray," he said, "you're packin' it in." Who wants to profit from such a spectacle, from the smashing of an idol? One hopes nobody, but where there's money, there's somebody. The British Board of Boxing Control should intervene, and refuse Jones a license to box. Yes, to do so is to deny a man the chance to ply his trade. But Jones is a man who has had his chances. And, given that he has earned around $50 million from his long career, does he really need to scrape the barrel for the last $1-2 million he might make trading on his name? Roy Jones Jr. is a man of 41 who needs the chance to move on. There's nothing tragic about being 41, not unless you think you can be champion of the world. As for an epitaph to Jones' illustrious career, Roy gave himself a fitting tribute before his 2008 defeat to Joe Calzaghe… "I was pretty much a shocker, a razzle-dazzle guy who did what he wanted to in the boxing ring whenever he felt like it. "Skills were pretty much impeccable to none. Nobody had a chance, really, to beat me when I was motivated. "I was a technician, a student of the game, a very proud champion, a very happy champion, a very appreciative champion; one who realised that I was only an instrument God used to play his music through, and loved being that instrument, because he gave me some beautiful music to play." Reader, he was. James Garner / Eurosport