By Rick Reeno

Promoter Russell Peltz has advised BoxingScene.com that welterweight contender Mike Jones (26-1, 19KOs) is still sitting on the sidelines. Jones has been inactive since last June, when he was knocked out by Randal Bailey on the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley undercard at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Later that year, Jones attempted to break his promotional contract with Russell Peltz, who handles the boxer with Top Rank. Peltz communicates with Jones through the fighter's attorney, Eric Melzer of New Jersey-based Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis.

On March 22, Jones agreed to face on a June card in Atlantic City, but then changed his mind on March 29th and refused to sign a contract. No reason was provided, but Jones has several years remaining on his current promotional agreement.

A few weeks ago, Peltz was approached about matching Jones against Kell Brook (30-0, 20KOs) on October 26th at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield. Jones turned the fight down and Brook closed a deal to face Vyacheslav Senchenko.

"I've tried to get him into a fight. First it was the Ray Narh fight that he agreed to and then turned down, and then he turned down Kell Brook for October in England. They called us about two or three weeks ago to see if we were interested in fighting Kell Brook and he didn't want to," Peltz tells BoxingScene.com.