The once great Roy Jones Junior, a guaranteed future Hall of Famer, insists on fighting on. Even the brutal and quite sad to see KO the once untouchable master suffered at the hands of big-hitting Welshman Enzo Maccarinelli in Russia was not enough to convince the 47-year-old to walk away. Jones Junior, and his co-promoters at URShow, came up with what you could call a novel idea in Jones fighting a fan, with the fan offered the sum of $100,000 as payment if he were to defeat the living legend.
The Arizona State Commission said no to this idea, however, insisting Jones Junior fight an actual fighter. Enter sometime MMA, sometime boxer Vyron Phillips, who has been granted a license, along with Jones, by the Commission to fight this Sunday evening in Phoenix. According to a piece on RingTV.com, the Jones-Phillips fight, a boxing match, not an MMA bout, will be fought at the cruiserweight limit of 200-pounds and will be scheduled for either six or eight-rounds.
In reflecting how far one-time superstar Jones Junior has fallen, the pay-per-view price for the event – that will also feature MMA and wrestling bouts – is a lowly $11.99. Still, even at this price, how many fight fans will actually choose to purchase the novelty card?
Phillips has boxed and fought in MMA, with his most recent boxing match taking place back in 2014, at amateur level. Even the Jones Junior of today – a fighter who seems to have next to no punch resistance – should have way too much class for Phillips. Still, if Jones were to suffer the ultimate humiliation and get caught by a lucky bomb from Phillips, who has been training hard for his one big shot at stardom, would even this be enough to persuade him to exit the ring for good?
Jones Junior was once something truly special, defeating great fighters such as James Toney, Mike McCallum, Bernard Hopkins and many others. In a recent interview with CBS Sports, Jones said the highlight of his career was his heavyweight title win over John Ruiz in 2003. That near flawless performance seems a very long time ago now and in many ways it was all downhill for the Pensacola great after that win.
Do fans still root for Jones to win, or has it become too much of a regular thing seeing him get knocked out? It’s hard to decide whether a win or another loss would serve Jones best on Sunday. If he wins, he is almost certain to fight on. Maybe, just maybe, a defeat would force him to see sense and concentrate on commentating or training fighters full time.
