WATCH Roy Jones JR Vs Denis Lebedev LIVE NOW
By Geno McGahee
Tonight, the former heavyweight, light heavyweight, super middleweight, and middleweight champion, Roy Jones, JR., 54-7, 40 KO’s, steps into the ring to face off against cruiserweight contender, Denis Lebedev, 21-1, 16 KO’s, in Moscow, Russia.
Jones, JR., has had a lot of financial troubles as of late as well as reports of brain damage, but as many great fighters have done, they have opted to fight to get their bank accounts back to where they are comfortable. The problem is that Roy is not facing another faded star as he did with Jeff Lacy. He is facing a 31 year old, 200 pound, power-punching cruiserweight with a lot of motivation to put hurt on the older foe.
Roy has lost 3 of his last 5 fights, with his two victories coming over Omar Sheika and Lacy, two spent forces. His losses were brutal, two beatings at the hands of Joe Calzaghe and Bernard Hopkins and then a first round stoppage loss at the hands of Danny Green.
Lebedev has stopped 8 of his last 9 opponents, with the only exception being his first defeat, a split decision loss to Marco Huck, the current WBO Cruiserweight Champion. Roy doesn’t have the power at this weight, doesn’t have the reflexes at his age, can’t move around the ring anymore with the fluidity that made him so special. What we have here is a guy on the way up in Lebedev, looking for a name and a name looking for a payday and both are going to get what they want, but the sad truth is that we are going to see the vicious trouncing of a former great. This is a scary situation and I hope that they have the medical team at ringside and ready to act because Roy could get very hurt in this fight.