One of boxing's most legendary icons is un-retiring this weekend.
For the first time since fighting Mike Tyson back in 2020, Roy Jones Jr. will enter a boxing ring at the age of 54 to face former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis in a boxing match. It’ll be Jones’ first professional fight in over five years — his bout with Tyson was an exhibition — against an opponent that is 18 years his junior in the main event of UFC fighter Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebred boxing event.
Jones will enter this fight with a professional record of 66-9 with 47 knockouts. To the uninitiated, this is a solid, yet unspectacular record on paper. But for those familiar with Jones, this was a fighter who was so far ahead of his time that his boxing brilliance and athletic prowess needed to be seen to be believed.
With a pro career that started in 1989, Jones didn’t have the benefit of “going viral” because social media and YouTube weren’t even close to existing. By the time he was on the backside of his career in 2004, it would still be another year before YouTube would launch.
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To see Jones now doesn’t quite tell the tale of the legend who, at one time, felt very close to being recognized as the greatest boxer of all time. Make no mistake, Roy Jones Jr. was a star. But if he would have existed in the social media era, he would have been a megastar.
Simply put, Roy Jones Jr. was the epitome of being ahead of his time.
What Roy Jones did to his opponents was something out of a video game. What he did to Richard Hall where it felt like he disappeared from Hall’s line of sight, reappeared behind him and waited for him to turn around just so he could punch him in his face couldn’t have been choreographed in an action movie. Or what about the wicked body punch he sank into Virgil Hill’s breadbasket that sent him crumbling to the canvas in a heap? What about the way he essentially teleported to deliver a left hook to the face of Montell Griffin that sent him stumbling comically into the ropes?
Roy Jones Jr. didn't just knock out his opponents, he humiliated them.
And his hit list includes the likes of Bernard Hopkins, James Toney, Montell Griffin, Vinny Pazienza and John Ruiz, who Jones beat to become the heavyweight champion of the world. Against Pazienza, Jones became the first fighter in Compubox history to go an entire round without being hit by his opponent. And it wasn't that Pazienza was bad, it was Jones being that far ahead of the curve.
It would have been difficult to deny Jones’ star power if these moments were shared on social media. Instead, they were talked about over landline telephones and were only seen on VHS tapes and replays on premium channels. Seeing them now is like ancient history and it doesn’t quite capture the essence of seeing him in his element in real-time. It’s similar to those who suggest that LeBron James is better than Michael Jordan but have only seen Jordan highlights. The difference, though, is that Jordan’s impact on the game of basketball is undeniable and inescapable. Roy Jones Jr.’s impact is easy to overlook because boxing isn’t on network television and the former four-division champion didn’t end up with a signature sneaker.
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The other thing that hurts Roy Jones Jr.’s status is how his career unceremoniously limped to the finish line. After starting his career with a record of 49-1 with 38 knockouts (his only loss was a controversial disqualification) and world titles in four different weight classes from middleweight to heavyweight, Jones floundered for the rest of his career with an underwhelming record 17-8 (9 KOs) and suffered five brutal knockouts along the way. It’s certainly a case of going on too long and diluting greatness with longevity.
It’s an unfortunate circumstance where an individual can be penalized for doing what he loves for too long. But, alas, here we are.
And we don’t know the reasons why Roy Jones decided to end a five-year retirement to box a former UFC fighter but maybe it’s sparked interest in fans to look back and see just how great Roy Jones once was. Maybe he beats Pettis and sets up a long-overdue dream bout with Anderson Silva. Sure, its expiration date has long passed by but perhaps it will spark an interest in Jones’ history again.
