By Ian S Palmer
Boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. hasn’t hung up his gloves as of yet and will be taking on fellow cruiserweight Enzo Maccarinelli of Wales over at the VTB Arena in Moscow, Russia on Saturday, December 12th. In case you haven’t heard, Jones recently received his Russian citizenship from President Vladimir Putin and now spends a great deal of time in his adopted country and coaches and fights there. The 46-year-old is a former world champion in the middleweight, super-middleweight, light-heavyweight and heavyweight division after kicking off his career as a junior middleweight. In fact, he’s the only boxer in history to capture a heavyweight title after starting out in the 154 lb. division. The 12-round bout can be seen live in the UK on BoxNation.
Jones lost his first fight as a cruiserweight back in May of 2011 against Denis Lebedev via a 10th-round round stoppage with just two seconds to go in the fight. He’s won eight fights in a row since then, albeit against journeyman opposition. He’ll be taking a step up in class against Maccarinelli since he’s also a former world cruiserweight champion. The 35-year-old Welshman enters the ring with a record of 40-7 along with 32 Kos. He started his career with a bang by winning 28 out of his first 29 bouts and was then stopped by England’s David Haye in the second round in 2008. The native of Swansea has also fought in the light-heavyweight division and lost to WBA champion Juergen Braehmer of Germany by fifth-round stoppage last year.
Jones, originally of Pensacola, Florida, climbs into the ring with a record of with 62-8 with 45 Kos. He has quite a size disadvantage though as he stands 5-feet-11-inches tall while Maccarinelli is 6-foot-4. As far as their reach goes, Jones has a 74-inch wingspan while his opponent’s is 74.5 inches. Jones has fought 461 rounds since turning pro in 1989 and has fought some of the best boxers of his era. His losses have come at the hands of Lebedev, Chris Johnson, Bernard Hopkins, Danny Green, Joe Calzaghe, Antonio Tarver (twice) and Montell Griffin by disqualification. Tarver stopped him once as did Johnson, Green and Lebedev.
Maccarinelli, who has fought 187 rounds since 1999, has pretty good power as his knockout ratio of 68 per cent shows, but he’s lost all seven of his fights by knockout. These have been to Haye, Braehmer, Lebedev, Ovill McKenzie, Alexander Frenkel, Ola Afolabi, and Lee Swaby. Jones has decent power with a knockout ratio of 64 per cent, but is more known for his speed and excellent boxing skills. However, his chin has also become suspect lately. This hasn’t stopped him from competing though as this will be his fourth fight of the year. Jones is definitely the better boxer here, but Maccarinelli has more power. However, to even things out, Jones probably still has the better chin of the two.
Prediction
Based on skill alone, Jones is still superior here even though he’s about 10 years older and has more experience against upper-echelon fighters. Maccarinelli is a big man though with a lot of power and the key factor in this fight will be Jones ability to take a punch. If he can stand up to Maccarinelli’s power shots he shouldn’t have a problem winning the fight on points or even by stoppage. This is a good matchup between two fighters with suspect chins, so fans shouldn’t really be surprised by any outcome though.
