Roy Jones Jr. turned 48th a little over a month ago and celebrated it with a TKO win over bare-knuckle boxing veteran Bobby Gunn on Friday night at the Chase Center in Wilimington, Delaware.Despite the extensive miles on his clock, Jones thoroughly outclassed Gunn—as you'd expect with an all-time great, though his reputation has since been sullied, competing against a tough yet comparatively less-skilled 43-year-old bare-knuckle boxer.
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Jones effectively used his jab and picked his spots to unleash his trademark punching flurries in a fight which was as one-sided a boxing match could possibly be.After seven brutal rounds had elapsed, Gunn's corner didn't want to send him back out to the fray. A testament to Gunn's heart, the Canadian-born Irish traveller got off his stool for the eighth round. However, with nothing left in the tank—not even enough to raise his hands to protect his head—Jones finished off the fight and forced the referee to intervene.The win saw Jones crowned the WBF world cruiserweight champion—a title which hasn't been contested since Marino Goles (15-0) fought Peter Hegyes (5-7) back in 2013, just to provide context behind his seemingly unimportant championship.
Boxing fans and pundits have long called for the retirement of Jones, who is hardly winding his fighting career down gracefully. Retirement talk intensified following his devastating knockout loss to Enzo Maccarinelli towards the end of 2015. After Friday night, Jones has now posted three wins in a row—the other two coming against Vyron Phillips and Rodney Moore.That may look good on paper, but it's worth noting the knockout win over Phillips was a knockout win against a man who had no professional fights to his name and had won a contest to fight Jones with a possible prize of $100,000 should he somehow beat the former multi-weight world champion. Moore, meanwhile, is a 51-year-old journeyman with a record of 17-14-2 and Jones could only muster a decision win over him.Music to many ears, Jones actually hinted at retirement following his win over Moore in his hometown of Pensacola, Florida, but his victory over Gunn suggests Jones won't be hanging up the gloves any time soon.These sentiments have been echoed by Jones' Russian promoter Vladimir Hryunov, who is proposing a bumper boxing event in Belarus for Jones to play a major part of in Spring. "I had suggested, that as part of this [Belarus] event a fight would be made with Roy Jones," as reported by BoxingScene. "This idea was met with interest, and we are going to discuss this in the beginning of March. After the fight [with Gunn], I spoke to Roy and told him about this idea. I think it will be a continuation of Jones' [career]. There are some tentative dates at the end of May."Great. Hryunov was the main figure who helped Jones with his Russian citizenship, which I'm sure was something the Floridian wanted, but, at this point, you can't but help question whether Hryunov's motives to keep Jones fighting are anything but purely financial at the cost of his client's health.