Roy Jones Jr (54-7, 40 KO’s) will return to the ring on October 7th against Danny Santiago (31-4-1, 19 KO’s) in his hometown of Pensacola, Florida for what I hope is his final goodbye to the sport .

Jones has lost six of his last eleven fights and ever since he came down in weight from his successful foray in the heavyweight division has never looked the same. He scraped a win against Antonio Tarver and was then knocked out in their next fight. Another knockout followed at the hands of Glen Johnson a good fighter but one that Jones would have boxed circles round in his heyday. After his second loss to Tarver the signs were all there that Jones was not just on the decline but completely washed up. He was able to silence a few naysayers with three back to back wins one of them to the great Felix Trinidad who like Jones was not great anymore.

Jones was then defeated by Joe Calzaghe despite knocking him down in the first round. He bounced back again with wins over Sheika and Lacy but was then knocked out by Danny Green in a fight that was supposed to be a warm up for a 17 years in the making rematch between himself and Bernard Hopkins. Unlike Jones Hopkins has improved with age like a fine wine and to many people’s amazement still took the fight with Roy regardless of Jones’ loss to win a dull uninspired unanimous decision. Both fighters looked a shambles but Jones barely threw a meaningful punch throughout the whole fight perhaps in the back of his mind losing to Bernard on points he could handle but being knocked out by his rival he couldn’t bear.

Now he steps into the ring again perhaps for one last fight in front of his home fans to give them a good farewell but something tells me should he win then he may continue fighting. For a guy that was so adamant about not getting hurt and leaving the sport with everything still intact it seems crazy that Roy is still fighting and taking the serious risk at this stage of his career. Forever scared by what happened to his friend Gerald McCellan in his fight with Nigel Benn I’m baffled as to why Roy still fights on when his punch resistance seems totally gone but then again I’m not a fighter and for a man who was once on top of the boxing world it must be hard to finally admit you time is over.

When he finally does call it a day I hope HBO will offer him his old job as a boxing analyst as he not only showed master of the sweet science in the ring but he call the action pretty well outside it aswell.

1. Bernard Hopkins- Roy Jones Jnr 2- The Preview