Former pound-for-pound king and four-division titleholder Roy Jones Jr. is scheduled to fight again.
Jones, who is 45 and about a decade past the end of his run on top, told ESPN.com on Thursday that he will take on 39-year-old British journeyman Courtney Fry (18-5, 6 KOs) in a 12-round cruiserweight bout on July 26 in Riga, Latvia.
I know he'll give it all he got, which is what I want from any opponent, Jones said. I want to go out and do my thing and take what I've been doing in the gym to the boxing ring.
The fight is the main event of a card that is also scheduled to feature long-faded heavyweight James Toney (76-9-3, 46 KOs), Jones' one-time rival and a former three-division titleholder. They met in a 1994 super middleweight world championship fight that Jones won by one-sided decision to claim the 168-pound belt.
Toney, 45, is scheduled to fight 6-foot-9, 330-pound Evgeny Orlov (15-12-1, 11 KOs), 35, of Russia. KP Promotion, which is putting on the card, initially wanted to match Jones with Toney in a rematch, but Jones said he had no interest.
I'm not doing that. For what reason? What do I gain from that? What am I gaining from that fight, Jones said. I already beat him and beating him again does nothing for me. Besides, I want to fight for the cruiserweight title. I ain't interested in going up to heavyweight again.
Since suffering three consecutive losses to Danny Green (a first-round knockout), Bernard Hopkins (a lopsided decision) and Denis Lebedev (a brutal 10th-round knockout) between 2009 and 2011, Jones has defeated three low-level opponents in a row.
He will be seeking his fourth consecutive win against Fry, who has lost two fights in a row.
Jones last fought in December in Moscow and scored a knockdown and won a 12-round unanimous decision against Zine Eddine Benmakhlouf.
Jones (57-8, 40 KOs) said his reason for accepting the fight next week is to knock off the rust, win and hope I get a bigger opportunity. I want to go for a cruiserweight world title. I'm an entertainer but I still fight and I still love to fight. You got to keep active and win and you will get a shot.
Many have called for Jones to retire, but he said he is not ready to do that yet.
You do think about it but it's hard to leave when you know you still got it. I know I still got it, he said. I'm very much looking forward to [going to Latvia].
Jones has not recorded a knockout victory since stopping former super middleweight titlist Jeff Lacy in the 10th round in August 2009.
I will get one this time, Jones said.
Jones is the lead analyst for HBO's boxing telecasts but he is leaving for Latvia on Sunday and will miss the network's July 26 broadcast of the Gennady Golovkin-Daniel Geale card at Madison Square Garden in New York.
http://espn.go.com/
Marquez to be offered Pacquiao 5th fight in 2015
By Chris Williams: It seems that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum hasn’t given up on the idea of getting 40-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KOs) to agree to a 5th fight with his No.1 money fighter Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) after failing to agree to the rumored $20 million asking price that Marquez wanted for him to fight Pacquiao on November 22nd this year.
Arum wants to set up a fifth fight between Marquez and Pacquiao in early 2015. If the fight fails to happen at that time then that’s going to likely be the end of any chances of them ever fighting again, because Marquez is said to be retiring in 2015.
Marquez will be meeting with his promoter Fernando Beltran, and he’s got a couple of fights that he wants to offer him. The first is a fight in Mexico City in what would be a farewell fight in Mexico. The other fight would be the one that Arum wants in a fifth fight against Pacquiao.
“Juan is not convinced whether to continue boxing,” said an unnamed source. “He has won everything and has been thinking about saying goodbye. He’ll be taking a holiday in August and will be deciding what to do with his future in the ring. He knows that Beltran and Arum will offer him two fights, one where he fights Pacquiao, which would bring him a lot of money.”
You can bet the other fight that Marquez will be offered will be someone from Arum’s Top Rank stable. Marquez just did Arum a big favor in fighting one of his stable fighters in Mike Alvarado last May in a fight that Marquez easily won by a 12 round unanimous decision. I wouldn’t be surprised if Arum offers either Brandon Rios or WBA champion Jessie Vargas for Marquez to fight next. Neither of those fights are worth it for Marquez, and neither would do anything for his legacy.
Marquez lives in Mexico City, an expensive place to live, but he’s a millionaire so he doesn’t need to worry about money anymore. There’s not much of a reason for him to continue to fight unless he wants to fight Pacquiao a fifth time or if Floyd Mayweather Jr were to show interest in fighting him again. Those are pretty much the only two interesting fights left for Marquez. He’s already played out the Pacquiao fight and proven that he’s the better fighter than him in arguably beating him 4 times while getting robbed in three of the fights.
http://www.boxingnews24.com
Porter: Brook is getting his first loss on August 16th
By Scott Gilfoid: IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter (24-0-1, 15 KOs) expects to hand unbeaten #1 IBF Kell Brook (32-0, 22 KO’s) his first loss of his career on August 16th in their fight at the StubHub Center, in Carson, California, USA. Porter sees Brook as basically just an experienced fighter with a stand-up European style of fighting.
Porter notes that Brook likes to jab and then load up with right hand. Porter doesn’t see anything complicated about Brook, as he does the same thing over and over again against the weak opposition that he’s been matched up against during his 10-year pro career.
“It’s going to happen, I’m very confident,” Porter said to esnewsreporting.com about his belief that he’ll easily beat Brook. On August 16th that’s where he’s going to get his first loss. If I get in the ring with Kell Brook right now, I’m looking at him like he’s the little guy. I’m just going to overpower you and wear you out.”
Unless Brook changes his stiff, upright fighting style and loosen up to be more of a boxer/mover, he’s going to get taken apart by Porter in this fight. Brook has no inside game, and it’s going to be a real problem for him to try and keep Porter off of him while standing straight up the way he does with his traditional stance.
Obviously, Brook is going to try and keep Porter on the outside with his jabs so that he can pot shot him and set him up for his right hands, but Porter is going to likely walk straight through the jabs from Brook. You’re not going to keep a guy as big and as strong as Porter off of you with just jabs. That’s not going to happen.
No one is going to keep a fighter like Porter off with just a jab. Unless Brook has learned how to fight on the inside during this training camp, which I highly doubt, he’s going to get taken apart on the inside.
Of course, Brook can always try and move around the ring to evade the big power shots from Porter, but he’s not proven himself to have the kind of mobility to move. Brook is really stiff and slow on his feet, and that’s probably not going to change by the time he fights Porter.
http://www.boxingnews24.com