Jones Says He'll Take On All Comers

The man who was once King and would like to be again. Roy Jones, Jr. claims he will fight pretty much anybody that would like to make a deal.

Roy Jones, Jr. says he may go back to heavyweight before he retires, that he would fight Bernard Hopkins and Glen Johnson any time, and that he never sought out Jeff Lacy for a fight – but it was Lacy that has been after him since the very beginning. Jones and Lacy, both Florida natives, will clash on Aug. 15 at the Gulfport Arena in Biloxi, Mississippi.

“I never chased him at all,” says Jones. “He invited me to Tampa to his fight against Otis Griffin and I sat there and watched it and then after that, before you know it, we in a fight. I never picked Jeff Lacy, he picked me. He grabbed the microphone after the fight was over and told everyone in the crowd he wanted to fight me. So there it is.”

The 40-year-old Jones (53-5, 39KOs) has seen better days as a prizefighter, but he hasn't lost his ability to talk a good fight. He likes his chances against the 32-year-old Lacy (25-2, 17KOs) who has never fully rebounded from his 2006 loss to Joe Calzaghe.

“I'm ready to go out there and do what I do to teach him and show him,” said Jones. “Jeff is a pretty good hooker, but it bugs me that he calls himself 'Left Hook' because I'm the best hooker this here game ever seen. Jeff is good, make no mistake, but he ain't no Roy Jones, Jr. It upsets me a bit, to be honest with you, that he's goin' around calling himself the best hooker in the game.”

Jones says he isn't looking past Lacy, who he calls “a tough fighter” but he says he is aware time is short for his time in the game. As a result, he said he'd like to win a cruiserweight title and that he may even take another shot at the heavyweight division. Should he get past Lacy, the stage appears to be set for Jones to take on Australia's Danny Green, possibly “down under.” Green is fighting Julio Cesar Dominguez for the vacant IBO cruiserweight title on the Jones vs. Lacy undercard.


At age 40, and with his best years behind him, Jones soldiers on in the twilight of what was a brilliant boxing career.

“Everyone needs to understand that I'm the easiest guy to make a fight with,” says Jones. “I promote myself, so ain't nobody in the way. I can't say no. I will do anything the fans wanna' see. I would love to fight Bernard Hopkins or Glen Johnson. I'd fight either Klitschko because Chris Byrd beat one of them and if he beat 'em, I know I damn sure can.”

Jones explained that when he and Joe Calzaghe fought in Nov. 2008 that they sealed the deal to fight each other by texting back and forth and they had a deal structured and in place within a couple of days. He says the same thing can happen with any other fighter out there that wants to fight him because he is his own promoter.

“I would love to fight Hopkins, but the last time we got into talking about that, Hopkins said we had to give Golden Boy a bunch of money right off the top!” said Jones. “Ever since he's just been fighting everybody else – Winky Wright, Antonio Tarver, Joe Calzaghe. If he don't wanna' fight me he should just say so. The last time we talked about it, I offered Bernard sixty [percent] to the winner and forty to the loser – I ain't heard from him since.”

Like everyone else, Jones bemoans the fact that there is no American heavyweight champion and that Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko have a lock on the heavyweight titles.

“I'd like to get the title back in this country and it wouldn't matter,” said Jones. “I would do whatever my fans wanna' see me do. I would fight either of them. To be honest with you, them having them belts keeps me awake at night.”


July 2009