Bay Center in Pensacola, Florida – In what he says was the final fight of his long career, 49-year-old ring Roy Jones Jr. (66-9, 47 KOs) delighted his hometown crowd by winning a ten round unanimous decision over Scott Sigmon (30-12-1, 16 KOs) in a cruiserweight contest. All three judges had it 98-92.
Jones had little to no issues in the contest, as even at his advanced age he was too much for Sigmon to deal with.
The first ballot Hall of Famer captured world titles at middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight.
There has been an outcry from Jones’ fans for several years to have him walk away, but the aging boxer continued to fight.
Earlier this week, he finally admitted that he was too old to continue fighting any longer.
“I’m not sad to get older, we all get old. I had a great prime. I was good in my prime, y’know? I wasn’t surprised that I was getting old, and that my abilities were getting more limited. Everybody knows everybody gets old, but I think some guys really don’t think their body will get old,” Jones said.
“I accepted it. People told me to retire but I knew what I could do and I’ve never let anyone tell me what to do.
“There are things I wanted to accomplish that I knew were no longer within my reach. I love boxing, even out of my prime I love boxing like I did when I was champ. But you can’t go on forever no matter how much you love it. It’s time, I’m ready to say goodbye.”
Everyone thought Jones was never the same after suffering a three fight losing streak to Antonio Tarver (twice) and Glen Johnson – and that was back in 2004 to 2005.
He lost to Joe Calzaghe in 2008, and then suffering another losing streak when he was knocked out by Danny Green and Denis Lebedev, and decisioned by Bernard Hopkins.
Jones refused to walk away and continue to box. He then suffered another brutal knockout loss in 2015 at the hands of Enzo Maccarinelli. Jones walks away with a four fight winning streak since that defeat.
