Roy Jones Jnr V Danny Green Prediction

So in about 12 hours we will seen Roy Jones Jnr fighting for his first ever Cruiserweight title as he faces Danny Green for the IBO title. Jones will be fighting abroad for the first time as a professional and quite possibly for the first time since the 1988 Olympic final (where he was robbed) though some may feel it was too late for Jones to do it now he is seen as a shell of the former Light Heavyweight king that he was a decade ago.

As a prelude to the long awaited rematch between Jones and Bernard Hopkins (Hopkins fights on the following day against Enrique Ornelas in his own warm up contest) which has been 17 years in the making (and is tentatively pencilled in for 13^th March if both win their fights) Jones attempts to win a title at a 5^th weight. Whilst Green who some are over-looking will be trying not only to score the biggest victory of his career but end Roy Jones' illustrious career and impress his home fans in what is seen as the biggest boxing event in the US in over 100 years.

So lets take a look at the two fighters, Jones a former Olympic silver medal winner (though everyone who saw the fight knows he was shafted) will be fighting for the 60^th time as a professional just over a month short of being 41. The fighter that was one of the all time greats in his pomp as he won titles at 160, 168, 175 and Heavyweight is long gone, in fact many would tell you he's never been the same since beating John Ruiz in 2003. He's found his great reactions and speed have belied him and left to spend time with father and the Roy that was never really caught in his prime was stopped twice (Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson) as well as being toyed with by Joe Calzaghe. Though he has racked up a few wins in recent times they haven't been against the quality of opponents he was playing with in the 1990's. The fighter that dominated James Toney is one of distant memory's, as a slower more intelligent Jones hits the ring now a days often fighting off the ropes and using more orthodox defensive techniques.

Green on the other hand isn't to well known outside of true boxing fans and Australians is a tough hard puncher who perhaps lacks something in the way of technique though regularly finds his power has been able to win fights for him. Having scored 5 KO's in his last 6 (and 24 in his 27 victory's from 30 fights) he hits hard enough to drop a fighter like Jones who's punch resistance seems to have faded over recent years, though he has struggled with fighters who move and don't stand in front of him. Though one of his 2 losses was a relatively controversial DQ and another was a close points loss to the same man (Markus Beyer) his loss to Anthony Mundine could be the most telling (see below). His most notable win was against highly ranked Super Middleweight Eric Lucas though Lucas is no Jones Jnr and that was 6 years ago.

The age of both fighters combined is 74 as Green is now 34 and although 6 years younger than his more well known rival he also isn't in his prime and even though the fight is being fought for a Cruiserweight title it's unlikely that either fighter ill be much about 185 come fight time as neither man is particularly large for a Cruiserweight. Though the key advantage will be power (Green) v speed (Jones) possibly the biggest sign of how the fight is going to go will be looking back to Green's last loss, a unanimous decision to Anthony Mundine. Mundine was trained for the fight by Roy Jones Snr, the father of Roy Jones Jnr, who incidentally has started training his son once again. It was Mundine's speed that lead to his victory and say what you want about the faded Jnr he's still faster than most other fighters out there and this will be the reason Jones will take the victory and the title. Green is tough and as a result I have a feeling it'll end up being a points decision despite the fact Jones would rather stop his rival he's only managed 2 stoppages in 6 years (though yes they were both in his last fight against 2 fighters who are rather washed up).

Expect a good fun fight with Green never giving up as Jones boxes circles around him, perhaps getting caught once or twice but on the whole using his feet to control the distance and the fight.