Sports Thread #1 For 12/3/09: Roy Jones, Please Retire Now

Photo Steve Christo

While the casual fans of boxing have turned their attention towards the growing possibility of a Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao megafight like no other, some fans of the pugilistic sport may have seen a former great fighter signal his need to retire.

Now.

Roy Jones Jr. continued to tarnish his formerly legendary legacy by getting knocked out by some guy named Danny Green yesterday in Sydney.......36 seconds into the fight.

A first round knockout at the hands of the anonymous Aussie delivered Jones his worst loss of his career. Worse than getting a straight left hook to Antonio Tarver in the 2nd round of their rematch fight. Worse than getting pummeled by then journeyman Glen Johnson a few fights later.

If Jones had won his fight, just like Bernard Hopkins did against little known Enrique Ornelas in Philadelphia, then both him and Hopkins would have encountered each other in a long awaited rematch of their first fight won by Jones in 1992. Both had to win in order for the fight to go down.

But even if Jones had won (and despite Hopkins still contains optimistic feelings of a rematch between the two still happening), this needs to be the last fight of Roy Jones Jr.

I really fear that Jones, just like Evander Holyfield, is continuing to fight because he needs the money. I hope that isn't the case at all, needing to fight to earn money and more money. With all the capital that he has earned throughout his career, it will be a depressing thing to see if he has lost a lot of his earnings (which I don't believe at the end of the day, as no reports have indicated such a thing).

Maybe it's just Jones' urge to still box that has him still in the ring despite being a shell of himself. All of his speed, the head speed, the foot speed, any sort of thinking speed, has withered away. Still, he is still in the ring, and that is troubling in itself without knowing the full reason why that is so.

Hopefully, for the long supporters of Roy Jones Jr. like myself, and apparently HBO's Ross Greenburg , Roy Jones will look at the future of his health and legacy.

And if he does analyze those factors deeply, he will make the right decision to hang up the gloves for good.