by James Slater – According to The Sydney Morning Herald, legend Roy Jones Junior will today announce that he has agreed to take on Australia’s Danny Green in November. Reportedly, a press conference will be held later today, with Jones Junior appearing via satellite from his home town of Pensacola in Florida, and Green in Sydney in Australia. Apparently, the deal is that the two light-heavyweights will clash in Melbourne, Australia – providing they both win their next fight. Jones, as fans know, faces former IBF super-middleweight champion Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy on August 22nd, and there is now a good chance that Green will also fight, against an as yet TBA opponent, on that same Biloxi, Mississippi card..
For Jones, the Green fight will mark his first fight not only in Australia, but anywhere outside of America. For Green, the fight offers him the chance to end the career of an all time great.
36-year-old Green, a former interim holder of the WBC super-middleweight title and also a former WBA 175-pound champion, has not lost since being out-pointed by Australian archrival Anthony Mundine back in May of 2006, the fight taking place at 168-pounds. Since then the 26-3(23) warrior known as “The Green Machine” has won five straight, all at light-heavy. Although he is not as slick a boxer as the 40-year-old Jones, Green will be the former multi-weight ruler’s toughest foe since he met Joe Calzaghe back in November of last year.
Jones, 53-5(39) bounced back from the points loss he suffered at the hands of “The Pride of Wales” with a 5th round TKO of a faded Omar Sheika this past March. It’s likely he will get a much tougher fight from Green – providing Roy gets past the still determined Lacy, that is.
Just why Jones would agree to this risky fight is something of a mystery. Come to that, it’s a mystery why Jones continues to box on at all. With nothing left to prove as he has, Jones could easily walk away from the sport with his head held high. Yet he risks losing for a sixth time against Lacy and then Green. And how will fighting in Australia affect Jones?
Green is a solid light-heavyweight who, in his last fight, in April, weighed-in at 180-pounds (this April fight being Green’s first since announcing his retirement in December of 2007). A tough guy who has never been stopped as a pro, the man from Perth will really fancy his chances in what will be one of his country’s biggest ever boxing events.