Roy Jones Jr. did an interview with Mike Harris at Sherdog.com recently, and had this to say about his upcoming "March Badness" pay-per-view:

“So to cure the stigma that we don’t like MMA or that we’re against it, to prove my point, I’m going to start promoting them too,” Jones said. “And they have a huge fan base too. They love fighting. Boxing. Ultimate fighting. It’s all still fighting.”

Jones said he does not understand the boxing-versus-MMA mentality.

“Why do people keep trying to pull us apart?” he asked. “Why not come together and make for an even bigger situation and make it better for both sports? MMA has something that boxing doesn’t have, which boxing needs to acknowledge.”

For those out of the loop, Jones' Square Ring Promotions will be putting on a pay-per-view show on March 21 from Pensacola, Fla., which will mix MMA and boxing for the first time on a "major" show.

On the boxing side, 40-year old Jones (52-5, 38 KO) will look to get back in the win column following a horribly one-sided loss to Joe Calzaghe in their bomb of a November pay-per-view, which had a lot of money behind it but was promoted terribly and featured an undercard that was even worse. He'll face 32-year old Omar Sheika (27-8, 18 KO), who hasn't fought since September 2007 and has lost both of his last two notable fights (Jeff Lacy and Markus Beyer).

Also, recently signed Square Ring cruiserweight contender B.J. Flores (22-0, 14 KO) will supposedly be in action, but we'll see if he has the guff to take on a legitimate opponent or if he'll just protect his IBF ranking and fight some schmoe, as he did on January 23, when he fought as a 207-pound heavyweight against 261-pound Matt "Hurricane" Hicks.

The MMA side is a little more interesting. Seth Petruzelli, the man who knocked out Kimbo Slice and then questionably dressed as him for Halloween, will take on former WEC light heavyweight (205 lbs.) champion Doug Marshall. In a heavyweight bout, noted troublemaking punk rocker bleehhh!!! Jeff Monson will fight Roy Nelson, and in the big interest-generating hail mary, former forgettable WWE star Bobby Lashley will be fighting.

I sort of want to think Roy is doing this for some sense of unity, but really I'd bet the farm that he's doing this to hopefully piggyback on the popularity of mixed martial arts -- or more accurately the popularity of UFC, which more people are starting to realize but few have yet to grasp -- and sell some PPVs in a crap fight against an opponent that hasn't fought in 17 months. Jones-Sheika is for Jones an attempt at a sure bet that he can win another one, let the Calzaghe loss get washed over, and land another money fight later this year. That's all it is.

And by including MMA, he's hoping to convince more people than loonies like me to pay for this card. If boxing and MMA are going to unify the fanbases (and it's unlikely to see any more of a crossover than it already has), it won't be because of fights like Jones-Sheika or Nelson-Monson.

Bad Left Hook and Bloody Elbow will be teaming up to cover "March Badness," as I'll handle the boxing portion of the show and BE's Brent Brookhouse will be doing the MMA portion. It should be an interesting night. But I guess at least in terms of the SB Nation combat blogs, Roy's unity mission is a success already.

When HBO Sports said that they would be cutting back on the number of boxing pay-per-views, which had to be at least somewhat influenced by a brutal American economy and the massive flops of Calzaghe-Jones (November) and Pavlik-Hopkins (October), I took it with a grain of salt. Or an economy sized box of Morton's kosher salt. Whichever.

I'm sure most did. We've heard that line before, but then here it comes, pay-per-view after pay-per-view. HBO even planned to put a fight between Shane Mosley and Zab Judah on PPV last May, which was bizarre. Mosley has never been a PPV draw besides his fights with Oscar de la Hoya, and has never drawn much period as the A-side of a fight. Great fighter? Yes. Money in the bank? No. And Judah has been teetering on professional opponent for a while now.

Luckily Judah fought a shower door for free and the PPV was scrapped, which led to Mosley facing Ricardo Mayorga -- another fight HBO had slotted for pay-per-view before putting Pavlik-Hopkins on instead -- and Judah facing Joshua Clottey on Boxing After Dark.

The sheer volume of pay-per-views and the lack of quality coming out of them for the price demanded ($44.95 to $54.95 for a top shelf main event, not in HD) has been a complaint for years.

HBO, to their credit, has no PPV scheduled unless they wind up as the producers and distributors of the May 2 Hatton-Pacquiao fight, which is likely. But that doesn't mean boxing as a whole isn't gearing up to fire off a series of five, count 'em, five pay-per-view shows in February and March.

What are we looking at here?

Today, for instance, a viewer with iNDemand pay-per-view might choose to order Ruslan Chagaev's heavyweight title defense against little-known, lightly-regarded Carl Davis Drumond. "Why would anyone pay to see that?" you might ask. Good question. For $24.95, it's a "bargain" (coughcough), and here in the lean sporting months there's little to watch sports-wise at two o'clock in the afternoon eastern. So maybe you're up for Chagaev-Drumond!

Hey, I'm not, but whatever floats your boat.

Is Bad Left Hook Gonna Cover It?: Not unless I stumble upon a stack of cash sometime between now and 1pm.

On February 21, Bob Arum's Top Rank brings us a double main event, two-site pay-per-view extravaganza live from both Youngstown, Ohio, and Madison Square Garden in New York City. Youngstown's Kelly Pavlik defends the middleweight championship of the world against Marco Antonio Rubio, and in the hallowed halls of the Garden, Miguel Cotto main events against Brit welter Michael Jennings. Both are rebound fights; let's not get it twisted. But there's also a useful undercard, with John Duddy facing off against Matt Vanda and Anthony Peterson matching up with two-time title challenger Edner Cherry.

What's that? Four watchable fights? Get out of here, Bob. That's not how boxing pay-per-view works.

$39.95 figures to be the going rate for the Pavlik and Cotto Show, and it sounds like a keeper.

Is Bad Left Hook Gonna Cover It?: Signed, sealed, delivered -- we'll be here for this bad boy.

Then we come to March 14, and another overseas show headed to American television sets by the wonder of point and click ordering. Offensive phenom Amir Khan will battle faded veteran Marco Antonio Barrera in a fight that could bring out the sleeping warrior in the Mexican legend, and could spell doom for the chinny Brit, whose "top prospect" tag was getting shaky enough before Breidis Prescott knocked his block off.

This one, though, is pretty much good news all around. Khan-Barrera could be a heck of a good fight, plus with Nicky Cook defending his 130-pound title against Roman Martinez and cruiserweight Enzo Maccarinelli facing ...well, Ola Afolabi, there's another actual undercard going on. Afolabi is a substitue for Argentina's Victor Ramirez, and not a very good one, either.

Also, this is likely to be another $24.95 card given the timeslot (American afternoon) and the fact that there's not a single American draw on the show, which might sound insulting to Barrera who still has his fans, but this ain't the Barrera of years ago and everyone knows it.

Is Bad Left Hook Gonna Cover It?: We're in it to win it.

March 21. Roy Jones. Omar Sheika. MMA on the undercard. Pensacola, Florida, are you ready?

Questions to ponder:

1. Will Jones and Square Ring try to pay Michael Buffer to be there?

2. Can Sheika, who turns 32 in February and hasn't fought since September 2007, muster up enough sock to knock Jones out and finish Roy's career?

3. If Jones wins, will he talk about how he wants to fight Antonio Tarver again? Remember, Tarver is a near lock bet to lose to Chad Dawson for the second time on March 14.

4. If Jones wins, will he try to call out Hopkins again?

5. If Jones wins, will he try to lure Calzaghe out of retirement, feeling that boxing fans simply must see the two legends square off in another exciting contest?

6. If Jones dominates, how many minutes (yes, minutes) will it take for the first article to pop up online that Jones looks "better than ever" at 40 years of age?

Is Bad Left Hook Gonna Cover It?: My utter mocking of this card and total non-belief in the idea that people have to mix boxing and MMA on the same card might lead you to think we're not coming within ten feet of this stinker. But chances are we're gonna do it. I'll cover Jones-Sheika and whatever other boxing fight(s?) are on the card, and if they actually do the MMA portion (color me skeptical, by the way), my good friend Brent Brookhouse of Bloody Elbow will be handling those fights, because even though I'm an MMA fan, my knowledge of the game is rudimentary in comparison, and when you've got the better option, hey, do it.

On March 28, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. headlines his umpteenth "Latin Fury" card, which Mexican fans keep buying in enough numbers that Arum keeps happily shoving them into the marketplace, despite the fact that he all but flat-out admits, "Hey, for someone people buy this junk, so I'm gonna keep peddlin' it!"

Chavez will face an untested guy with a fluffed up record that no one's ever heard of, and on the undercard Fernando Montiel will face Eric Morel. I actually like Morel for the upset in that fight.

Is Bad Left Hook Gonna Cover It?: I have never and will never pay for a show Chavez Jr. main events. I can say that with full confidence, because he will never be good enough to main event a show truly worth buying. I don't begrudge him his financial success as the go-to "Latin Fury" guy, nor do I have any intense dislike of him. But I wouldn't pay to see Edner Cherry main event, either. If Chavez ever fights anyone worth a crap, it's the same career.

BoxingScene.com got word that Roy Jones, Jr., is in talks to headline an independently-produced pay-per-view event on March 21, against journeyman Omar Sheika.

What a...I don't know what the word I want would be. Rest assured this is absolutely no different than Jones' lame PPV fights against Prince Badi Ajamu and Anthony Hanshaw, and is simply a way for Jones to rack up a win against a guy who likely can't beat him no matter how faded he gets, which in turn positions Jones to tack on a W, stay out of the spotlight a little while staying active, and land a fight against another name guy in due time.

In short, I hate it, because it's just a ploy.

Sheika (27-8, 18 KO) is just a regular pug that keeps fighting on because that's what he does for a living. He's always been willing to fight just about anyone, and I like the guy as a fighter because of that. He'd come looking to put Roy on the canvas and finish his career. He's that sort of fighter. So in that regard, at least Roy's fighting a guy with hunger and a pulse if this goes through.

But he's just not good enough. Roy's natural skills, even depleted as he's just hit 40 (happy belated birthday, Roy!), are too much for a guy like Sheika to cope with. Sheika first lost to tomato can Tony Booth (28-44-7 entering that fight) back in 1998, but that was a fluke. His other losses have come to Joe Calzaghe, Thomas Tate, Eric Lucas, Scott Pemberton (twice), Jeff Lacy and Markus Beyer. He did beat Glen Johnson just before his 2000 fight with Calzaghe, but like most of Johnson's losses, it was debatable.

My reaction to this news is probably as predictable as Lake Michigan being cold this time of year, but even though I'm shouting down a well with this one, it deserves to be said. Anyone that pays to see Jones-Sheika (and I might be one of them) will almost certainly get the sham it looks like on paper.

Roy Jones, Jr., told the Pensacola News Journal that he wants to fight again on March 21, hopefully in his hometown (Pensacola, naturally). He also says if he can't find a deal at the Pensacola Civic Center (he won't), he'll look to fight in Biloxi, Miss. (far more likely)

Jones, who turns 40 tomorrow (happy birthday, Roy!), last fought in November, and was taken apart at the seams by Joe Calzaghe on one of the world's worst-ever pay-per-view events.

Jones has not once indicated any desire to hang up the gloves since that loss, which I put only behind the TKO loss to Glen Johnson as the worst beating of his career. He's also contacted Lou DiBella about making a fight with Jermain Taylor, but that's as far as that rumor has gone.

Prior to the Calzaghe and Trinidad fights of 2008, the latter being more an exhibition than a prize fight, it's sort of easy to already forget that Jones was fighting once a year on low-budget pay-per-views against the likes of Prince Badi Ajamu and Anthony Hanshaw. More likely than not, should he press ahead with a March return, he's looking at that sort of B- or C-list opponent again.

I'm sure there are plenty of guys that would love to take a shot at the weathered former P4P king right now. To add his scalp still means a little bit, particularly to a fighter in need of a boost. I don't think Roy will have trouble finding an opponent. I do think he'll have a lot of trouble finding a name opponent that is going to agree to his pay demands.

He's not box office, he's not a top fighter, and he's just plain over the hill. I'd rather Roy leave a fight too soon than a fight too late, and every time he goes out there now he's risking the latter. Still, best of luck to him.