Roy Jones Jr. talks Jeff Lacy, the Klitschkos, Bernard Hopkins and more

T.K. Stewart of BoxingScene.com spoke with Roy Jones Jr. about his August 15 fight with Jeff Lacy, how that came about, and his plans for the future, of which there appears to be no shortage.

The 40-year old Jones (53-5, 39 KO) came off of the second-worst beating of his career in November 2008 against Joe Calzaghe to return to the ring in March with a ho-hum, easy victory over washed-out veteran Omar Sheika, who himself hadn't fought in over a year. But the show was memorable in its own way: March Badness generated a lot of interest from curious MMA fans (it remains the most active round-by-round thread we've ever had at Bad Left Hook, with Hatton-Pacquiao at No. 2) and it got people talking about Roy again.

Lacy is a step up, and I think Roy knows that. But Lacy himself is faded, probably always was a little overrated, and Roy says he didn't go looking for that fight, it came to him:

"I never chased him at all. He invited me to Tampa to his fight with Otis Griffin, and I sat there and watched it and then after that, before you know it, we in a fight. I never picked Jeff Lacy, he picked me. He grabbed the microphone after the fight was over and told everyone in the crowd he wanted to fight me. So there it is."

Jones also expresses distaste for Lacy calling himself the game's best "hooker" (that's fun to type), when Jones himself is the greatest "hooker" in the history of the sport. Lacy doesn't really say much about his left hook anymore, so this is just a weak attempt to create some intrigue, because since his injuries Lacy can barely even throw the left hook at this point.

Roy also says he'd like to fight both Bernard Hopkins (whom he beat nearly 17 years ago) and Glen Johnson (who gave him the worst beating of his career in 2004) again, but that the last time he talked to Bernard about their long-awaited, now sort of groaningly avoided rematch, he offered a split of 60 to the winner, 40 to the loser, and they didn't go past that.

His worst idea is the one where he considers fighting one of the Klitschkos. I don't think either of them are vicious enough to get some horrible situation where they're beating him into oblivion, but Roy would get demolished by either of them. Roy in his prime against a fighter like one of them instead of John Ruiz would've been very interesting, though. All I'm saying is Roy's a 40-year old light heavyweight whose best assets are dried out.

I also want to say something else about Roy. I know most of the time we talk Jones here at BLH, it's either reminiscing about his great years or bemoaning his current days as an active fighter, and I still think these Sheika and Lacy fights are time-wasters, easy fights by design meant to kickstart him back into a money fight where he can't hang, building up that "Roy is BACK!" talk like it's ever going to be 1999 again and he's going to start dropping dudes on punches coming from behind his back.

But I don't mind when he "calls out" guys like this, or talks about fighting the Klitschkos or Johnson or Hopkins, and it's because I think if the offers came, he would fight each and every one of them. He fought Calzaghe and had to be aware he was a massive underdog and that it would've taken one of his greatest performances ever to score the upset. He did it for money, sure, but he also did it to try to compete on the highest level. And I think he's genuine about that. I don't personally feel he has much of a shot at getting back to the top of the mountain, but I still maintain my respect for Roy Jones as a fighter. I just don't think he's particularly good anymore, because he's old. It happens to everyone.