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Roy Jones Jr to fight Bobby Gunn in December

Roy Jones Jr will get back in the ring in December, facing Bobby Gunn in what he's calling a tune-up for a potential fight with Anderson Silva (yes, this again).

Ethan Miller
Scott Christ is the managing editor of Bad Left Hook and has been covering boxing for SB Nation since 2006.

Roy Jones Jr has decided to fight this year, as he'll face journeyman cruiserweight Bobby Gunn in December in a 12-round bout somewhere in Pennsylvania. An exact date and location have not been announced. For those wondering if it will be on television, no, it won't be on television, unless some really low-end network picks it up because Jones can fool them into thinking it's worth anyone's money.

Jones, who will turn 45 in January, hasn't fought since a split decision win over Pawel Glazewski in June 2012. The last time Jones (56-8, 40 KO) fought in the States, he drew very few fans to a tiny Atlanta venue for an internet pay-per-view broadcast.

From what I understand, Jones fights on because he wants to and because he thinks people want to see it, but the latter is just not true, at least in the States, and at least on anything approaching a relevant scale. Internationally, Jones can still be a bit of a draw, in the same way that Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair bleeding all over Australia a few years ago was a draw, because they're icons of their industry and they didn't work much in Australia when they were in their primes. Basically, it was a chance to see legends, which is I think what the appeal of Jones is when he fights in Australia or Russia or Poland or whatever.

Roy doesn't really show any signs of troubling physical or mental distress, so I don't really have any big issue with him fight. He's sharp enough to be on HBO broadcasts calling fights, and he has no problems doing that job. He stays in shape all the time. And really, he can beat guys like Bobby Gunn still, so whatever.

Jones says that he hopes after this, he can finally fight Anderson Silva. Those two have been babbling about a fight for years now, but it has never come to fruition. For Jones, it's probably the most notable thing he can do in the fight game from this point on. For Silva, it's an idea that just comes from desire to do it. Whatever, man. Have the fight. Don't have the fight. I don't care.

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