Roy Jones Jr. beat Omar Sheika in an interesting but uneventful fight last night. The referee prematurely stopped the fight after Sheika suffered a cut on his face. Jones was winning easily but Sheika was no where near done despite taking a lot of punishment. It was a good performance by Jones but clearly showed how much his speed had diminished. Sheika was very slow and constantly moved forward - the ideal opponent for Jones (especially a slower Jones). Jones took advantage and did what he needed to do. Roy will probably have trouble with a more formidable opponent and it's unclear how he intends to continue with boxing. Maybe just as a promoter (although the verdict is still out as to how well March Badness did) or as a boxer. If he continues as a boxer he'll have to be very selective around his opponents so that he can build his promotional brand for his future career beyond boxing. Any loss at this point would make it difficult for Jones to sell tickets with his name alone.
On another card last night, heavyweight Vitali Klitschko made relatively easy work of solid Juan Carlos Gomez. Vitali once again showed that the Klitschkos are clearly the class of the heavyweight division. They deserve the proper dues for that - no matter how weak we perceive the division to be. It would be great to see a true challenger to the brothers' reign at the top. We just don't have such a situation at the moment and the Klitschkos won't face each other so they have to fight the best available opponents. Roughly speaking, they have done just that. Lets hope that the division gets more competitive before the Klitschkos are done as it would be great for boxing to have a strong heavyweight division. In the meantime, at least we can all embrace the phenomenal talent in the lower weight classes.
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