Boxing: Ageing Jones Left to Fight for His Credibility

A year ago, Roy Jones was rated the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and arguably one of the outstanding boxers of recent decades.

Some suggested he had earned the right to be mentioned in the same bracket as Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler and, perhaps, even the great Sugar Ray Robinson.

But two match-ups with the southpaw Antonio Tarver - the first of which Jones won last November by a contentious points decision, before Tarver prevailed in the return in May with a shattering second-round knockout to take Jones's championship belts - have left Jones fighting for his credibility in Memphis tonight when he challenges Glen Johnson for the International Boxing Federation version of the world light-heavyweight title.

Jones's brilliance was always built around reflexes which helped him score wonderful victories a decade ago over James Toney and Bernard Hopkins.

His only other defeat in 51 fights was a disqualification against Montell Griffin, subsequently brutally avenged, and his dominance was such that Jones seemed untouchable - even when he audaciously stepped up to heavyweight to outclass the then World Boxing Association champion, John Ruiz, in March 2003.

But there was evidence in the first Tarver fight that Jones was slowing up, and who knows how much might have been taken out of him by the knockout loss in his last contest?

At 35, Jones may be in a rapid and irreversible decline. Johnson, also 35, is a game if predictable journeyman who will be earning the biggest pay cheque of his career against Jones, of around $1m (£550,000), and earned his chance by defeating Sheffield's Clinton Woods in February.

Woods was outclassed by Jones in a world title fight two years ago, when he was stopped in six rounds, while he twice went the distance against Johnson.

But the Sheffielder said: "Johnson has a decent chance. Jones's last fight could mean he's on the downward spiral. Johnson's got good workrate, he keeps coming at you, and this may give Jones problems. Johnson definitely hits harder with head shots."

The Jamaican-born Johnson has been on a wrong end of several judging decisions and has been one of the sport's unfashionable figures. But he is a likeable and honest professional who will have huge motivation to succeed.

The Jones of old would have been expected to outbox Johnson and carve out a big points win, but Tarver showed Jones is, at best, on the slide and, at worst, possibly a "shot" fighter. If so, the unsung Johnson could give the old superstar all the problems he can handle.

Howard Eastman's European middleweight title defence against the Spaniard Jorge Sendra, scheduled for Nottingham Arena, had to be called off last night because Sendra (whose ring nickname is "Savage") was unable to provide the MRI brain scan which the British Boxing Board of Control insists is presented by all those fighters due to box in this country.