Roy Jones Jr., one of the greatest boxers in American history, was knocked out in ugly fashion Saturday by Denis Lebedev in Moscow, and it's clearly time for Jones to retire. Now.
In a perfect world, Jones would be able to say for himself when he's ready to retire, but this is not a perfect world: This is boxing, where fighters get chewed up and spit out and usually don't know when to call it quits. No state athletic commission should license Jones to fight in the United States, and no promoter should promote Jones fighting overseas. He just can't do it anymore.
Jones has now lost three fights in a row and is way, way, way past his prime: His record since 2003 is a woeful 5-7.
Here's the video, but heed the warning of Scott Christ at Bad Left Hook and beware that if you've loved Jones for his many years in the ring, you might not want to watch. At the end, Lebedev actually tried to show mercy to Jones and didn't want to throw the last punch, but the referee was too slow to stop the fight, and eventually Lebedev hit Jones one more time, long after Jones didn't have his faculties anymore: