Roy Jones Jr is no stranger to bouncing between weight classes, having won world titles from super middleweight up to heavyweight during a remarkable hall of fame career.
However, he has explained why that same desire to conquer pastures new has been to the detriment of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
Alvarez had already won a world title at light heavyweight against Sergey Kovalev back in 2019, before moving back up to the weight and coming unstuck against Dmitriy Bivol last May.
According to Jones, this move was unnecessary and stemmed from a desire to swerve super middleweight contender David Benavidez, but backfired by ‘jumping into a worse fire’ with Bivol.
Quotes taken from Jones’ recent appearance on ThePorterWay podcast.
“Canelo’s mistake was he already did that against Kovalev, he didn’t need to go and fight Bivol.
What happened was, he ran away from one fire and jumped straight into a worse fire. Because he avoided Benavidez, and went against someone he shouldn’t have been in the ring with.”
Many expected Alvarez to return to light heavyweight next for a rematch with Bivol, however, judging by recent quotes from the Russian, this now looks to be unlikely.
Bivol was clear in his desire for a second meeting to take place at 168lbs for Alvarez’ WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF belts, though this was thought to be completely off the cards for the other side, who wanted the same terms as first time around.
The frontrunners to land a big money fight against the Guadalajara native look to now be middleweight champion Jermall Charlo and cruiserweight belt holder Badou Jack.
If Jack gets the nod, Canelo would get the opportunity to win a world title at a remarkable fifth weight class.