Roy Jones Jr believes a world champion ‘quit’ during a recent title defence which saw him lose his gold.
Jones had 25 world title fights during his illustrious career, so knows what it takes to dig down deep and keep pushing during those tough moments.
That was evident on Saturday when Xander Zayas defended his WBO and WBA super-welterweight titles against Jaron Ennis, getting up from multiple knockdowns before eventually being stopped in the seventh round.
While many fans have praised the bravery of Zayas, Jones has told All The Smoke Fight that he thinks the Puerto Rican ‘waved the flag’ at the conclusion of the bout.
“I thought he fought a great fight for up to, I say [round] five. Had they stopped it in round five, you saved him from having to do what he had to do in round seven.
“Come round seven, his body was so banged up, his will got broken. When your will get broken, you give [up]… Like I said, had they stopped in the fifth round as they should have, we wouldn’t have to see him go through that. But they didn’t.
“He didn’t quit because he looked at the corner, he quit because them body shots were on him and he couldn’t get away from them. That’s why he quit. He waved the flag. He did the right thing to wave the flag because his corner didn’t care enough to get him out of there, so he had to wave the flag. He waved the flag. I’m sorry. He waved the flag.”
Jones went on further to explain that he doesn’t blame Zayas for making that decision, insisting that the corner should have done more to protect their fighter.
“I don’t blame him because it ain’t worth dying about once you see you can’t beat this dude. He saw he couldn’t beat the dude so it’s not worth me giving my life for it.
“He ain’t even on that dude level so it’s not worth him getting messed up over so he waved the flag which was a smart thing. Now he get to come back and fight another day.
“You got to save your fighter yourself from him having to wave the flag. He shouldn’t have had to throw the flag in. But because y’all didn’t save him, y’all forced him to have to throw the flag in. And he threw the flag in, I don’t care what nobody tells me.”
Zayas could now be set for a move up to middleweight following the defeat, while Ennis is expected to try and secure the other world titles at 154lbs in a bid to become undisputed, something that Jones himself managed at light heavyweight from 1999 to 2002.
