Former pound for pound king and multi titled world champion Roy Jones Jr has suffered a brutal last second knockout in a ten round battle with WBO No.1 ranked cruiserweight Denis Lebedev of Russia in Moscow.
Jones proved the pundits wrong just like ageing Mexican legend Erik ?El Terrible? Morales in his title fight against Marcos Maidana when he battled Lebedv in the early going but the bigger Russian proved too strong and often nailed Jones with big shots as he trapped him against the ropes.
In the final seconds of the fight the southpaw Lebedev mauled Jones who appeared out on his feet forcing referee Steve Smoger to call a halt at 2:50 of the tenth round while another report said the time was 2:59 of the tenth round.
With a few seconds remaining in the bout Lebedev caught Jones vicious lefts as Jones lay on the ropes. Jones bowed,shook his head and then caught one last cracking hook from the Russian who had been the aggressor most of the fight.
Jones collapsed face down on the canvas but said later ? I don?t give up easy. I still might come back.?
The Russian?s trainer, former world champion Kostya Tzsyu stated that it was a great fight and Lebedev is going after Australia?s Danny Green next.
Green scored a 1st round TKO over Jones on December 2, 2009 in an IBO title fight which was among Jones? two previous losses. He also dropped a twelve round unanimous decision to 46 year old Bernard Hopkins on April 3, 2010.
With the win Lebedev took his record to 22-1 with 17 knockouts while the 42 year old Jones dropped to 54-8 with 40 knockouts.
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