BOXING great Roy Jones Jr is convinced that Jamaican boxer Nicholas ‘Axeman’ Walters was badly affected by a long layoff ahead of the bout against Vasyl Lomachenko in Las Vegas last Saturday night, but believes the fighter has lost credibility by claiming that he would not have been affected by ring rust.

The bout hardly failed to materialise as a contest with Walters routinely outclassed by the Ukrainian, in the end refusing to answer the bell for the eighth round.
Ahead of the bout the Jamaican had not stepped into a ring since December of last year when he battled to a draw with American Jason Sosa.
The Jamaican had, however, insisted that the layoff would have had no impact on him ahead of the fight.

“He does lose a lot of credibility by quitting, but people are not listening to what he’s saying, and boxing is such a bad sport in this matter, because certain people can get in certain situations if they are with certain people,” Jones told BoxingScene.com.
“This boy ain’t fought in 342 days and you put him in the biggest fight of his life. And he’s crazy because at first he said it won’t bother him, but you can’t say that it won’t bother you but then use it as an excuse when it does happen. But I thought that was a problem,” he added.

“He didn’t look rusty, but he just couldn’t land his punches at all because he hasn’t been in there with a guy who’s as high tech as Lomachenko. Not all the blame is on him, but when he said that wasn’t going to be a problem – then you took that excuse out the book. That’s the only thing I don’t like.”

(Sportsmax.com)