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WBA cruiserweight champion Guillermo Jones makes his long awaited return to the squared circle when he meets challenger Valery Brudov tonight at Panama City’s Arena Roberto Duran.
Now 38 years of age, Jones turned pro in 1993 as a skyscraping 6’4 tall welterweight and by 1998 fought to a draw with WBA light middle kingpin Laurent Boudouani.
In 2002, Jones had filled out all the way up to the cruiserweight class and fought for another world title but had no better luck at 190 pounds as he drew with WBO champ Johnny Nelson.
Jones suffered a setback during his comeback when he lost an important split decision in 2005 to future IBF champ Steve Cunningham and for a long time it looked like the Panamanian would never realize his dream of winning a world title.
It wasn’t until September, 2008 that Jones got another opportunity on the world stage, traveling to Germany to challenge reigning WBA supremo Firat Arslan.
Jones was brilliant that night, taking it out of the judges’ hands with a tenth round stoppage to capture the WBA crown but hasn’t been in the ring since.
Now, slightly more than two years later, Jones, 36-3-2 (28), puts his belt at risk for the first time, facing Russian challenger Valery Bruov, 38-2 (27).
33 year old Brudov has been here before, losing a WBA title challenge to another aging champion, Virgil Hill, on points in 2006, before winning the Interim version later that year by stopping Luis Andres Pineda.
But that title reign never got off the ground as Brudov was beaten via split decision by Arslan in 2007 and hasn’t had a bout over eight rounds since.
Like Jones, Brudov has also been out of action for a long time, 15 months, and when combat commences tonight in Panama City, it could take a while for things to start clicking for both fighters.
If Jones still has his reflexes, he should be able to outpoint Brudov but two years is a very long time and the younger man could pull off the upset.
