(Sports Network) - Roy Jones Jr. is fighting next week in Biloxi.

And assuming all goes as planned logistically, I'll be ringside to see it.

What I can't seem to decide, though, is how I feel about it.

Logistically, it's a pleasant enough ride from my home base in lovely Marion County.

Straight up I-75, a quick left onto I-10 and a tranquil trip across the Florida panhandle that ends with picturesque snippets of both Alabama and Mississippi - from soup to nuts, just less than 500 miles.

Not exactly the French Riviera, but it beats Niagara Falls in mid-winter.

And work-wise, Roy's never been less than easy to deal with in our past encounters - whether two years back in Biloxi, two straight winters in New York or last spring in Tampa.

Legitimately among my favorite fighters.

Certainly among my favorite interviews.

But even as I'm making the ride, I'll be wondering exactly what I'm going there to see.

Because I've been fooled by this Jones character before.

A few years back, while working for another media outlet, I told anyone who'd listen that Jones would wake up the echoes of an elite-level past and pummel lightning-in-a-bottle pretender Antonio Tarver in their third fight in October 2005.

Forget the second-round KO from their second go-round, I said.

Not only were Tarver's eyes closed when he threw the history-changing left hand, but Jones was using that surprising loss as fuel for a white-hot "kill or die" fire heading into Tampa for the final installment of the trilogy.

I couldn't have been more sure.

But I couldn't have been more wrong.

Maddeningly, Jones was anything but a smooth-talking, confident assassin once the bell rang at the St. Pete Times Forum, instead choosing to shuck, jive and avoid serious combat while dropping an eminently winnable decision over 12 scream-at-the-television rounds.

And in the few years since, the highlights have come in dribs and drabs.

Jones took to the high roads to reinvent himself post-Tarver, heading to Idaho and Biloxi for anonymous wins in 2007 before landing a returning big fish in Felix Trinidad for a pay-per-view Madison Square Garden date in January 2008.

An impressive win yielded another PPV bow 10 months later back in midtown Manhattan, this time against unbeaten super middleweight/light heavyweight kingpin Joe Calzaghe, who was aiming for a defining win in his career swansong.

I was lured in again, thinking Jones was too big and still too strong.

Instead, the exiting Welshman got the 'W' over 12 punishing rounds, rising from the canvas to hand a soon-to-be 40-year-old Jones the worst, and many presumed last, beating of a 20-year career.

Yet he presses on with an unclear end.

Jones was back just four months later with a shopworn Omar Sheika, looking predictably impressive while claiming a corner reunion with father Roy Sr. - not the ease of a hand-picked foe - was responsible for his turn-back-the- clock performance.

And now it's Jeff Lacy.

About four years after it would have made sense.

But in his fellow Floridian, fellow former super middleweight champion and fellow former Calzaghe victim, Jones still gets a beatable opponent with just enough lingering name recognition to keep Jones within reason of a final big- money score.

Lacy hasn't looked good since his own Calzaghe undressing in 2006, and reports indicate the winner of Jones-Lacy will get a shot at the IBO cruiserweight title, whose vacancy will be filled by Danny Green or Julio Cesar Dominguez on the Gulf Coast Arena undercard.

Assuming it's Jones, a championship at 200 pounds would fill the only statistical vacancy on his resume, which yielded title belts at middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight before a leap all the way to heavyweight to beat John Ruiz.

The IBO trinket could be magnetic as well, perhaps drawing interest from consensus divisional top dog Tomasz Adamek, who holds the IBF crown and is unbeaten in seven fights since losing his piece of the 175-pound pie to Chad Dawson in 2007.

As silly as it sounds, it's not an impossible sequence to imagine.

Though Adamek is undeniably durable and brave, he's also slow and hittable, precisely the sort of counterpart that can still make Jones - who's still faster than most - look good on a big stage.

And it wouldn't be terribly surprising to imagine a revved-up Jones making one last stand, cashing one last check and tossing one last jewel-laden title belt over his shoulder before happily riding off into the Florida sunset.

No offense to Adamek, but I'd say he's the perfect patsy for a legendary curtain call.

Or it might just be the gullible talking.

* * * * * * * * * *

Nate Campbell's got issues.

The injuries he sustained in round three against Timothy Bradley last Saturday night were surely the result of a butt - not a punch.

And under normal circumstances, a referee would have stopped the bout, correctly determined the cause of the cut and declared the bout a no-contest because it hadn't gone four rounds.

However, one major factor may be playing against the "Galaxxy Warrior" here.

Regardless of David Mendoza's mistaken assertion that blood on Campbell's left eye came from a punch, chances are that his error would have eventually been corrected by officials that night or via subsequent protest by Campbell's team with the state commission.

Problem is, Mendoza didn't stop the fight.

Campbell did.

Had Mendoza halted matters, Nate would have had ample video evidence showing the clash of heads. A rematch, then, would have made perfect sense.

But by retiring in the corner and taking the fight's conclusion out of Mendoza's hands, Campbell may have blocked off his own avenue toward getting justice - and another big-money title try with Bradley or anyone else - after the fact.

His own version of an inadvertent whistle, if you will.

* * * * * * * * * *

This week's title-fight schedule:

No title fights scheduled.

Last week's picks: 1-2

Overall picks record: 114-44 (72.1 percent)

Lyle Fitzsimmons is an award-winning 20-year sports journalist, a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and a frequent contributor to Stone Cold Sports on the MVN Network (stonecoldsports.com) and several sports radio talk shows throughout the U.S. E-mail him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him at twitter.com/fitzbitz.



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