Enzo Maccarinelli and Roy Jones Jr to meet, but not for world title

Enzo Maccarinelli lost his world title against David Haye in 2008

A fight between Enzo Maccarinelli and Roy Jones Jr will go ahead in Moscow despite no title being at stake.

Originally billed as being for the WBA cruiserweight belt, the governing body's vice president Gilberto Mendoza said it is not a title bout.

That had cast doubt over the meeting, but it will will go ahead on 12 December with Maccarinelli's manager Gary Lockett confident

"He and I are very confident about this fight," said Lockett.

"Even though he is 35, I think technically he is better than he was four or five years ago."

Welshman Maccarinelli, 35, a former WBO cruiserweight champion and Jones, a four-weight former world champion, will fight over 12 rounds.

Welsh boxers Zack Davies and Alex Hughes are also included on the bill at the VTB Ice Palace.

Neither Welshman Maccarinelli or Jones was included in the WBA's latest cruiserweight rankings released earlier this month.

Jones the Russian citizen

Jones's last defeat was by Russian Denis Lebedev in 2011, while Maccarinelli has competed at light-heavyweight in recent years.

American Jones is one of the greatest fighters of the modern era and in 2003 became the first former middleweight to win a heavyweight world title for 106 years.

However, he has not held a world title since 2004, when he lost his light-heavyweight title to compatriot Antonio Tarver.

Maccarinelli, meanwhile, has not been a world champion since losing his WBO cruiserweight title to David Haye in 2008.

Jones, who is originally from Florida, officially became a Russian citizen after he was presented with his Russian passport in Moscow in October, 2015.

Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a decree to grant citizenship to Jones in September after meeting the boxer in Crimea in August.