Roy Jones Jr. Rejoins HBO's 'Boxing After Dark,' Replacing Lennox Lewis

HBO has announced that former light-heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. will rejoin the network to provide expert analysis for their Boxing After Dark series.

Jones, 42, fills the chair left empty when former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis was fired by the network last year. 

“We were not searching for a permanent analyst on the Boxing After Dark series, but Roy simply blew us away with his performance as a guest analyst last year, and we decided it’s time to bring him back," said Rick Bernstein, senior vice president and executive producer for HBO Sports in a prepared statement.

Jones worked at the network as a boxing analyst from 1996 to 2005, when he was let go because of his lack of attention to some of the off-the-air duties that go with the job. 

Lewis took over the spot in 2006, and though a genial enough presence, he never made a lot of progression in the job, often responding with one-word answers like "absolutely" and "definitely" when he was supposed to be illuminating the action for viewers.

Contrary to what HBO says publicly (and to what they apparently told Lewis when he was let go), others, including boxing super-trainer Freddie Roach, had auditioned for the job vacancy in the wake of Lewis' firing, but in the end, the network went with the voice of experience in Jones.

Roy Jones Jr. will make his official return to HBO on Feb. 19, joining vets Bob Papas and Max Kellerman for the season premiere of Boxing After Dark featuring the bantamweight bout between Fernando Montiel and Nonito Donaire.