By Radio Rahim

From the moment the fight was signed, former four division world champion Roy Jones Jr. felt it was a huge mistake for Nicholas Walters to challenge someone like Vasyl Lomachenko after coming off a near one-year layoff.

Walters was dominated and refused to fight any further after seven rounds of action, which left the entire crowd stunned and angry at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.  Walters suffered the first defeat of his career and fell to 26-1 with 21KOs.

Jones was ringside, working as an expert analyst for the live HBO broadcast.

After the fight was over, Walters claimed that he was seriously affected by the long layoff and needed at least two tuneup fights to face someone like Lomachenko.

Jones agrees with Walters. He felt the long layoff would certainly affect him in the fight, but he also points out that Walters shot himself in the foot - by stating in numerous pre-fight interviews that he wouldn't be affected by the layoff.

"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 [in the ring]," Jones told BoxingScene.com.

"This boy ain't fought in 342 days and you put him 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 [when the fight was made]."

"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 [his year layoff] wasn't going to be a problem - then you took that excuse out the book. That's the only thing that I don't like."