A Boxing Memory: Roy Jones Jr

A Boxing Memory: Roy Jones Jr

In March 2003, Roy Jones Jr was 34 and at the peak of his powers and in consideration to not only be the best fighter of his generation but just maybe, one of the greatest fighters of any generation. Jones had just made history by winning the WBA heavyweight championship of the world by comprehensively beating John Ruiz by way of a lopsided points decision and in doing so becoming a four-weight world champion. But his career would very quickly hit that irreversible slide. Boxing is a sport that makes young fighters old men in a blink of an eye, and Jones was another fighter who learned every story has a beginning and an end and that his time as the best fighter on the planet was over. By the year-end, the apparent decline had already started to set in, even if most of us were in denial about it. Excuses were made, in time, even Jones ran out of them and accepted his fate.

Just eight months after the famous win over Ruiz, Jones struggled desperately to boil his body back down to light-heavyweight and barely held onto his WBC world light-heavyweight title against Antonio Tarver, winning a fight on points, that many thought he had lost. And in 2004, in a rematch with Tarver, he was sensationally knocked out in two rounds. And when he returned the IBF champion Glen Johnson knocked Jones out cold in nine terribly one-sided rounds, and his spectacular fall from grace was confirmed. And when Jones gave the sport another try in 2005 in a third fight with Tarver, Jones a fighter who seemingly won with consummate ease, victory now was not getting knocked out. In different ways, the third fight with Tarver was just as sad as the second one.

History tells us Jones should have retired from the sport the night he bamboozled Ruiz to claim that fourth world title. The fights he took after, which included eight defeats, shouldn’t harm his legacy too much, although a failed drugs test in 2000 almost certainly does at least partially, but those fights where those fabulous once unmatched skills seem to inexplicably leave his body without warning do in many ways dampen what came before. The sight of Jones being flatlined by Tarver and Johnson but as the comeback to nowhere extended further, similar endings against lesser opposition than Tarver and Johnson are not easily removed from the memory bank despite the obvious signs of a fighter fading before our very eyes.

At his peak, he was good enough to beat the likes of Bernard Hopkins and James Toney, but the decline didn’t paint anywhere near the same picture. It didn’t end until 2018 as he approached his 50th year when he outpointed one Scott Sigmon in Florida in a desperate pointless affair, even then we had to endure a dangerous exhibition with Mike Tyson in 2020. Even Covid couldn’t save us from that.

In 1988, the Seoul Olympics was tarnished by corruption, and Jones was almost certainly a victim of it. Robbed of a gold medal in a fight that was one of the most blatant robberies the sport has ever seen. Jones won virtually every second of his Olympic final against the South Korean Park Si-Hun, and even the undeserving winner knew what it was. Shaken and stirred by the controversy that followed Si-Hun never fought again. Jones was only 19, a mere boy in a dirty sport, it could have ruined him.

Jones turned pro and glided effortlessly to 34 straight wins and world titles at three different weights before a disqualification against Montell Griffin that put the first blemish on his resume. Five months later it was brutally avenged, Griffin didn’t see out the first round and normal service was resumed.

But despite the razzle and dazzle, many of his fights and opponents didn’t inspire or offer anything remotely offering danger. In many ways, Jones needed the fight with Ruiz. The likes of Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns had each other. Jones wasn’t so fortunate. We never quite saw just how good Roy Jones was.

After Ruiz, and the three straight defeats that followed his close call with Tarver in their first meeting, Jones got some wins to keep the show on the road. Felix Trinidad was one of those wins, but Trinidad was also chasing what had long since gone. But scattered amongst the insignificant victories were the more telling defeats which continued to mount up. Joe Calzaghe retired on a win over Jones and even Bernard Hopkins got revenge of sorts. In 2015, Enzo Maccarinelli knocked him out in 4 rounds in Russia, and even Maccarinelli couldn’t really celebrate his win. It meant very little.

Jones kept fighting after the defeat to Maccarinelli and managed four wins of little or no meaning and finally called time after seventy-five fights with the win over Sigmon in 2018. Or so we thought. There have been further fights in various guises. They are best forgotten.

You should never judge a fighter in decline, only critique his prime. But by carrying on regardless, the memories of his peak faded with every painful and unnecessary ring walk that followed. That failed drugs test in 2000 arising from his world light-heavyweight title defence against Richard Hall will cast some suspicion and doubt on his achievements. How much, will be left to individuals to decide, it shouldn’t be washed away with ease. A difficult conversation shouldn’t be had because it’s convenient not to.

Jones, the former undisputed world light-heavyweight champion, might be the greatest-ever fighter at that weight in the history of the sport and he would have beaten many great middleweights also. Jones was a phenomenal fighter who was more than unlucky in not having a true equal dance partner to test his skills and elevate his status beyond any doubt. There were admittedly some fights that got away, but at his peak, he was virtually untouchable. Literally. It’s just a shame we had to watch a once-great fighter continue to push when there was nothing left to give, at least in comparison to what came before.