OTHER WORLDLY

From the moment he rose up on to a podium high up at the back of the arena in an entrance reminiscent of a stage production’s demon king, one thing was certain. Roy Jones Jr had come to put on a show. And Jones did just that as he outclassed and hammered Britain’s brave Clinton Woods before the merciful sixth-round stoppage at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Oregon on 7 September.

This was Jones at his absolute best as performer and fighter. It was as if the light-heavyweight champ had decided to make one of his statements. Which meant, in essence, no mercy. And Woods, the 30-year-old from Sheffield, had the misfortune to be on the receiving end.

As Jones descended the steps to ring level, flanked by female dancers and shouting rap lyrics into one of those hands-free microphone attachments, he cut almost a demigod figure.

The words from his Round One CD were to prove, for Woods, chillingly appropriate: “Mr. Untouchable, Mr. Unstoppable, Mr. Unbeatable, Mr. Invincible.” Jones was all of these.

All right, Jones was meeting Clinton Woods, who although the World Boxing Council’s mandatory challenger did not stand a ghost of a chance. Anyone who knows anything about boxing knew that.

But what Jones showed was a level of artistry and imagination that was breathtaking.

Woods is a decent, earnest fighter with a good chin who would have been competitive with most of Jones’s previous 11 challengers (in two reigns as champion) and might have beaten a few of them — he certainly would have defeated the hapless Richard Frazier, and almost certainly the stage-struck Aussie Glenn Kelly.

So it was no surprise that Woods was overwhelmed by Jones’s superior, well, superior everything. 

But what made this performance special was that Jones revealed in a consistent way his full arsenal of punches — something he doesn’t always do. He even threw in a couple of moves you won’t find in any boxing textbook. All in all, Jones looked so good that even though he was dominant he turned what was always going to be a one-sided fight into an entertaining spectacle. 

Woods had come to fight; indeed he had come to win. And for two rounds he was at least in the fight. But then Jones took over completely.

Even allowing for the fact that this was little more than a glorified exhibition, one could look at Jones and imagine him giving history’s great light-heavyweight champs all sorts of problems.

He showed us what he can do when he really wants to do it. 

But the problem with Jones is that his acumen as a businessman gets in the way of his being involved in truly competitive fights.

This is where the traditionalists among us despair of Jones.

In the past, the top fighters wanted to meet their rivals to see who was superior. 

There was a genuine sense of wanting to prove they were the best.

Jones does not think this way.

In his own mind, he is the world’s greatest fighter and has nothing to prove.

His contract with the Home Box Office television colossus allows him to meet mandatory challengers such as Clinton Woods for almost as much money as he would get for meeting a Dariusz Michalczewski or a Vassiliy Jirov. 

In essence, Jones is saying he would be a fool to go to Germany to meet Michalczewski or to face the 15lbs heavier Jirov when, for not that much less remuneration, he can have fun against the likes of Glenn Kelly and Clinton Woods.

But by taking this attitude, Jones gives the impression that he is ducking the real challenges.

From the purely financial and business side of things, no one can fault Jones. 

Those of us who remember the champions who fought everyone and took on great challenges, would like to see Jones do the same. But then, those fighters did not have the HBO contract that Jones negotiated for himself.

And so, Jones declines to take risks. And boxing fans get more of the same: The No. 1 challengers are lined up, and Jones eliminates them. So it goes, and so it went with Clinton Woods.

At least Woods had a go. He was never off his feet. He did as well as anyone could reasonably have expected. But Jones was on another level. 

For two rounds, we actually had a fight. Woods was landing some punches as he forced Jones to the ropes. There was even a slight swelling over Jones’s right eye. But every time Jones landed a right hand or a left hook the difference in power was brutally obvious. 

Woods raised his right glove to his tiny but vocal group of British supporters as he headed back to his corner at the end of round two, but I had the uneasy thought that, while the challenger was giving it all he had, Jones had not yet begun to fight in earnest.

Still, Woods wasn’t done yet. The crowd of 16,229 roared as Jones was forced to fight with his back to the ropes in the third. But even though Woods was throwing both hands, Jones was doing the real damage with his left uppercuts and hooks, causing the taller British boxer to back off. 

And from this point on, Jones seemed to ratchet up his performance to a new level. His big hooks and right hands had Woods looking disorientated, and just before the bell to end the third a left hook to the body almost doubled the challenger over. Woods was unable to disguise his distress. Saved by the bell, he couldn’t straighten up as he walked back to his corner. It was now apparent to me, from my ringside position, that this was just going to be a matter of time.

But, to his credit, Woods hung in there for almost another three rounds.

In the fourth Jones showed us a move inspired by the fighting cocks he raises in Pensacola, Florida, as he closed in with exaggerated steps and moved his head back and forth in the rooster manner.

Woods, now cut between the eyes, took such a lot of clean punches in the fourth that all three judges made this a 10-8 round in Jones’s favour even though the challenger had not gone down.

At the end of the round Woods tapped the champ on his washboard midsection in a forlorn, sad acknowledgement of: “You’re the man.”

In the fifth a left hook from Woods merely brought a smile from Jones. Then Jones’s dipped into his bag of tricks again as he lifted his right leg, tapped his foot with his right glove and then launched a huge uppercut with the same hand, all in the blink of an eye. The punch missed but the manner of the attempt was noisily appreciated by the throng. Woods mimicked the champ by tapping his own foot, but defiance was just about all he had left.

Jones went straight after his man in the sixth, and the big shots from each hand had Woods going back on unsteady legs, his nose streaming blood. The challenger’s manager, Dennis Hobson, had seen enough and got up on the ring apron waving a white towel to signify surrender to Las Vegas ref Jay Nady, who waved the finish after 89 seconds of the round.

Afterwards, Jones said he hadn’t underestimated Woods and had worked hard for 10 weeks to get ready for the fight. As the champion, he said, it’s his job to meet the No. 1 contenders for his three major titles (WBC, World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation), while not ruling out a bout with WBA heavyweight champ John Ruiz.

So Jones’s next opponent will be either the IBF’s No. 1 light-heavyweight challenger, Antonio Tarver, who was at ringside, or Ruiz, with the situation unclear at time of writing. 

Tarver, a hard-punching southpaw fresh from his blast-out of Eric Harding, has to be considered a serious test, even though Jones would be a big favorite.

“Whoever comes my way, I’m always ready for them,” Jones said. Then, in what seemed a sly dig at middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins, he added: “People who tell you: ‘Roy Jones won’t fight this, Roy Jones won’t fight that,’ don’t believe the hype.”

Woods said it was an honor to have been in the ring with Jones. “He’s a great fighter; he gave me a tremendous beating in the last couple of rounds,” he said. “But I’m still smiling.”

Jones was smiling, too. At 33, he looks as good now as he has ever done. He is clearly in a class of his own at light-heavyweight — although, that said, he might not have things all his own way with Antonio Tarver — and he obviously still enjoys his boxing. 

And let’s face it, after another easy night’s work, why wouldn’t he? 

* Additional coverage appears in the current issue

But the switch from Britain to the States could work in Woods’s favour. Woods’s preparation and mindset could have been disrupted by the pressure and expectation of fighting at home, particularly in Sheffield. But the change should enable Woods to shut himself away and get ready for Jones without unwarranted intrusion.

The bout will be screened live by Home Box Office, the U.S. subscription TV giant that has Jones under contract, with coverage in Britain still unclear at time of writing.

The purse bids were originally won by Hobson, with the fight due to go ahead in Britain on 13 July. But complications involving Woods’s former promoter Panos Eliades led to the promotional rights being signed over to the Jones faction, with a new date and venue arranged.

Hobson says part of the deal was that Woods kept his original purse share, which amounts to the biggest payday of his career by far. But Jones, he believes, never wanted to come to Britain anyway. It is true Jones has shown a similar disinclination to meet Dariusz Michalczewski, the World Boxing Organisation champ in the 12st 7lbs (175lbs) division, in Germany. But Hobson says it makes no difference to Woods.

“There’s one of two [observers] who give Clinton a chance,” Hobson revealed. “I don’t know whether it’s from a lot of knowledge or if it’s just wishful thinking. I don’t believe they’ve seen a lot of him [Woods] but they’ve heard little things about him, his character, [the fact] he’s got a good chin [and] he’s a strong kid. But I know he’s a lot better than what they’ve seen.

“Even though he’s been messed about by Michael Nunn [Woods’s opponent in a final eliminator that was originally due to take place in London in July 2000] and we’ve had this [the Jones fight] put off once or twice, Clinton’s improved. It’s benefited him because he’s got stronger and more mature.”

But let’s be honest. Jones is in a different stratosphere to any opponent Woods has faced in his previous 33 fights (one defeat, 18 KOs). This is a problem all Jones rivals face and has usually led to them being outclassed. Jones possesses a speed and artistry that sets him apart from most fighters, although his power has been less in evidence since his move up to light-heavy, with opponents lasting longer but still getting severely worked over.

But Jones has still been good enough to compile a record of 46 wins in 47 fights, with 37 KOs. The Woods bout will be his 14th light-heavy title fight, with his only blemish a ninth-round disqualification loss to Montell Griffin, which Jones avenged with a chilling first-round stoppage in his next bout.

Jones has also won world titles at middle and super middle in a dazzling 13-year career that has seen him go largely unchallenged. In the last year or so, there has been talk of a return to 12 stone, of fights against Felix “Tito” Trinidad, another Briton, Joe Calzaghe, the WBO champ in that weight class, and latterly middleweight champ Bernard Hopkins, a man Jones outpointed nine years ago and is still a bitter rival.

But it’s Woods, the former British, Commonwealth and European light-heavy champ, who gets the job in one of those once-in-a-lifetime fights that come along every so often. Hobson insists: “He [Woods] has done it the hard way, he’s there on merit and I truly believe he’s got a great chance.”

Hobson says Woods will not let Jones coast, fight at his own pace, that his man will try to cut the ring down, bring pressure to bear and at least make the champion fight. Hobson says: “He [Woods] is so happy that he’s gonna be in the other corner. He’s waited for this for two years. I know it’s a cliché but he looks sharper and stronger and his movement’s better.

“He [Woods] is working to a plan because Clinton isn’t just a one-dimensional fighter. When he boxed [French-Ugandan] Yawe Davis [in a final eliminator last September], he boxed from a distance. Against certain kids, he’ll fight ‘em a bit more.”

Jones, it seems, falls into the second category. Woods, Hobson says, is going to give it a real go, even if it means playing into Jones’s hands.

“We’ve got to try something,” he says.

As for Woods freezing, Hobson says that won’t happen, referring to Jones’s last challenger, Australian Glenn Kelly, who was outclassed and hammered in seven rounds, eventually getting knocked out by a right-hander he didn’t see as Jones flashily brought the punch from behind his back.

Woods, I think, will give it his best shot but it is almost inconceivable that he can win. Jones would have too much in every department for most of the very best fighters and, frankly, Woods is not among them.

The only scenario I can see is Woods, inactive since stopping Clint Johnson in the third in London in March, starting full of optimism but quickly discovering he is out of his depth. Woods may be able to frustrate Jones for a while but he will only be delaying the inevitable.

As Woods runs out of steam and ideas, only bravery will keep him in the fight as Jones picks him off with razor-sharp combinations, forcing the referee to intervene about halfway through the scheduled 12-rounder.