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July 1999
Each month we bring you a selection of articles from the current and past issues of BOXING MONTHLY. To buy the magazine, see our subscription or back issues pages, or use our world distribution map to find a news-stand copy. Why not use our Interactive Forum to express your own boxing comments and opinions!
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IT AIN'T SO HARD (FOR ROY JONES)
His dominance of the highly capable Reggie Johnson confirmed that Roy Jones Jr, now in possession of the three most-respected light-heavyweight titles, stands alone amongst his contemporaries. GRAHAM HOUSTON reports from Biloxi, Mississippi, and considers whether the modern-day stand-out might be an all-time great. PLUS Rock-hard Jirov dethrones King Arthur, Frontline Diary |
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ROUGH FOR REGGIE: Jones beat Johnson consistently with jabs and counters -
just as well they didn't play tiddlywinks, too
- Get Big Pic When Roy Jones Jr. is in the ring he is, he says, having fun. It is no fun
at all for his opponents, however. Not only can they rarely hit him with a significant
blow, but he is hitting them crisply, accurately, almost when and how he feels like it, as
he did when easily outpointing Reggie Johnson in their light-heavyweight championship
unification match at Biloxi, Mississippi, just a short trip up the Gulf Coast from
Jones's hometown of Pensacola, Florida. It was Jones at his best as he practically
played with Johnson after knocking down the southpaw from Houston, Texas, twice in the
first three rounds and slicing his opponent over the right eye in round one. But these
one-sided displays of dominance can be displeasing to the fans, even a pro-Jones one such
as this one, which packed the Mississippi Coast Coliseum (9,944 paid admissions). There was booing in the late rounds as the customers grew tired of seeing
Jones toy with Johnson. They wanted to see Jones, 30, take his man out instead of merely
outclass him. But Jones, who retained his World Boxing Council and World Boxing
Association titles while collecting Johnson's International Boxing Federation
championship, was content to keep piling up points rather than produce the power-punching
finish that the crowd wanted. Afterwards, Jones said that he wanted to keep disciplined and not give
Johnson an opportunity to land a big punch. "Why give your opponent a chance to beat
you?" he asked. "That's not very smart. That's not very businesslike.
That's not very Roy Jones-like. I know the people want to see a knockout, they want
to see blood, but I've been doing this thing for 20 years and do you think I do that
by getting hit?" The impression I had, though, from ringside, was that once Jones had
proved his overwhelming superiority over Johnson in those first three rounds he was
content to dominate his man without destroying him: what the old-timers would call
"carrying" an opponent. We saw the same sort of thing in Jones's easy win on points over the
veteran Mike McCallum and to a lesser extent when he let the French-Canadian Eric Lucas
linger for 11 rounds. As long as Johnson was not getting too aggressive, then Jones was content
to hit him with quick punches and get away before he could be hit back. But whenever
Johnson crowded him or caught him with a looping left from the southpaw style - which was
not very often - Jones came back instantly with the sort of rapid, hurtful hitting that
immediately and sharply reminded Johnson that it was not in his best interests to get too
bold. Whatever Johnson tried to do led to him getting punished. His best policy
seemed to be to stay close to Jones and let his hands go when he got inside. There were
times when he rushed Jones to the ropes and threw body punches. Jones looked almost bored
at such moments, then fired right back, sometimes doubling up on the left hook, upstairs
to the head, downstairs to the body. And in the middle of the ring it was like target
practice for Jones, who at the press conference afterwards held up his fists and said:
"These things are guided by radar." Johnson, from the fourth round, fought with
the discouraged air of a man who knew his cause was a hopeless one. This is not to say that Johnson lacked heart or did not try. The
32-year-old, occasionally wiping blood away from his right eye, attempted to get in
position to land the one shot that might have turned things around, such as the right hook
with which he flattened William Guthrie 16 months earlier to win the IBF title. But hitting Guthrie on the chin and doing the same thing to Jones are two
quite different things. Johnson said before the fight that he would try to time Jones, thereby
nullifying his opponent's greater speed. But while Johnson was trying to figure out
how to hit Jones, Jones was hitting him, sometimes with a jab, at other times with a
sudden right-hand lead, occasionally with a series of swift, snappy shots from either
hand. "I can hit anybody at will," Jones said afterwards - and that
was what he was doing to Johnson, who acknowledged: "I couldn't overcome the
hand-speed." Johnson said that Jones makes mistakes but "it's hard to take
advantage of them when you're being hit in the face by a quick jab". Indeed, apart from not ending the fight inside the distance, it was a
perfect performance by Jones. And I believe he could have stopped Johnson had he really
wanted to do so. Jones certainly proved that he could hurt his man and also knock
him down. He dropped Johnson with a right hand in the opening round, then had him down -
and nearly out - with a left hook followed by a right hand late in round three. Johnson
seemed to go limp, and fell heavily on to his back. It looked all over, but Johnson got up
as referee Elmo Adolph, of Louisiana, counted to eight, at which the point the bell rang
to end the round. But although literally saved by the bell, Johnson had been removed from
the fight as any sort of serious threat. He said afterwards that the knockdown in the
third was so disorientating that he did not remember which round he had been down in. Jones, of course, did not lose a round. Judges Paul Sita of Louisiana and
Chuck Hassett of Los Angeles gave him every round, with scores of 120-106 (10-8 rounds on
each card in the first and third rounds), while Jesus Cova of Venezuela, who also scored
it 120-106, made the eighth round even but gave Jones a 10-7 round in the third, perhaps
because the knockdown was such a dramatic one. Johnson, a capable fighter who was middleweight champion before moving up
two weight classes, was made to look ordinary. Jones's promoter, Murad Muhammad, said
afterwards that he would back Johnson against any light-heavy in the world but Jones, who
is in a class by himself. Jones, at the post-fight conference, put himself on the same level as
basketball megastar Michael Jordan (a ringside spectator) or magnificent racehorse
Secretariat - an entity capable of extraordinary things. We all know that Jones
believes himself to be the best boxer in the ring today (no argument here), but he now
seemed to be indicating that he is also the greatest of all time. That may be taking
things a bit too far, not to mention excessively boastful - but Jones really believes it
to be true. And, greatest ever or not, Jones, with his speed, power and natural
athleticism would surely have been a formidable adversary for the greatest fighters in the
middleweight and light-heavyweight divisions. He wins almost effortlessly while
boxing well within himself. Perhaps the only times he has gone into the ring with the
express intention of demolishing an opponent was in his fights with Thomas Tate and
Montell Griffin (the rematch). Both had, he felt, disrespected him, and both were simply
blown away (two rounds and one round respectively). Those fights showed what Jones is
capable of doing when the mood takes him. Still, you will find no shortage of veteran boxing insiders who are
reluctant to rank Jones with the very best who ever fought. Marty Denkin, the Los Angeles
referee and a longtime friend and confidant of Johnson, was surprised at how easily Jones
controlled the fight but said: "You can't compare him to any of the great
light-heavyweight champs, only because he's a person of a different era at a
different time. Roy's got an extra dimension - not only does he box, not only does he
punch, if he has to punch - but he's also very, very quick and intelligent. I think
he makes a lot of mistakes still that nobody's explored. I think that when he gets
against the ropes he's very vulnerable, but nobody's been strong enough or smart
enough [to take advantage of it]." Jones is now the first undisputed light-heavy champ since Michael Spinks
14 years ago - although World Boxing Organisation champ Dariusz Michalczewski, of Germany,
would argue the point. But Jones has unified the three major titles. He complained
afterwards about how much he had to pay in sanctioning fees to the three organisations.
But, he said, he paid up for the sake of history: his history. The only real challenge to him, it seems, will be if he moves up to
heavyweight. But he is not a big man. He weighed in at 174lbs (12st 6lbs) for the fight
with Johnson, who was 3lbs lighter, but the next day Jones had put on only 8lbs, according
to Home Box Office, which televised the fight in America. He acknowledges that he
simply is not big enough to campaign full-time as a heavyweight, but says he would be
willing to do it for one fight. The heavyweight he would like to fight is Evander
Holyfield, who was in attendance. But Holyfield, on leaving the ringside area, said in
answer to a question that he has no interest in such a fight, although he complimented
Jones by saying: "You can't touch him." Holyfield's trainer, Don Turner, who worked with Johnson as an
adviser for this fight, also expressed admiration for Jones's speed. ("You
can't hit Roy Jones twice in a row," he told Ron Borges, of the Boston Globe). But Turner feels that Holyfield would be too strong for Jones and that
there is no point in the fight from Holyfield's perspective. But unless Jones meets a
top heavyweight we may never see him pushed to the very limit, not unless he stays in the
game too long and slows down significantly. This was his 40th win (33 KOs) in 41 fights,
and the disqualification loss to Montell Griffin was really a matter of Jones throwing
away victory in a rare undisciplined moment. The return fight put things right. Jones is a six-time world champion in three weight classes (middleweight,
super middle and light-heavy) and has beaten the best fighters these divisions have to
offer. When he said afterwards that a fighter like him comes along only once or
twice in a person's lifetime, he was certainly being immodest but he also may have
been right. JIROV vs WILLIAMS Undefeated Vassiliy Jirov, the Olympic gold medallist from Kazakhstan in
the former Soviet Union, lived up to his "Tiger" billing as he overwhelmed
veteran "King" Arthur Williams in seven exciting rounds to capture the
International Boxing Federation cruiserweight title in the chief supporting bout to Roy
Jones-Reggie Johnson at Biloxi, Mississippi on 5 June. Jirov, 25, who now lives in Arizona, was too young, too strong and, well,
too tigerish for Williams, the 34-year-old Roy Jones buddy from Pensacola, Florida.
Williams landed some heavy rights, and Jirov's high cheekbones were soon reddened
while the challenger suffered a slight cut and swelling under the right eye. But Jirov
kept pressing ahead, motioning to Williams to bring it on. Williams suffered a cut over
the right eye and took some solid shots to the head, but it was the body punches that
caved in the older man. For the first two rounds this was one of those back-and-forth wars, each
man rocking the other, but when Jirov went to the body in the third round he had his
greatest success as a left-hander underneath sent Williams to one knee. Although Williams
got up at the count of nine, and crashed in enough right-handers to win the fourth round
on two of the judges' scorecards, his distress was apparent every time the younger
man dug home punches downstairs. Jirov largely dominated the fifth and sixth rounds, although Williams
fired back every now and again. But in the seventh the champion finally fell apart when
another of those driving left-handers to the body from Jirov's southpaw stance had
him down for the second time in the fight. Once more Williams got up at nine, but he now
had nothing left and Jirov was knocking him back across the ring with a two-handed assault
when referee Paul Sita intervened after one minute, 59 seconds of the round. Coming out
for the seventh, all three judges had Jirov in front, with scores of 58-55, 58-55 again
and 59-54. It was Jirov's 21st consecutive win, 19 inside the distance, while
Williams lost for the fifth time in 36 fights (30 wins, one draw, with 22 opponents
halted). FRONTLINE DIARY I arrived at the Grand Casino, Biloxi at 11.15 p.m. the night before the
big show and, after a supper of fried catfish at Roxy's Diner, literally walked
into the middle of a shouting match involving representatives of the hotel and TV giant
Home Box Office on one side and, on the other, of Roberto Garcia, who was due to defend
his International Boxing Federation junior lightweight title against Derrick Gainer the
next evening. It was instantly clear that the Garcia-Gainer fight was hanging by the
proverbial thread after a dispute over judges that had the Garcia camp fearing a hometown
decision. Garcia's co-manager Scott Woodworth and adviser Mike Marley, faces as red
as their "Team Garcia" track suits, were in heated discussion with Kery Davis,
HBO's sports programming director, a bespectacled gentleman who at this moment looked
like Eddie Murphy in one of his "outraged" moods - except that Davis was not
joking. Davis was telling the Garcia side that a short-notice pullout was putting
their fighter's relationship with HBO at risk. Woodworth was saying that Garcia was
not mentally ready to fight after a day of uncertainty concerning officials. Hotel
executive Tom Brosig told Woodworth that if Garcia was not fighting, the whole camp could
leave the hotel forthwith. "You are our guests and we are paying for the rooms on the
understanding that Garcia is going to fight," Brosig said. "We'll pay for
the rooms," responded Woodworth. "You've got my credit card number." Eduardo Garcia, the fighter's father and trainer, and older brother
Danny were huddled in conversation. "Is Garcia going to fight or isn't he?"
I asked Marley. "It sure doesn't look like it right now," the former New
York boxing writer said. Woodworth turned to Eduardo and Danny Garcia for the last word.
The elder Garcia made a dismissive gesture with his hand and shook his head. "The
fight's off," Woodworth said. And that was that. For me, it was disappointing, having travelled a long way in the
expectation of seeing three world title fights on the same show. Other members of the
media had been looking forward to the fight, too. But the show went on and to the crowd it
hardly seemed to matter: they had, after all, come to see Roy Jones. The night before Roy Jones fought Reggie Johnson, promoter Murad Muhammad
staged what was surely the best off-TV show in years. Roy Jones and Muhammad had
originally planned to load the big show undercard with fighters who are either connected
to Jones or promoted by Muhammad. But with so many fights, it was decided to put on half
of the undercard fights at the Grand Casino's theatre on the eve of the big event. I had already booked my flight to Gulfport/Biloxi. A late change would
have meant double the air fare. I decided I could not justify this, even though I had very
much wanted to see the Ghanaian lightweight, David Tetteh, fight veteran Harold Warren,
while the heavyweight fight between David Izon and Philadelphian Terrance Lewis promised
to be rousing. In fact, everyone who was there told me that Izon-Lewis was the most
exciting "small" fight of the year, with the Nigerian winning in the fifth after
being almost stopped by Lewis in the fourth. "It was incredible," TV commentator
Dave Bontempo told me. Why is it that when we miss a show, something memorable invariably occurs? Although I missed the night-before show, and the Garcia-Gainer fight fell
out, I was glad to have been at Mississippi to witness Roy Jones in person for the first
time since I saw him outbox James Toney at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas in November 1994. And
Southern hospitality was in evidence when the Grand Casino sent a stretch limo to pick me
up late on the Friday night for the 30-minute journey from the airport to the hotel.
Whatever else, at least I arrived in style. Chatted with Harold Warren, the Corpus Christi, Texas, veteran, on the
homeward Sunday morning flight from Mississippi to Houston (where we were both to change
planes). He was in good humour after winning a split decision over David Tetteh on the
Friday night show. ("He was very strong but I was smarter.") Warren said he was
robbed in his rematch with Derrick Gainer at Pensacola in January. "I had him hurt
bad at least twice," he said. "It wasn't even close." He said he
thought Roberto Garcia would have been too strong for Gainer but that, in light of the
dispute over the judges, the IBF champ did the right thing in pulling out of the fight. |
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