By Rick Reeno

Even if Roy Jones Jr. never fights again, his legacy is set in stone. The man who started his career at 154 pounds, went all the way up to the heavyweight division and won the WBA heavyweight title from 226 pound John Ruiz.

People said that Jones never fought any real fighters in his career, to take a quote from Roy Jones, "they say I fought nobody but that's because I made them look like nobody."

At the 1988 Seoul Games, Jones pummeled South Korean Park Si-hun for all three rounds of their gold medal bout. But in one of the most outrageous judging decisions in Olympic history, Jones had to settle for silver, despite reports of payoffs that found their way into East German secret police files.

"I can't believe they're doing this to you," referee Aldo Leoni whispered to Jones as he held the Korean's hand aloft in victory. Roy Jones won the Val Barker award as the Olympics most outstanding fighter.

The robbery Roy suffered in the Olympics haunted him for the rest of his life. Jones vowed to never fight outside of the United States because of the fear of getting robbed again.

While some question the caliber of Jones’ opponents, those on his “hit list” include a “Who’s Who” of current and former world champions, including Eric Lucas, Reggie Johnson, John Ruiz, Otis Grant, Lou Del Valle, Virgil Hill, Montell Griffin, Mike McCallum, Vinny Pazienza, James “Lights Out” Toney, Antonio Tarver, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins, Jorge Castro, Julio César González and Jorge Vaca.

Roy Jones, age 20, made his pro debut on May 6th 1989 and knocked out Ricky Randall in two rounds. Jones ran through his initial opponents, including impressive victories over former WBC world champion Jorge Vaca and Jorge Castro, who went on to claim the WBA middleweight crown.

In 1993, Roy Jones, 21-0 with 20 wins by KO, was signed to meet Bernard Hopkins. Hopkins was 22-1-16Ks and rated as one of the top middleweights in the world. The fight was the first real test for Jones, a big HBO showcase and the vacant IBF middleweight title was up for grabs. Jones had injured his right hand prior to the bout and refused to withdraw in fear of losing out on his first big title and the HBO exposure.

With only using his left hand and pawing with the right, Jones outclassed Bernard Hopkins over 12 rounds to claim the vacant IBF middleweight championship

In May of 1994, Jones was matched in his first hard title defense against Thomas Tate, one big left hook took out Thomas Tate in two rounds.

Roy Jones’ signature fight came when he moved up to 168 pounds to face the heavily favored, unbeaten IBF super middleweight champion James Toney on Nov. 18, 1994. Toney was regarded as a future legend, experts picked Toney to knock out Jones in less then 6 rounds. What would happen in this fight was the unthinkable.

In a sensational display, Jones used lightning fast hand speed to blow out James Toney in a dominating performance that featured a taunting move by Jones that Toney tried to mimic, only to have the Jones land a big shot that sent Toney reeling against the ropes in the third round. Jones got the unanimous decision and the IBF super middleweight title.

On February 25, 1995, Roy Jones was dealt a heavy blow, he watched amateur rival and close friend Gerald McClellan lose an all out war with Nigel Benn. It would be the last fight McClellan ever fought for the rest of his life. Benn was knocked out of the ring in round one and dropped once more in round 8. In round 10, sensing something was wrong, McClellan took a knee and was counted out by the ref. McClellan passed out in his corner and soon after fell into a coma. Gerald required surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain. McClellan is now blind and in need of 24 hour a day care for the rest of his life.

"In boxing you are going to war, and in war you must be prepared to die." -Gerald McClellan February 23rd 1995 [two days prior to the Benn fight]

McClellan was one of the few fighters to defeat Roy as an amateur and the two stayed friends even in the pros. Jones was so devastated by Gerald's defeat that he refused to visit Gerald in the hospital or in person because he felt that if he saw Gerald in his current physical state, he would never fight again. Roy had advised Gerald to not go overseas and take this fight. There are many that feel that Benn was given way too much time to recover from the initial first round knock down and the odds were heavily against McClellan by taking the fight in the England.

Jones was very upset by the boxing politics that used McClellan and how the sport forgot about Gerald after he was permanently injured. Jones has been one of the main financial supporters of McClellan after his injury. Jones set up a fund for McClellan's children in 1998.

After watching the McClellan fight, Jones refused to take risks for low amounts of money. In an interview with Esquire Magazine, Jones lashed out at boxing critics who questioned his career choices and why he wasn't taking more risks.

"You see what happened to Gerald McClellan? He believed the hype, went to England, and came home in a wheelchair. Now nobody wants to see Gerald. They want to ignore that. But I'm not going to ignore that. Hell with Larry Merchant and all the critics. They're not going to help me if my life gets damaged. You don't see Larry Merchant taking care of Gerald McClellan. I gotta live for me."

Jones never got to avenge the McClellan loss. Nigel Benn was defeated a little more then a year later by a Roy Jones KO Victim, Sugar Boy Malinga.

Jones' first fight after the McClellan incident was a wipeout of Vinny Pazienza on June 24th 1995, the bout was a one-sided 6 round stoppage. Jones was so fast that he even went untouched in one round. Jones became the first fighter in boxing history to have his opponent not land a single shot in a completed round.

In a move that drew nationwide media attention, Jones decided to test his athletic ability to the extreme. Jones played a game with the United States Basketball League Jacksonville Barracuda on June 15, 1996, he scored six points and took on Canadian Eric Lucas a few hours later on HBO. Jones stopped Lucas in 11 rounds.

The date was March 21, 1997 in Atlantic City, the opponent was Montell Griffin. Jones was leading on all three scorecards in a very close fight, Jones finally caught Griffin with a left in the ninth round and was on the verge of getting the KO win. Griffin took a voluntary knee and Jones landed two shots to the kneeling Griffin. The bell sounded and Jones was disqualified for hitting Griffin while he was down. Jones lost his perfect record and his WBC light heavyweight strap.

Revenge was very sweet on August 7th, 1997, Jones crushed Griffin in their anticipated rematch. A leaping left hook took out Griffin in only one round. Jones was vindicated.

In 1999, Jones unified the light heavyweight division for the first time in 14 years by defeating IBF champion Reggie Johnson by unanimous decision. The last fighter to accomplish this feat was Michael Spinks in 1985.

On January 15, 2000 in New York, NY, Jones won a 12 round unanimous decision against tough David Telesco in the first fight card ever held at Radio City Music Hall. Roy dominated and rocked Telesco several times. After the fight, Roy revealed that he had fought with a fractured left wrist sustained a couple of weeks earlier in a motorcycle accident.

In one of Jones' more awesome displays of talent, Jones stopped Glen Kelly on Feb. 2, 2002 in Miami, when he put his gloves behind his back, bobbed his head back and forth to avoid Kelly’s punches and clocked Kelly with huge right that ended the fight in the seventh round.

In 2002, Jones had wiped out every fighter in the light heavyweight division, he owned a record seven belts at light heavyweight. Jones was the WBC, WBA, IBF, IBO, WBF, IBA and NBA light heavyweight champion. Jones felt that he did everything he could possibly do at 175 and decided to move up to the heavyweight division and take on the WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz. It was a move that critics felt was too risky for Jones, critics blasted Jones for risking his health against Ruiz.

What Roy accomplished in March of 2003 will forever hold his place in boxing history. Jones easily outboxed John Ruiz over 12 rounds and captured the WBA heavyweight crown. Jones stood toe to toe with Ruiz at the end of round 1 and even stunned Ruiz on at least two occasions. It had been over 100 years since a natural-born middleweight defeated a heavyweight champion. Bob Fitzsimmons was the only other fighter to accomplish this feat when he did it with a single punch to Jim Corbett's solar plexus that downed the heavyweight champ in the 14th round of their 1897 showdown.

Not satisfied with his history making win over Ruiz, Roy Jones wanted to test the limits of his body as he dropped 25 pounds of muscle to face longtime rival Antonio Tarver at 175 pounds. Jones wanted to own and defend titles in two separate weight divisions. Critics once again questioned if it was history Roy was after or was he catering to his own ego

Jones starved himself to make the light heavyweight limit of 175, a move that almost cost him the fight. Jones was tested to the extreme as he was battered against the ropes in many of the rounds by Tarver. Jones sucked it up and showed his heart for the first time in his career, knowing the fight was on the table in the championship rounds, Jones came back in the final rounds to win the decision. I had Jones winning this fight 115-113 on my scorecard. Tarver could have won this fight and was urged by his corner to let his hands fly in eth final rounds. Tarver did not let his hands go, let Jones dictate the pace when the two men were in the middle of the ring and allowed Jones to win a close majority decision. This marked the first time that Jones looked human as he was bruised and battered by Tarver.

Given the fact that fans were split over who won the fight between Jones and Tarver, there was a huge demand by the boxing public for a rematch. Jones instead of going back to heavyweight for more money, opted to rematch Tarver and settle who was the best fighter at 175 pounds.

Jones and Tarver started the rematch trying to faint one another, Jones the began to show his speed and skill as it seemed that Jones was getting off to a good start in round 1. In round 2, Jones going for a left hand of his own, got caught with a huge left by Tarver and was dropped for only the second time in his career. Unlike his flash/slip knockdown when he faced Lou Del Valle, this time Roy went down like a ton of bricks. Roy could not make it up by the count of ten and referee Jay Nady stopped the fight.

Every fighter loses sooner or later, but this loss even left hard-core Tarver fans stunned. Noone expected Jones to get stopped by a knockout in 2 rounds. Jones sat on top of boxing's list of pound for pound best for almost ten years. A few months later Jones was knocked out again by Glen Johnson and decided to hang up the gloves.

These losses should in no way diminish the history and accomplishments that Roy Jones has done in his career and the excitement that he brought in his fights.

Many hated Jones for fighting firemen, postal workers and cops in the ring, these same people fail to realize that these fighters were not chosen by Roy Jones. These journeymen were bumped up to the level of mandatory challengers to Roy Jones by the politics of boxing. Roy had no choice, either he fought them or got stripped of his belts. Bernard Hopkins has faced the same type of criticism and problems since beating Trinidad in 2001.

I feel that Roy Jones came around a time period when there was not a lot of quality opponents for his choosing. He was not as lucky as Oscar De La Hoya, who had enough quality name opponents at his reach to last two careers.

I will say this in closing, losing a fight does not make you a fraud. Getting knocked out is a part of boxing and happens to the best of the best. Roy Jones should be applauded by fans for what he brought to the ring.

You could love him or hate him, but you must respect him. We may never see the kind of boxing feats accomplished by Roy Jones in our lifetime.

Roy Jones Jr. Notable Achievements

World Boxing Council "Lifetime Achievement Award, 2001"
World Boxing Association "Fighter of the Year, 2000"
Voted "Fighter of the Decade" for the 1990's by the Boxing Writers Association of America
Ring Magazine's Award for "Fighter of the Year, 1994"
Three-time US national amateur champion.
Ring Magazine's Award for Event of the Year: Roy Jones Fights at Heavyweight, 2003