Jones vs. Adamek is What Roy Wants, Lacy is Secondary
By Lyle Fitzsimmons
TAMPA, Fla. – It was hard to tell what Roy Jones Jr. was really thinking.
The 40-year-old former multi-division world champion was at the University of South Florida’s Sun Dome on Saturday night, joining a host of Sunshine State boxers to take in St. Petersburg native Jeff Lacy’s first hometown bout in more than two years.
Presumably, Jones made the 460-or-so mile trip from the northern Gulf Coast to at least sniff out the possibility of answering Lacy’s recent statements indicating he’d like to meet the still-active Pensacola product in an all-Florida bout later this year.
Jones stopped Omar Sheika, a former Lacy foe, in five rounds last month at the Pensacola Civic Center.
And following a much-closer-than-it-was-supposed-to-be majority decision over former reality TV participant Otis Griffin in a 10-round light heavyweight match, Lacy took the in-ring microphone and took his case directly to Jones, seated at ringside.
“I want to thank all the fans for coming out tonight, and I’m hoping that there’s a chance for another big fight in Tampa real soon,” Lacy said, building toward his crescendo. “As you all know, we have Roy Jones Jr. here in attendance tonight, and if he’s not done yet, I’d love to challenge him to a fight here in the Tampa area.
“Any time, but it has to be here in Tampa.”
Amid enthusiastic cheers from the estimated 2,000 in attendance, Jones predictably reacted with a thumbs-up to the invitation. But when asked directly in a one-on-one interview before the fight, his enthusiasm for the idea was something less than explosive.
“Jeff’s been talking about wanting to fight me, so it made sense for me to come down and take a look and see what’s happening,” said Jones, who climbed into the ring with Floridians Andre Berto, Edner Cherry and Nate Campbell for between-fight introductions, then spent the duration of Lacy’s bout watching from a VIP row adjacent to Griffin’s corner.
“He’s not really an opponent who was necessarily on my road map, but people don’t always work off the same road maps. It’d be a wonderful fight for Florida. But I’ll say what I already have been saying. I want Tomasz Adamek. I’ll fight Clinton Woods. And if those fights don’t get done, then sure, I’d fight Jeff.”
Adamek, a former belt-holder at light heavyweight, is now the IBF champion at cruiserweight. And Woods – whom Jones TKO’d in six rounds in 2002 – lost to Antonio Tarver in an IBO/IBF unification bout at light heavyweight in Tampa last April.
Before that bout, Jones said, “Right now, the only one who isn't losing at the top level is Woods, but that will change if we meet next up. I gave it to him in 2002 and I would do it again, only this time I would stop him even earlier.”
As for often-rumored rematch target Bernard Hopkins, whom Jones defeated by unanimous decision at middleweight in 1993, Jones was succinct.
“No, he don’t want to fight me,” he said.
And as for Lacy, his audition for an audience with Jones was bumpier than planned.
The former IBF 168-pound champion came out slugging at his 31-year-old opponent – a loser by stoppage three times since mid-2007 – landing a series of shots to the body and an occasional left hook upstairs.
He controlled the first two rounds with signature aggression, but never landed anything to put the 6-foot-1 Griffin in tangible trouble.
Griffin effectively stood his ground for the first time in the third and countered with uppercuts as Lacy charged in while bent forward at the waist.
Lacy regained the upper hand with a superior work rate in the fourth, fifth and sixth, before Griffin again rallied with cleaner, sharper shots in the seventh and briefly drove Lacy to the ropes with a flurry.
The California import continued his momentum in the eighth and ninth to put the final outcome in question, but Lacy solidly closed the deal with another busy round in the 10th, avoiding much of Griffin’s counter work with renewed aggression while the crowd implored him with chants of “La-cy, La-cy, La-cy.”
Judges Alex Levin and Jed O’Connor awarded the win by counts of 96-94 and 97-93, while dissenting judge Mike Ross had it even at 95.
BoxingScene.com agreed with Levin, seeing it 96-94 for Lacy.
“It was a very awkward fight,” Lacy said. “He laid in with his head, he caught me with a couple of head butts. Every time I came to him he would lean his head down, and it was hard for me to really get my combinations off. And it was hard for me to get into my mode from the outside, too.
“He’s a vet. He was in there trying to win the best way he could, by fouling a lot on the inside, holding a lot whenever I came to him and using his elbows to push off me. I was real cautious. They say you don’t think about the next fight, but I know I’ve got Roy Jones out there and I’m trying to stay away from getting cut and things like that.”
The 31-year-old Griffin – lone champion on Fox’s short-lived “The Next Great Champ” series in 2005 – had debuted as a pro a year earlier and was 18-1-2 in his first 21 fights before a 16-month stretch in which he was stopped by Danny Green, Jesse Brinkley and Enad Licina.
His lone win since mid-2007 came last May, when he outpointed journeyman Carl Cockerham over six rounds in Sacramento, Calif.
Not surprisingly, he felt he deserved the ‘W’ on Saturday.
“There’s nobody in the arena that thought I didn’t win that fight,” Griffin said. “It’s ridiculous. If I won a fight like that, I wouldn’t even accept it. It’s his hometown. I rocked him on numerous occasions with the clean blows. Pitter-patters, this is not Olympic boxing and that doesn’t count. That’s not going to hurt a grown man.”
Lyle Fitzsimmons is a 20-year veteran of sports journalism and a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com .