By Frank Lotierzo
The long awaited rubber match between Roy Jones and Antonio Tarver has officially been set for this coming October 1st. Tarver-Jones III is a fight many, including myself thought had to be made after Tarver stunned the boxing world with his second round one-punch knockout of Jones in May of 2004. The rivalry between these two Florida Natives started when they met for the first time as 13-year-old amateurs in The Sunshine State Games. The decision Jones won over Tarver is still a hot topic to this day as to who really won. Making it no different than the majority decision Jones won over Tarver in their first meeting as pros with the light heavyweight title on the line.
The press conference announcing the fight was held in New York City, (August 9th). It would seem that Roy Jones is feeling like himself again, because he never showed up. Although no one could answer with any certainty where Jones was, everything from missing the flight to him not wanting to break his training was thrown out as a possible reason why he wasn't there.
The Tarver-Jones rubber match has been titled "No Excuses" for the promotion. The phrase "no excuses" is a definite play on words pertaining to the aftermath of their first fight (won by Jones) and the theatre by Tarver in the ring right before the start of the rematch. Shortly after the first fight Roy Jones blamed his uninspired showing on having to lose anywhere from 18-22 pounds, depending on what day the story is told. This was due to the weight he put on to move up and fight for the WBA heavyweight title. Jones won a lopsided decision over John Ruiz to claim his fourth title. To fight for Tarver's title, he had to get back down to the light heavyweight limit of 175.
Six months later while at center ring before the start of the rematch, Tarver had a question for Jones. As referee Jay Nady concluded his final instructions, Tarver said, "What excuse are you going to use tonight Roy?" With the microphone not having been raised yet, this was heard by both the fans attending the fight and those watching on television. Then as a 4-1 underdog Tarver who had been credited with only landing seven of 54 punches, knocked Jones out with as he called it, "An overhand left to the kisser."
Who ever named Tarver-Jones III, "No Excuses," couldn't have been more on point. That applies even more to the way Jones answered a few questions during a recently published interview. It was in the July-August edition of "High Roller" magazine that Jones was asked about being knocked out by Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson in his last two fights.
Prior to the Tarver rematch Jones said, "He fought the best fight he could fight," regarding Tarver's showing and him only winning by majority decision. "But I wasn't totally focused and I didn't care to do it. This time it's exciting because people are interested because they think he has a chance." It is Jones' own words that indicate that he totally understood this was a fight he had to win because he didn't distinguish himself as the better fighter in the first fight. Not to mention that he and Tarver are within two months apart in age, with Tarver actually his senior. So in reality there were no excuses for the rematch and both fighters knew it.
During the interview while discussing the June rematch between Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson, won by Tarver, Jones said, "those guys (Tarver and Johnson) fought an amazing fight against each other the other night, but nobody cares. No offense but the truth is the truth. No one wants to see them do that again, it's just not interesting. They were practically giving those tickets away at the end of the night. The people want to see them fight Roy Jones Jr. It's about what people will pay to see, all about the money."
The above comments by Jones are very revealing. He says that nobody wants to see them do that again. However, compared to many of his title defenses against cops, substitute teachers and sanitation workers moonlighting as fighters, Tarver-Johnson II looked like the 1980 Ring Magazine Fight of The year light heavyweight title bout between champion Matthew Saad Muhammad and challenger Yaqui Lopez.
During the interview Jones was asked, "Why a third fight against Antonio Tarver?" To that Jones said, "(In our last fight) the guy simply got a lucky punch, which just happens sometimes. This guy, Tarver, has to define himself against me. Without me, no one would even know who he is… he's struggling to eclipse me and use me to try to become somebody… but I'll just do what I do."
Jones says Tarver landed a lucky punch that knocked him out in their rematch. Since it was nothing more than a lucky punch by Tarver that knocked Jones out, how come we never heard Jones say once that he wanted to vindicate himself against Tarver over the last 15 months? As I've said, Jones deserves credit for wanting to redeem himself against Tarver before retiring from boxing. At the same time, I wonder who he would've chose to fight him again had he the choice between Bernard Hopkins or Antonio Tarver.
Roy seems very at ease referring to Tarver's knockout punch against him as being nothing more than luck. Which is a little hard to buy since Tarver had Jones' complete and undivided attention heading into their rematch. For Jones, the last fight of his career he should've been vulnerable to being caught with a lucky punch was in his second fight with Tarver. Because he was getting another chance against a fighter he didn't prove himself to be the better in the first meeting. This was for all intense and purposes his legacy fight. Not to mention Tarver is without a doubt the best light heavyweight opponent Jones ever fought.
As it turned out, in the only fight of his career Roy Jones needed to prove to the boxing public how great he really was, he was knocked out by the only power punch Tarver landed in the fight. Most great fighters usually have more than one legacy fight in their career. Roy Jones only fought one legacy fight having to prove himself; in it he suffered the worst defeat of his career.
Why is it that when a fighter scores a spectacular knockout, it was all him. Yet when it happens to him, it's because he wasn't in shape or focused or the other fighter got lucky. What I'd like to know is how Roy would respond to those who view his stoppage of Virgil Hill with a single body shot as nothing more than luck. Having seen almost every fight of both Jones and Tarver, I've seen Tarver score a one-punch knockout as many times as I have Jones stop an opponent with a single body shot. In both cases I can only remember it happening once against another world class fighter. What I do know that cannot be disputed is fighters get knocked out more from one punch on the chin than they do getting caught by a single body punch. In reality, Jones was luckier against Hill than Tarver was against him.
Since he was counted out in his last two fights, he was asked if he was mentally prepared to fight Tarver. To that Roy reasoned, "You know, fighting Johnson after Hurricane Ivan was a huge risk that didn't work out. When you go into a tough fight, you have to put everything away and out of your mind: your family, your friends, everything. Everything has to be secondary. Two weeks before the fight the hurricane destroyed my hometown and we were living off a generator and my mind was everywhere but training and fighting," said Jones. "That's no excuse, that's just the way it was," he added.
When a superstar fighter loses, let alone is knocked out, it's one of the hardest things they'll ever have to deal with and hopefully get over. That said, Roy Jones blaming his knockout loss to Glen Johnson on a hurricane that hit his hometown two weeks earlier is one of the lamest excuses I've heard from any great fighter to justify a defeat. Only a biased Roy Jones fan who thinks it was Jones's birthright as Sugar Ray Robinson's equal would buy that one.
Roy Jones is not the first fighter to go into the ring with some major issues hanging over his head. Within four days of his rematch with Sugar Ray Leonard, Henry Hearns, the brother of Thomas Hearns, was charged with murder. Yet Hearns went on to fight great against Leonard and should've won the decision.
The truth is, Jones never recovered from Hurricane Tarver. The Roy Jones who fought Glen Johnson went into the ring with one thing weighing heavily on his mind, not getting knocked out, which is exactly the way he fought. Despite Johnson's lack of power and big finishing punch, he had Jones fighting not to lose instead of fighting to win. Evidenced by Jones only let his hands go when he was certain it was safe and he could anticipate Johnson's incoming punches. Another telling sign is Jones did all he could to avoid getting into exchanges with Johnson, lessening the chances of getting caught by a punch he didn't see.
Jones knew that he could protect himself better by concentrating strictly on defense when Johnson was on the attack. He decided to look for counter shots or wait until he sensed Johnson was letting up and it was safe before taking a chance opening up with his own flurry. The problem was, Johnson kept working and forcing the fight. By keeping the pressure on and continuing to throw a lot of punches, Johnson caught Jones with an overhand right slightly above his jaw and knocked him out in the ninth round.
On October 1st, Roy Jones will take on Antonio Tarver for the third and final time looking for what he hopes will be his first clear-cut victory against him. He says Tarver won the last time they met because of a lucky punch. Does Jones know this time there are "No Excuses"? This time there's no question about what's at stake for Roy Jones.
When the fight ends, if Jones is the winner he must get his just due. I just hope that if he loses, he doesn't have a pocket full of excuses why.