Roy Jones Jr Interview 2001

Should of got it on with B-Hopkins again instead of Tarver :rolleyes: That would of been a huge fight.

shoulda stayed at heavy and let tarver come to him, that way they wouldnt have needed a rematch

He should have retired after the first Tarver fight or moved back to heavyweight.

Yeah it would have been nice had he fought them or Benn or McClellen or Julian Jackson or D.M. or Collins or Eubank or (ad nauseum..) :rolleyes: You forgot Nunn and Rocchigiani, and Frankie Liles, and just about everybody else. It's so annoying that Roy didn't fight the best in his weight divisions.

lol this is funny

He talks about fighting Calzaghe and Trinidad there, well why didn't he? Yeah it would have been nice had he fought them or Benn or McClellen or Julian Jackson or D.M. or Collins or Eubank or (ad nauseum..) :rolleyes:

He talks about fighting Calzaghe and Trinidad there, well why didn't he?

He should of retired after Ruiz. He has nothing to prove. We all could see that he was not motivated. RJ will always be my favorite boxer

Wow. Will he ever return?

BM: Your amateur career ended when you were robbed of the gold medal in the Olympics. And then against Montell Griffin you were disqualified. Those two things took perfection away. You are a diamond, but because of that there are two tiny flaws. Does that disappoint you? How do you overcome that? RJ: Those flaws only show how truly beautiful this diamond really is. When they robbed me in Korea, it made me stand up and show the person I really am. It was a blessing from God. But a blessing in disguise, because despite being distraught at the time, it then made me so determined to shoot up the ranks when I turned pro. My frustrations from Korea, I took them out on my victims when I was climbing. After the Montell Griffin situation happened, it made me come back to show what I can do when I’m motivated. It shows why I’m still truly pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world today. BM: You didn’t hang around in the second fight did you? RJ: I didn’t come to hang around. And I don’t come with that attitude often, but that time I came with the attitude to not hang around. BM: A lot of people wonder why you didn’t get it on with the likes of Benn, Eubank and Nunn for example. What have you got to say about that? RJ: I was the contender for Toneys title when I moved up, he was rated over them guys although they were ofcourse very good fighters too. That division looked hot for a few years but the fights just did not happen, and this is before I moved up. If you think that when I got the win over Toney, those guys were on the decline and needed to prove themselves again to fight me which they never did. End of story. BM: But I can remember when Steve Collins and Chris Eubank were calling you out, why didn’t you take those fights? RJ: Okay, let’s just say that they needed me more than I needed them. If people don’t accept your terms or want to be too greedy then what can you do? If you want the truth, you can have it. The truth is people wanted to share a ring with me when I became a big name so that they could try to have one big payday then put their feet up and retire. I had an agreement with Gerald McClellan that we wouldn’t face eachother until we both moved up so that it would carry more hype. But I wanted to unify the middleweight title before I moved up, so I offered Stevie Collins and John David Jackson the chance to unify. But neither Collins or Jackson would fight me, they just would not fight Roy. You see, it wasn’t a big payday back then because nobody knew Roy. But a few years later and guys at the end of their careers suddenly turn to me. What is it with that? You know, what is it? I thought to myself “hold on Roy, your no longer climbing because your at the top, your the best pound-for-pounder in this thing and they are nowhere near, so you call the shots now Roy”. I’ve left those days behind, made my name at light-heavy. BM: What is your X Ingredient, which makes you the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world? RJ: My mind. BM: What does a fighter have to do to be best pound-for-pound fighter in the world? RJ: For one, when you say best pound-for-pound fighter, you mean he is the most skilled at doing everything. That is what people fail to realise. A lot of people say because Shane Mosley beat Oscar De La Hoya, Shane has the title. That’s one fight, against one opponent. Can he beat five left handers in a row like I did? Can he beat the James Toneys and Virgil Hills, who were ruling their divisions? Can he move up and beat fighters who he is not supposed to beat, like I did? When you are the best pound-for-pound, you are the best at moving up, or if you have to, move down. You are the best in every situation. You are the best body puncher, the best head puncher, you have the best offence, the best defence. You are the best all-round fighter, and nobody can top you for that. Who is the quickest for being so big, the powerfullest for being so small, and the best for being so great... It's Roy. BM: Is it sometimes a challenge not to become bored. And is it sometimes difficult to motivate yourself? RJ: Very difficult, really difficult infact. And that’s why I try to be careful who I fight and I like to fight people who are difficult, because I know they are dangerous. That makes me want to get ready for just in case the guy is tougher than I think he is. Great fighters are made on common opponents, like Muhammad Ali had Frazier, like Sugar Ray Robinson had LaMotta, that sort of thing. Not even great fighters can make themselves great anyway, like Holyfield and Bowe went away and did their own thing without the top guys Lewis and Tyson. They made themselves great, when they weren’t great anyway. In my divisions, while Roy has been around, there has been this and I look on in envy at it. You had Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank, great rivals in England at the same time, same divisions, same everything. Now they didn’t fight many times, but they were rivals. Maybe you could say the German’s too, like Rocky, Maske, the other guy. I’ve never had that, what motivated me after I became champ was Gerald McClellan until he got hurt, we both knew that one day soon we would be these huge rivals on one another, and that would give us the motivation to go away and train our backsides off. That’s competition, that is what it is all about. Roy hasn’t had that, but I’m still, I am still a great fighter. That is why I need all the applause, no common opponent after McClellan got hurt, didn’t even get to fight Gerald once let alone many times over. Nobody came along for me. But I managed to stay motivated and still be seen as a great, great fighter now and I will carry on, I will carrying on winning and doing all I can. That is how real respect is earned, no common opponent, just wipe out whoever is put in front of you. That’s Roy, the best, the champ, and long may it continue. I just gotta do what I gotta do. BM: Your father was a boxer, and you have other relatives who have boxed. But none made it all the way to the top. What makes you different? RJ: It is all about when God touches you, and you accept that God is there. A lot of them didn’t realise until they were older that God was there. With God all things are possible. Most likely they didn’t have it together, because they didn’t have God. When you have God in your life and at the right time, as early as you can understand, then your chances are better. BM: What are the challenges that now lie ahead of Roy Jones? RJ: I want to knock out everybody this year, and I have a family to raise — three little boys. I want them to come up and have the opportunities that I had and more, to be beautiful people. BM: Very few superstar boxing champions have had sons that have gone on to be champions too. If one of your sons were interested, would you encourage him? RJ: No, I just wouldn’t because it’s a tough sport and people don’t realise that every time you step in that ring, no matter who you are facing, your life is on the line. I’ve known people like Gerald McClellan, who went in one way, came out and never was the same again. I would rather my kids be playing baseball, football or basketball. You don’t see many bad career-ending injuries in basketball or baseball. You see them in football, but not as bad as you do in boxing. BM: How much longer do you want to continue your career? RJ: Anywhere from three to five years. I’m starting a record company. Once my music jumps I’m going to start looking at getting out of boxing. BM: You don’t seem to have had that difficult a route to the top. But who is the toughest opponent you’ve fought, or who is the opponent you have learned most from? RJ: Jorge Castro from Argentina, because he was so strong, you could hit him with everything but he didn’t stop, and he stayed just as strong for the entire fight. I had to box him and use my head, and not get caught up in his tactics. I had to be very mature at a young age. He had previously knocked a lot of people out, he beat a lot of people by playing games, because he was one of the smartest guys I ever fought. BM: Have we yet seen the best of Roy Jones, or are you going to go from strength to strength as you get older? RJ: The latter. Stronger, faster and harder-hitting. http://www.eastcoastattractions.com/roy%20jones%20displays%20his%20hardware.jpg