Roy Jones Bravery 2.0 Rocchigiani, Michalczewski, Jirov...

The other thread seemed to focus on Tarver. I thought perhaps putting everything into one thread would be enjoyable. Rocchigiani, Michalczewski, 168 reign, Jirov. Feel free to add more instances, i know there's more. lol "In early 1998, Roy Jones, Jr. announced that he was relinquishing his WBC world Light Heavyweight Championship. In response, the organization ordered a bout between German contender Graciano Rocchigiani and former champion Michael Nunn to fill the vacancy, sanctioning it as a world championship match. On March 21, 1998 Rocchigiani won the fight and a WBC belt; in the subsequent WBC rankings, he was listed as "Light-Heavyweight World Champion." Jones, however, had a change of heart and asked if the WBC would reinstate him as the champion. In a move that violated nearly a dozen of its own regulations, the WBC granted the reinstatement. Rocchigiani received a letter from the WBC advising that the publishing of his name as champion was a typographical error, and he had never really been the official titleholder. Rocchigiani immediately filed a lawsuit against the WBC in a U.S. federal court, claiming that the organization's actions both were contrary to their own rules and injurious to his earning potential (due to diminished professional stature). On May 7, 2003, the judge ruled in Rocchigiani's favor, awarding him $30 million (U.S.) in damages and reinstating him as a former WBC Champion (Rocchigiani had lost a bout since his WBC Title match)." Curly: Do you think Roy Jones Jr is afraid of you? Jirov: I think so. You see the problem is I think, he can lose everything and he is not getting anything. I am a new fighter and I am happy for him, I don't know.... maybe I am a little bit dangerous... or something for him. Curly: Roy Jones is always stating that, he doesn't want to go to Germany to fight Michalczewski, Roy says he wants Michalczewski to come here to the U.S., but you, Vassily are a fighter who lives and trains in the United States. Like Roy Jones, you are a Val Baker award winner. Roy says that your name is not recognizable, but yet Roy will turn around and fight someone like Gonzalez whom you defeated in the amateurs before winning the Gold Medal. Jirov: Actually I beat Gonzalez in the fifth fight in the Olympic games. I took him in the third round. Curly: And now TopRank is promoting Roy Jones. Do you think that.... Jirov: Who, who promote him? Curly: TopRank. Jirov: TopRank, oh I didn't know about this. Curly: I know you are not under TopRanks banner anymore but do you think they will try to arrange that fight with you and Roy Jones? Jirov: I would be very happy to fight him, you know anytime, its all up to him. I tell him anytime, just give me a call and tell me. We will fight tomorrow, we will fight anytime, anywhere Roy wants to. Curly: So you will fight Roy Jones anytime, anywhere? Jirov: Anytime, anywhere.Yes. Curly: The general consensus is that Roy Jones will continue to ignore you. In your opinion do you see Roy Jones signing on the dotted line? Jirov: You know its like question, if it is the right time, right money, maybe he will. But same time I hear from people, like you writers tell me he never will fight me because my power, because I have beaten a lot of fighters, you know it just is too dangerous for him. He don't want to take the chance, you know. ``Roy Jones says there's no one out there to give him a challenge,'' said Jirov's manager, Ivaylo Gotzev. ``Well, here's somebody everybody knows, who's undefeated, who's a challenge. ``Jones just has a lot of excuses.'' ``We'll come down (in weight) to fight him,'' said Gotzev, whose fighter walks around at about 192 pounds. ``We'll make 185, whatever they want. . . . And we'll fight in Pensacola (Fla., Jones' hometown). And we'll turn around and knock him out.'' ``You fight for 12 rounds,'' said Jirov, who lives outside Scottsdale, Ariz. ``You get tired and your speed comes down. My punches will stop him before the 12th round. ``I punch a lot harder than light heavyweights (against whom Jones is accustomed to fighting).'' ** At 175, DM is superior by record. He was the first to lift the titles off of Hill and fought a lot of the same guys Roy did with at least as good of success as Roy. I like to point to the Harmon/Hall/Griffin fights when both were considered still at peak. DM whacks out Harmon a little earlier than Roy did, and got to Hall twice around the same time as Roy, and got to Griffin a little later, but never dropping a bout to Montell, an indication of the approximate danger each represented to the other. DM padded record with early WBO title matches, but he's also got some bigger names aside from the overlap like getting to Hill 1st coming off his Maske win and a Thradzi coming off wins over Toney and Scully. I meant to also include Rocchigiana. He wasn't the fighter he was, but he's a name in the books. DM was considered the "lineal" champ, whatever that means and traveled to Roy's hometown to drum up the match, but Roy and HBO pretty much ignored him. Odd since he was simultaneously coming up on tying Rocky's 49-0 record and Joe's 25-0 title defense record, both numerically superior to Roy's LH record at the time. Seeing as how the Germans could have easily have arranged the split loss to Gonzalez to be a split win if they were as dishonest as is claimed, Roy really did lose out on a huge opportunity because of his drunken ego that HBO enabled. Of course the usual dummies are gonna interpret this as me claiming DM is the better fighter, but that's the price they pay for wearing Roy's used jock straps as nose masks. He was the better LH by record and after a period of he and Roy ignoring each other, DM made the moves to make the fight happen. I did a little research on Roy Jones Jr. and the opposition he fought as a SMW. Jones was in essense fighting in the 168 lb division from 1993 until 1996. Keys: RED = Eventually fought them or fought them already BLUE = Fought them in that year. The year end rankings of 1992 looked like this: 1: Michael Nunn 2: Iran Barkley 3: Chris Eubank 4: Victor Cordoba 5: Nigel Benn 6: Tim Littles 7: Darrin Van Horn 8: Tony Thornton 9: Frankie Liles 10: Frank Nicotra He fought Thornton in 1995. 1993: 1: James Toney 2: Michael Nunn 3: Chris Eubank 4: Nigel Benn 5: Tim Littles 6: Darrin Van Horn 7: Frankie Liles 8: Tony Thornton 9: Antoine Byrd 10: Vincenzo Nardiello 1994: Jones enters the list at no. 1 after beating Toney. 1: Roy Jones Jr. 2: Nigel Benn 3: Chris Eubank 4: Frankie Liles 5: Vinny Pazienza 6: Tim Littles 7: Michael Nunn 8: Ray Close 9: Graciano Rocchigiani 10: Antoine Byrd 1995: 1: Roy Jones Jr. 2: Nigel Benn 3: Steve Collins 4: Frankie Liles 5: Tim Littles 6: Vinny Pazienza 7: Bryant Brannon 8: Henry Wharton 9: Michael Nunn 10: Ray Close 1996: 1: Roy Jones Jr. 2: Frankie Liles 3: Steve Collins 4: Vinny Pazienza 5: Robin Reid 6: Henry Wharton 7: Michael Nunn 8: Vincenzo Nardiello 9: Joseph Kiwanuka 10: Thulani Malinga At the end of 1996 Jones had moved up. So Jones work after 4 years at 168 lb consist of an excellent win over Toney and not much else: Toney Thornton Pazienza (LOL) Byrd Brannon Jones never fought a top 3 opponent after Toney. He had 6 fights at 168 after beating him. Of those fights he beat an unranked Thornton, a suspected juiced lightweight in Pazienza, a past it Byrd, a never was in Sosa, a young non-threat in Lucas and a veteran of 16 fights in Brannon. So the deserving fighters Jones didn't fight (or ducked as it's called on NSB) is these guys: Nunn Benn Eubank Collins Barkley Cordoba Littles Van Horn Liles Nardiello Close Rocchigianni Nicotra Let's face it. A Nunn or a Benn or a Eubank or a Liles or even a Collins would have been real nice. (I hope I didn't miss anyone :) ) Keep it going folks.........