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Something funny happened on the way to the Hall of Fame for Roy Jones Jr.
He became human. Sure, it was only for about a half hour last November, but in that 30 minutes in the Madison Square Garden ring against Joe Calzaghe, ‘Superman’ was just like every other pug who was in the midst of a bad night, one of those nights where nothing goes right, where every punch from your opponent seems to land, and where the blood streaming in your eyes keeps you from getting out of the way of anything being fired in your direction.
Frankly, it was no surprise to most in attendance that night, whether on press row or in the cheap seats. Most expected that Calzaghe would beat Jones to keep his perfect record intact, but there were those that still held out hope that for one night, the pride of Pensacola would pull off a magic act of epic proportions and become RJ again.
And it almost happened when Jones dropped Calzaghe in the first round. For a few seconds, with the Garden crowd roaring, it looked like the impossible was about to take place. It was the last ray of sunlight for Jones that night.
“I lost my focus after I dropped him in the first round,” he said. “I was trying to go in and get him out and I should have stuck to my game plan and that was to box. I tried to him hard early because I wanted to take him out and that got me off my game plan.”
The next 11 rounds saw Calzaghe beat Jones at his own game, even taunting and dancing in front of him as the former pound-for-pound king pawed at the blood covering his face. By the time the championship rounds approached, it was clear that only Calzaghe’s desire to let a champion finish on his feet kept him from finishing Jones off.
The decision was a formality, and so was the aftermath. Jones didn’t walk off into the sunset, content with his accomplishments and what will certainly be a first ballot induction into the Hall of Fame. At 40, he remains. Nothing to prove, but nothing to keep him from fighting either. Tomorrow night, he steps into the ring for the 58th time as a professional against Omar Sheika. Why? Only Roy knows.
“As long as I look good, feel good, I’ll be fighting,” said Jones in the non-committal answer of the year thus far. But his father, Roy Sr., back in the corner for the first time since his son’s third fight with Antonio Tarver in 2005, may have a little more insight into why his son continues to fight.
“I think Roy has come to the realization that boxing is what he is,” said Jones Sr. “That’s what made him. For a short period of time he got off track with that. Everyone knows Roy as a boxer, not a rapper and he has come to the realization of that. Now don’t get me wrong, I think that being pound-for-pound and world champion means a lot to him also because he is used to being at the top of the heap. He had been that for so many years that it does play a role in his motivation to continue this thing. But I never ask him about his business. I love him and he’s my son and everything but I never intervene or interfere with anything in his personal business. If he doesn’t ask me, I don’t say anything on any part of his life.”
So Jones, winner of three of his last four, but loser of four of his last seven, keeps fighting. To even write that he has gone 3-4 in his last seven fights seems blasphemous considering that in his prime Jones didn’t lose rounds, let alone fights. But no man who ever steps into the ring avoids the ravages of age, where your reflexes slow, your speed diminishes, and everything that once made you special is rendered merely average. Sure, there are the anomalies, like Bernard Hopkins, but even the great Jones has been unable to keep Father Time at bay with a rapid-fire combination.
Yet truth be told, that may not be a bad thing, at least as far as fight fans are concerned. Back when Jones was turning back a host of mis-mandatory challengers and sprinkling in legit foes like Reggie Johnson, Eric Harding, Clinton Woods, and then-heavyweight champion John Ruiz, he made things look so easy that it wasn’t enjoyable to watch him. Sure it was interesting for the first few rounds to see if there was an upset in the making, but after that, fight fans – and Jones himself – got bored and just counted the minutes until the final bell rang.
Now though, the playing field has leveled quite a bit. Fighters who couldn’t have gotten close to Jones in his prime can not only get close, but they can punch him as well. A 40-year old Jones bleeds and can get knocked down and out. And as strange as it is to write this, he may just garner more fans now than when he was wiping out divisions a fighter at a time. Like Muhammad Ali, whose fanbase grew after his three year exile from the ring, when he had lost a step speedwise and instead replaced his otherworldly athletic skills with a hard-nosed determination and ability to stand in with and beat some of the biggest punchers of all-time (Foreman, Frazier, Shavers), Jones may become more popular simply because he’s not the best in the world anymore. Everyone loves the story of the everyman, the guy who makes it to the top with a basic set of skills and a refusal to lose. But people also love to see the immortals of sport succeed when they’re vulnerable, when everything isn’t going their way physically.
So while we won’t see the “old” Roy Jones on Saturday night, it may not be an old Roy Jones either – just something different.
“He really hasn’t lost anything but a little confidence,” said Roy Jones Sr. “He has maintained his skills; just a little tweak here and there will make all the difference in the world. I think now he understands he needs to maintain his skills and not spread himself too thin. You will see a little better performance from him.”
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