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UNEDITED, BY ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY:
ROUND ONE:
I have always liked the Gym and the banter that goes on there on a given day. Sometimes little rivalries develop. Sometimes guys argue about who is going to win an upcoming big fight or sometimes you have two amateur kids in the gym about to meet up in a tournament and the gym is divided on who the winner will be. Sometimes there is heated sparring going on and it can get personal with everybody in the gym egging the two boxers on. Sometimes the gym can get very personal to the point of blows being exchanged outside the ring. I've seen that a few times. Even been directly involved in the action on occasion.
Stuff like that. Sometimes there is funny dialogue, too.
Back around 1994 I was in the Gym sparring with my man Vinny Paz and afterwards, as usual, we hung out for a while and talked Boxing or whatever. Sometimes over the past few years I had come to spar and by chance I would have my Roy Jones T- Shirt on and sometimes the conversation would turn to Roy. I had sparred with both Vinny and Roy at that point many times already and could probably lay claim to being someone that could say they knew both guys very well inside the four ropes.
Vinny respected Roy a lot as a champion with skills but sometimes Kevin Rooney, Vinny's trainer, wouldn't be as impressed. Kevin is a Cus D'Amato disciple and I always got the impression that all the speed and flash didn't impress him very much. So, anyway, the three of us sat down that day at the round table in Vinny's gym and when I started talking good about Roy, Kevin got real animated as he sometimes does and started waving his hands saying "You know. You're always talking about Jones. Jones this, Jones that. Lemme' ask ya' something... who hits harder, Roy Jones or Vinny?!?"
I remember having the obvious feeling of being put on the spot. I am in the middle... Kevin to my left and Vinny two feet away to my right. I am honest about my boxing opinions/feelings and I am not one to lie just to sound good to who I am talking to. I looked at Kevin (he had a disgusted look on his face), then at Vinny (he knew what I was going to say), then back at Kevin.
"Well... Roy hits harder than Vinny." I was kind of quiet and even tempered with Kevin as I always respected him from when I first met him as a sixteen year old in 1983 when he had Tyson at the Gloves in Holyoke, Mass.
He twisted his face up at my response, though, and brushed me off with a wave of his hand and said "Ahhh, you don't know what you're talking about. You never been hit by him then." I still respect Kevin and we have been friendly together since that day, but for the next moment I became the real ME and I was talking to just some guy and not the famous Kevin Rooney. I said "What?? Man, YOU have never been hit by him. You don't know what your talking about because if YOU had been hit by him you wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation!!"
That pretty much ended the debating part of our conversation.
ROUND ONE:
I have always liked the Gym and the banter that goes on there on a given day. Sometimes little rivalries develop. Sometimes guys argue about who is going to win an upcoming big fight or sometimes you have two amateur kids in the gym about to meet up in a tournament and the gym is divided on who the winner will be. Sometimes there is heated sparring going on and it can get personal with everybody in the gym egging the two boxers on. Sometimes the gym can get very personal to the point of blows being exchanged outside the ring. I've seen that a few times. Even been directly involved in the action on occasion.
Stuff like that. Sometimes there is funny dialogue, too.
Back around 1994 I was in the Gym sparring with my man Vinny Paz and afterwards, as usual, we hung out for a while and talked Boxing or whatever. Sometimes over the past few years I had come to spar and by chance I would have my Roy Jones T- Shirt on and sometimes the conversation would turn to Roy. I had sparred with both Vinny and Roy at that point many times already and could probably lay claim to being someone that could say they knew both guys very well inside the four ropes.
Vinny respected Roy a lot as a champion with skills but sometimes Kevin Rooney, Vinny's trainer, wouldn't be as impressed. Kevin is a Cus D'Amato disciple and I always got the impression that all the speed and flash didn't impress him very much. So, anyway, the three of us sat down that day at the round table in Vinny's gym and when I started talking good about Roy, Kevin got real animated as he sometimes does and started waving his hands saying "You know. You're always talking about Jones. Jones this, Jones that. Lemme' ask ya' something... who hits harder, Roy Jones or Vinny?!?"
I remember having the obvious feeling of being put on the spot. I am in the middle... Kevin to my left and Vinny two feet away to my right. I am honest about my boxing opinions/feelings and I am not one to lie just to sound good to who I am talking to. I looked at Kevin (he had a disgusted look on his face), then at Vinny (he knew what I was going to say), then back at Kevin.
"Well... Roy hits harder than Vinny." I was kind of quiet and even tempered with Kevin as I always respected him from when I first met him as a sixteen year old in 1983 when he had Tyson at the Gloves in Holyoke, Mass.
He twisted his face up at my response, though, and brushed me off with a wave of his hand and said "Ahhh, you don't know what you're talking about. You never been hit by him then." I still respect Kevin and we have been friendly together since that day, but for the next moment I became the real ME and I was talking to just some guy and not the famous Kevin Rooney. I said "What?? Man, YOU have never been hit by him. You don't know what your talking about because if YOU had been hit by him you wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation!!"
That pretty much ended the debating part of our conversation.
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