Did Roy Jones Jr blatantly duck / avoid Dariusz Michaelczewski? Why?

[robertzimmerman]

Roy was always being tough on the negotiations, man. The B-Hop rematch could've happened in '02 but Roy had too much fun playing hard to get.

Nobody would've paid him 20-25 million to fight D.M. He even got less than 20 million for fighting Ruiz at heavyweight.

Roy didn't literally want that to fight Dariusz.

He just gave a crazy figure to illustrate a point. Which was that he didn't think he'd get a fair shake in Germany, and that he really had no intentions of ever going over.

At the time Roy was interviewed, Dariusz had repeatedly told the media that he was willing to go to the U.S. yet Roy knew that Dariusz's promoter wasn't willing to sit down with HBO's reps. In the end, he got sick of it all.

I think the quote he gave a reporter, was something like:

"They keep talking, but they won't sit down and negotiate. Hell, give me $12m and I'll go over there and whoop him"


The rematch with Bernard Hopkins that fell through was entirely due to Bernard.

Mark Taffet of HBO, is on record stating that behind the scenes, Bernard was offered $6m, and a comeback fight on the network if he was to lose. Roy was to earn $8m, as he'd beaten Bernard the first time, he was the undisputed LHW champ, and he'd have had to have dropped weight for the C-W. But Bernard refused and demanded $10m or no fight. He then took over a year out of the ring, before coming back to fight Morrade Hakkar for around $1.3m.

[robertzimmerman]

roy wanted $12 million to fight him in germany. he would have fought him in the US for much less.

the fight never happened because the fight never made any financial sense. roy was undisputed champion and everyone knew he would crush DM. DM had to weigh the pros and cons of one big pay day vs. roy, or very solid paydays for years to come hiding behind the unrecognized WBO title.

DM chose what was best for his wallet, as he should have.

Great post.

[Clegg]

I remember during/after a fight on HBO they interviewed Roy by satellite and he said he'd sent people to Germany to negotiate the fight but DM insisted on getting a bigger split than Roy.

[RedZmaja]

Dariusz Michalczewski was too slick, too Slavic...

[Zaroku]

Oh my GOD that fight would have been amazing. A KO either way! **** judges, no score cards woul be needed.

[Mr Objecitivity]

This has been done to death on here. Ha!


Basically, neither guy would make concessions to travel.

You can look back objectively and see how things looked from each guys perspective:


Dariusz:

He beat Hill first and was unfairly stripped of his titles, and was therfore the lineal LHW champ.


Roy:

He was the consensus P4P no.1 fighter in the world who'd beaten the likes of Bernard and Toney, and was the WBC, IBF and WBA champ at the time of negotiations.


Both of them were well within their rights to put the onus on each other to travel.


Below is a summary of what went down:


Dariusz's promoter, Peter Kohl, offered Roy $5m to go to Germany.

Roy refused, as he'd been robbed in the 88 Olympics, Germany was notorious for bad decisions at the time, and he felt as though Dariusz was still unproven against top opposition.

Kohl reportedly offered the same again.

Roy again refused.

Kohl then made a statement saying that if Roy and HBO wanted Dariusz to go to the U.S. then they'd have to make it worth their while.

Kerry Davis of HBO along with Roy's advisors, repeatedly tried to make contact with Kohl.

Kohl purposely refused HBO's calls, as he was still pi$$ed that Roy had turned him down twice previously.

HBO sent a fax across of a proposed double header, which would have introduced Dariusz to a live U.S. audience.

Khol was insulted by the offer, claiming that Dariusz wasn't an undercard fighter.

All negotiations fizzled out.


Afterwards, Dariusz continued to milk his WBO belt in Germany, against mainly B and C class fighters, whereas Roy ended up fighting Ruiz and Tarver after missing out on Trinidad and Hopkins.

Both guys had/have huge egos.

I don't blame either guy really, but I didn't like the fact that Dariusz claimed he was ready to go to the U.S. when clearly that wasn't the case.

I also think that Roy was well within his rights not to travel, especially after the 88 Olympics, and he'd seen Dariusz feign injury in order to get Graciano Rocchigianni disqualified in their first fight.

I don't believe that Roy ducked him. I believe he would have fought him in the U.S.

Roy proved by offering Hopkins huge money, and then going on to fight Ruiz and Tarver, that he was serious about pursuing big fights.

It's a real shame we never saw the fight.

If Dariusz hadn't lost his belts, things could have turned out very different.

Very good, informative, well thought out and detailed comment. Green K sent for it!

Although from what I've learnt. Dariusz Michaelczewski was willing to travel to USA to get his belts back that was unfairly stripped off him. However, he demanded the appropriate money. Not only was sufficient money unprovided, but further obstacles were constantly being put in front of Dariusz Michalczewski unfairly by having prerequisites of him having to box against many other opponents in USA to qualify for his bout against Roy Jones Jr. Appears to be very unjust and harsh treatment to the foreign boxer.

Also, Germany really isn't as corrupt as many make it out to be. The scoring is usually pretty fair and objective. It isn't any more corrupted than USA. The odd, inaccurate scoring does occur from time to time but this applies pretty much everywhere.

[Mr Objecitivity]

roy wanted $12 million to fight him in germany. he would have fought him in the US for much less.

the fight never happened because the fight never made any financial sense. roy was undisputed champion and everyone knew he would crush DM. DM had to weigh the pros and cons of one big pay day vs. roy, or very solid paydays for years to come hiding behind the unrecognized WBO title.

DM chose what was best for his wallet, as he should have.

Analyzing this from a neutral / an objective perspective, why don't you give us the full story? Wasn't Michalczewski's titles / belts unfairly stripped off from him? In other words, Roy Jones Jr ultimately became merely a paper 'undisputed champion' by unfairly getting the belts / titles that belonged to Michalczewski stolen from the rightful owner.

Didn't Michalczewski agree on a bout against Roy Jones Jr in USA but wasn't payed sufficient money that was required? In addition to having prerequisites put in front of him where he had to beat other boxers in USA before he qualified for a bout against Roy Jones Jr. And I mean multiple other boxers, just for one bout to regain his well deserved world title belt.

These things have to be taken into consideration as well in order to be fair and objective. Rather than putting all the blame on one side.

and everyone knew he would crush DM.

Who was 'everyone'? Just Americans? Just Westerners (British and Americans)? Does 'everyone' also apply to Polish, Germans and other Eastern Europeans? Or do they somehow not matter when discussing about 'everyone'?

[daggum]

who cares. we almost got to see darius vs sven ottke but fate ruined that super fight

[GhostofDempsey]

Neither of them were willing to go across the pond to face the other. Jones was concerned about getting screwed on the scorecards in Europe. He had already been screwed in the Seoul Olympics and refused to fight Daruisz in Germany. Aside from that, he was also what we now call the A-side of that potential match up. It was Dariusz who priced himself out. He insisted on somewhere between $6-$8M to fight Jones (his biggest purse prior was about $1.5M), and when he was offered I believe $5M, he refused. Would have been a good fight, but I would have favored Jones to win by UD.

[N/A]

Analyzing this from a neutral / an objective perspective, why don't you give us the full story? Wasn't Michalczewski's titles / belts unfairly stripped off from him?

No. He chose to hide behind an unrecognized title to avoid top competition. He was rightfully stripped for refusing to give up the WBOgus belt.