Boos, as thick as the Pensacola humidity, buzzed the air as both groups of fans showed their distaste for what they were seeing?
On the occasion of Roy Jones Jr.?s alleged farewell fight this Thursday:
It was called March Badness and never has there been a more appropriately named pay-per-view event.
Intended as Roy Jones? self-promoted comeback spectacular on March 21, 2009, March Badness was put together with the best of intentions and meant to appeal to all demographics. It was a boxing/MMA show with young boxers, established MMA names, former pro wrestler Bobby Lashley in an MMA feature, and, of course, most of all, it was a hometown Pensacola, Florida showcase for a supposedly rejuvenated Roy Jones Jr. It covered all bases, except one?quality control. It was just a godawful mess.
Boxing and MMA can co-exist in the same universe, but it was doubtful whether both sets of fans could exist in the same auditorium, on the same card. However, on this date, the impossible happened? boxing fans and MMA fans stood united (by their dislike for a truly horrible undercard). Boos, as thick as the Pensacola humidity, buzzed the air as both groups of fans showed their distaste for what they were seeing.
The exact order of events is mercifully fuzzy in the mind now, but the show alternated between boxing and MMA. Paying customers saw a bit of everything that night: Sloppy club fights, obese mixed martial artists dry humping along the ring ropes, a jacked-up pro wrestler prison raping some strip mall karate student, an extra de-motivated BJ Flores pecking his way to a boring win over a journeyman, and, of course, there was the main event?the only fight anyone in attendance cared about.
Somehow, Omar Sheika found his boxing license after 18 months of inactivity and defied all odds by actually making it through the ring ropes without falling face-first to the canvas.
Jones came out next and proceeded to rip apart a hapless Sheika, going through all the motions of a prime Jones at half-speed and bringing the partisan hometown crowd to its feet. This was Roy Jones Jr. on a sliding fee scale; a Jones at 50% walking all over a Sheika at 40%.
The dancing and juking and jiving of a 40-year-old Jones seemed sad and almost pathetic against a shell of a fighter in Sheika who, even in his prime, was no match for 50% of Roy Jones. And, lest it be forgotten, a special nod of disdain should go to the WBO for actually sanctioning this farce as a title fight for the vacant NABO light heavyweight title.
After Sheika was stopped in the fifth, the Pensacola crowd erupted and the previous hours of torture were forgiven. But what about those outside of hardcore Jones fans and Pensacola natives?
Those unfortunate few lured by nostalgia into making an unfortunate impulse buy would forever be bonded together as survivors of the worst pay-per-view in boxing history.
It?s hard to digest that March Badness was about nine years and sixteen fights ago and that, even at the opening bell of that mess, Jones was easily nine or ten years past his prime and four years past the point of even being a viable fringe top ten fighter.
And now he?s here, announcing that, at 49 years of age, his upcoming February 8 bout with journeyman Scott Sigmon on UFC Fight Pass will be his last. Hopefully, this WILL be Jones? last fight. But, of course, if he does well and the UFC offers him a chance to meet Anderson Silva?
