They’re the American Hall of Famers who travelled Down Under to face Danny Green – and suffered wildly different fortunes.
Now Roy Jones Jnr and Antonio Tarver have delivered warnings of their own on the eve of this Sunday’s blockbuster showdown between Errol Spence Jnr and Australia’s own Tim Tszyu.
It has now been 17 years since Jones Jnr was sensationally KO’d in the first round of his IBO cruiserweight title fight against Green, who was himself an almost 9-1 underdog, at Sydney’s Acer Arena.
Speaking from his gym in Dallas, Texas this week, one of the world’s greatest fighters has delivered a stark warning for Tszyu — convinced the former world champion has as little as four rounds to finish Spence.
The declaration comes as Tarver has also questioned if Tszyu is already “a shot fighter”, while a Hall of Fame coach has explained why the Sydneysider was right to walk away from his last trainer, Cuba’s Pedro Diaz.
After three years away from boxing, Spence will finally return with the world watching this weekend when he throws down against Australia’s longtime boxing poster boy.
For Tszyu, the headliner is also a chance to catapult himself back to the top of world boxing, and despite having now lost three consecutive world title bouts — against Sebastian Fundora, twice, and Bakhram Murtazaliev.
Asked for a prediction this week, Jones Jnr backed Spence in a “slugfest”.
“It’s a hard call but I’m going for Errol,” he told FightHype. “I think he can withstand the start Tszyu is going to put on early. And if it gets past four or five rounds, Errol is definitely going to beat him.
“Errol, to me, is stronger later than anybody. You get him past round six and you’ve got problems on your hands. I don’t care who it is. But especially if he ain’t beat up or nothing. You get to round six with him and you’ve got a problem – that’s when he starts to come alive.”
Elsewhere in his interview with FightHype, Jones Jnr continued: “Errol is a pressure fighter.
“The point of his game is to bulldog you. And look what he has done so far. The only fighter he has ever lost to was Bud [Terence Crawford].
“And you ain’t gonna bulldog ‘Bud’, I’m sorry. But everybody else? If he can bulldog you he’s going to do it.
“His game is pressure. And pressure busts pipes.
“So he ain’t got to do everything right. Like Marvin Hagler. He kept that pressure on you … and pressure busts pipes.”
