YEARS ago at a boxing function, former belt-holder Joey Gamache’s wife asked me who my favorite fighter was. ?Outside of Joey you mean,? I said, being my diplomatic best. I did not give her a serious answer immediately, because as a journalist we are not supposed to admit to having favorites lest our objectivity be compromised.
The question perked my own curiosity and after thinking it over for a few seconds I blurted out the name Roy Jones. A pretty safe selection I thought. I always enjoyed watching him perform, perceived him as a good guy, a bit of a role model, and of course as a great boxer who was one of the best ever. Maybe he is all those things, but I would not mind changing those thoughts and my response.
At no point should it be surmised that Roy is a bad guy, he isn’t. What irks me is his indifference and an inflated enough ego that that did nothing but expand as the years passed.
Roy’s support for cockfighting I find distasteful, but vegetarians would probably say the same about all of us who regularly eat meat. Unlike other athletes who are in the news for an occasional criminal activity, Jones has been relatively clean if we choose to ignore him having tested positive once for steroids. Unless I missed something, I have never heard of Jones bashing a woman on the jaw or getting into it with hecklers at the bar.
I understand that all great fighters have a sense of denial about them, but Jones carries it to an extreme. His excuses have become endless and are somewhat retroactive. The latest news concerning Jones is that he is suing Danny Green over how he bandaged his hands for their fight. If there was a problem in this regard then why did Jones enter the ring? Chances are Roy thought he would beat Green fairly easily which is why he elected to box him in Australia in the first place, this after refusing to have boxed overseas his whole career.
How can we expect Jones to give credit to an opponent who beat him when he rarely gave any to the men he beat? Roy did not taunt opponents, but nevertheless humiliated them by his actions. Playing basketball the day of a fight, holding his hands behind his back, doing a kangaroo jump, and other assorted things might have gone over well with the crowd to a degree, but were totally devoid of sportsmanship. They were never done with a fight in the balance or to gain a psychological edge. They always occurred when the opponent was well beaten without a realistic chance of getting back into the fight.
Even the rare times Roy would heap praise on an opponent after having defeated him it was self-serving, for example Jones making it a point to tell us how good a fighter John Ruiz was and that he did not think there was any way he would beat him. Of course, by praising Ruiz, Jones was magnifying his achievement of winning a slice of the heavyweight crown. Ruiz was a legitimate top 10, maybe top five heavy when he lost to Jones. In reality many other light-heavyweights in history had beaten heavyweights of similar stature, but because Ruiz held a portion of a fractured title, Jones wanted to make it seem like his achievement was iconic.
Jones is a man of immense pride. Those late career losses to Antonio Tarver and Bernard Hopkins have had to irk him to a large degree. He reportedly dislikes both and would have liked nothing better than to rub their face in it the way they did to him.
Jones’ legacy is unclear. Most agree that he was the pound-for-pound king of his era. Never in history has there been a boxer who displayed the level of dominance that Jones did. Some might argue that his level of opposition was not strong, but many former belt-holders adorn his record.
The problem many have with Jones was his hesitancy to take risks while in his prime. Not until he was on the downslide was he willing to step up completely. The fights with Darius Michaelczewski and Joe Calzaghe (when Jones was in his prime) never happened. Because of his negative Olympic experience Jones became so paranoid about boxing overseas that he never did.
Jones has not announced his retirement following last April’s loss to Hopkins. Roy probably thinks there is a big fight out there for him, but if he is a realist must know it is now over. Hopefully he saved enough of his money and will not drag things out like the real pound for pound king Sugar Ray Robinson did. Badly in need of funds, Robinson boxed far past his prime and paid a heavy price for it in later years. It would be sad to see Jones struggling to win a fight on ESPN, then slurring his words years from now.
Jones is back doing telecasts on HBO at least temporarily. His work ethic was not always good when he had worked for them in the past so it came as a surprise that HBO went back to him. This is a great opportunity not to be taken for granted. It will allow him to remain in the limelight if the gig works out.
Nothing can detract from the great career that Jones has had. I just wish he had gone about things a little differently.
