For years, the knock on Roy Jones? career has been the overwhelming talent he possessed never quite matching his desire to push himself in the ring. Often came the comparisons to Sugar Ray (Robinson or Leonard, take your pick) in wondering if Jones would prove to be just as sweet. Instead, the career choices he made left fans sour enough to tab him Reluctant Roy.
Nearly a decade after his best days in the ring, the former four-division champion once again sets his sights on the path of least resistance in his latest efforts to cheat boxing history.
It was announced a while ago that his next fight will headline an independent pay-per-view card in Biloxi, Mississippi on August 15 against Jeff Lacy, matching a pair of Florida-bred former Olympians and titlists in what these days amounts to a loser leaves town match.
A recent AP report coming out of Australia confirmed the card?s co-feature battle ? Danny Green of Australia traveling halfway around the world to take on Julio Cesar Dominguez.
On its own, the two fights don?t make for a bad pairing, especially considering past Square Ring-promoted pay-per-view events, most of which are legitimate candidates for the worst shows in recent boxing history.
However, it?s the side note that leaves a bad taste in the mouths of many boxing fans.
Despite both Green and Dominguez primarily campaigning as light heavyweights, there are talks of the fight being sanctioned as a vacant cruiserweight title fight. Somehow, someway, a sanctioning body deems it acceptable to put their cruiserweight title on the line for a fight between fringe light heavyweight contenders.
Even worse, the plan is for Jones to face the winner, with the tagline that a win in such a fight would earn him the distinction of becoming a five-division ?world? champion.
On the surface, it?s easy to dismiss this claim. Alphabet title belts are a dime a dozen these days, and the belt at stake (the IBO) isn?t even considered among the big three (or four, depending on your viewpoint).
But there is a problem with that. Some writers have taken it upon themselves to classify this particular alphabet group as the one to which we should turn in seeking true champions.
To the IBO?s credit, a paper trail is made available in justifying their ratings. Rather than rank fighters on a whim, the chosen method of oh so many sanctioning bodies (not to mention a few magazines and publications), the Florida-based organization uses a computerized system to place fighters from one to 100.
Among their current roster of champions are Wladimir Klitschko (Heavyweight), Chad Dawson (Light Heavweight) and Manny Pacquiao (Super Lightweight), all three of whom are widely regarded as the very best of their respective divisions.
That?s where their credibility ends.
Even with ranking 100 fighters per weight class, residing in that particular division has never been a prerequisite for fighting for any of the organization?s titles.
Case in point, neither Green nor Dominguez are ranked at cruiserweight ? how can they be when they?ve never even fought at the weight.
Both are ranked in the IBO?s light heavyweight rankings. Green was given a number nine spot upon winning his first fight in 16 months this past April. The Aussie had previously announced his retirement three months after decisively defeating Stipe Drews in December 2007.
Dominguez is rated number 33, though a note to the far right of his ledger shows that he is 0-3 lifetime against Top 50 competition. Such a mark is almost always a tell tale sign of a paper-thin resume, which is precisely what Dominguez boasts.
Jones? career ledger is anything but paper thin; in fact first ballot Hall-of-Fame worthy. But that?s his career as a whole. You?d think his credit would?ve run out long ago.
Guess again.
So long as he is still Roy Jones by name, there will always exist an entity in our red-light district of a sport to attach their brand to his events. It matters little that his last relevant win came six years ago and that the only way he can secure airtime these days is headlining his own independent pay-per-views.
HBO managed to squeeze out the last remaining drops of his career with a pair of pay-per-view appearances in 2008. He cruised to a decision win over a shot and flabby version of Felix Trinidad to begin the year, ending it 10 months later with a lopsided loss to Joe Calzaghe.
There?s little shame in losing to an all-time great like Calzaghe, except there exists little evidence that Jones can even serve as a gatekeeper in today?s light heavyweight division, never mind ever making another championship run.
Before the Calzaghe debacle, his last run of bad luck came with his three straight losses spanning 2004 and 2005. He managed four wins between his two most recent defeats, but none against the type of competition to suggest he?s not as shot now as he was perceived to be even before he began to lose as much as he won.
Throughout his career and even more so in the twilight, Jones has promised the world but rarely delivered, at least not beyond 1998. Even in the heart of his prime, his greatness was always assumed, but never quite confirmed.
Championship reigns at middleweight and super middleweight began with wins over future Hall of Famers Bernard Hopkins and James Toney, with all of his title defenses between the two weight classes ending inside of the distance.
Missing among the defenses, however, were fights against the division?s very best while he reigned supreme.
At middleweight, there was the win over Bernard Hopkins well before said conquered would go onto become one of the division?s all-time best. A single title defense came (against Thomas Tate) before bolting to super middleweight.
The virtuoso performance against James Toney was taken as a sign that Jones was ready to get serious about his career, and put something behind the words that claimed him to be destined for the same level of greatness bestowed upon the likes of Robinson, Ali, Louis, Armstrong, et al.
Instead, it was excuses as to why fights against the very best couldn?t be made. More of the same followed at light heavyweight, where he would scoop up belts against various misfits, but hardly pushing for a fight from whom they were stripped – Dariusz Michalczewski.
Both fighters are to blame for failing to get together for the one fight that would?ve long ago determined light heavyweight supremacy. But ultimately, the onus is on Jones ? great fighters make great fights happen, period.
His 2003 win over John Ruiz would make Pensacola?s finest four for four in terms of skimming the surface but never quite diving all the way in to a division and ruling with an iron fist. Wolf tickets were sold in through-the-media faux negotiations with Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield.
Instead came a return to light heavyweight, where for the first time nearly a decade he would take a man truly regarded as his top contender ? Antonio Tarver. Ironically, it was the one time Jones would prove his mettle, digging deep in the championship rounds to win a fight that was perceived to be either fighter?s to win all the way through.
It would also turn out to be his last great win.
The rest is history, though not the kind that he wants people to remember. Come later this year, Jones and his handlers will try their hardest to insist otherwise, claiming him as one of the few in boxing history to have nabbed world titles in five separate weight classes.
Even if he goes on to win the spurious title at cruiserweight, it can at best be compared to his tours in every other weight class he?s campaigned ? good enough to place a belt around his waist, but never definitively establishing a legacy.
If the location holds true ? the pending fight with Green destined for Australia, then Jones will have done something that?s never before happened in his professional career ? fighting outside of the United States.
That ? and that alone ? is all that he will have accomplished in this two fight package, other than pulling off his latest attempt to once again cheat boxing history.
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at [email protected].
