Roy Jones' vulnerability revealed in a loss to Antonio Tarver
By Bruce Martinez
Boxing, more than any other sport, has the ability to strip someone bare. For 10 years, Roy Jones was the very best of the best, the pound-for-pound champion and the one fighter who could realistically be considered among the all-time greats, making trainers tear up and striking fear in everyone. The kind of fighter molded from one of Achilles's ribs, the kind you would skip your senior prom to see. I know, I've seen Roy Jones fight 31 times on television and have seen him work out six times in Las Vegas gyms.
Unfortunately, a perfect Antonio Tarver left hand stripped Jones bare and left him heaped on the mat like a fat kid hit with three dodge balls. Jones rose to his feet, but his knees buckled under him as the rest of the boxing world saw the mortality displayed in his glassy eyes. Referee Jay Nady waved the fight at 1:41 of the second round. The punch was an overhand left, perhaps the most vicious of its kind since Joe Frazier's, which started the liquefaction of Muhammad Ali's brain.
Jones had been beaten only once in 50 previous fights â€" and that was on a disqualification. To see him knocked silly by one punch left the crowd at the Mandalay Bay Hotel-Casino roaring. Then, the crowd was stunned in silence as nobody was quite able to process what they didn't really believe could happen. Even though Tarver had fought Jones to a mixed decision in November 2003, his bravado before the fight seemed like that of a man asking for a cigarette and a glass of scotch in a fundamentalist Islamic society just prior to a state-sponsored execution. Boxing was reminded that even the best must fall.
In falling, Jones may end up with more money and fame than he ever did in winning. The headlines after another Jones' victory would have merely read, "Jones wins again," or "Jones cruises to victory." Few outside of the biggest of boxing fans would have noticed. Instead, the sporting nation as a whole noticed the upset, pushing Jones into a name-recognition-stratosphere he has never experienced before. Casual fans were forced to notice Jones as he is now suddenly interesting.
Jones' prodigious talent had always left him inaccessible to fans. He was left to find gimmicks to promote his fights; remember his playing in an IBL basketball game hours before knocking out Rick Frazier in two rounds in 1999, a tactic that turned many fans off? With the defeat, he is able to come back, to return to grace. He is able to promote something besides his talent. If Jones defeats Tarver six months from now, it will be an acknowledgement of his fragility and also a testament to a kind of courage that many fans of the sport have sworn he has never had. If he retires, we will always be left saying Roy Jones had the talent and most of the heart, but just not that little bit that pushed the very best forward.
Boxers care about legacy only slightly less then outgoing presidents. With a defeat of Tarver and then a showdown with Bernard Hopkins at a catch weight, he can walk away from the sport as one of the best of the best. This loss gave Jones the ability to show everything he is capable of. But it also exposed Jones as everything we believed he could never be. For the first time in a long time, the sporting world is paying attention.
û Contact Bruce Martinez at (408) 554-4852 or bemartinez@scu.edu.