A kinder, gentler Roy Jones Jr.
By Fred De La Riva
18.02 - By now everybody in the boxing scene and a few outside of it have read Cal Fussman's Esquire interview of Roy Jones Jr. To say that Roy was on fire that particular day is an understatement and for my money Roy is the most compelling fighter today this side of Bernard Hopkins. Give Roy a good premise and he’ll create some magic and boy did he deliver. Whatever Fussman did to incite him worked and I loved every minute of it.
" I ain’t the toughest (expletive) in the world. I ain’t Mr. Superman. Not trying to be Mr. Tough Guy. Don’t want to be. Tell you one thing, though: I’m one of the smartest (expletive) in the world. You’ve been talking to a (expletive) genius"
Smartest huh? Genius huh? OK Roy. Here’s one for you. Let’s see how you do. What weighs more? 100 pounds of feathers or 100 pounds of your bull puckey?
Give up?
They both weigh the same, but one smells a heck of a lot worse and let me tell you why. This situation your in, if you want to call that was mostly your doing. Back when you won the middleweight title from Hopkins, you had the opportunity to build a tremendous fan base. Let me remind everyone that in the mid nineties the middleweight division and the two surrounding it were stacked with talent. There was Julian Jackson, Terry Norris, Chris Eubank, Nigel Benn, Gerald McClellan and of course James Toney. You could have thrown Steve Collins into the mix too, but for some reason, your paths never crossed. Your list of opponents "aren’t good" as you stated, but you’ve been self-promoted for a long time, so the fault lies with you. If a fighter wants a fight to really happen, it somehow gets made. Just ask your opponent John Ruiz.
"Oscar De La Hoya can kiss my ass. The Golden Boy. Guaranteed, I'd beat him and two or three more of those (expletive) in the same day"
Back in the 90’s Terry Norris made similar comments about Julio Cesar Chavez, who like Oscar De La Hoya was a big draw regardless of whom he fought. Though Terry’s challenge was enthralling, it was at the same time ludicrous. Chavez at the time was the 140 lb champion and Terry outweighed him by 14 lbs. With Roy’s size, it’s silly of him to challenge anyone below 160, especially a man who has moved up from 130 pounds. Think about it`. What would you say if Oscar would challenge Floyd Mayweather? Again. The match is compelling, but one has an unfair size advantage.
"I give my roosters the best of food. I give them the best of care. I give them everything they want before I ask them to sacrifice. Get a rooster comfortable and he'll fight his ass off. That's all I ask of HBO. They just can't see that."
I don’t know the exact terms of Roy’s HBO contract, but the ten million he is going to receive for the Ruiz fight should make one very comfortable, but that’s easy enough for me to say, since I’m not the one getting a glove to my face.
Winning by losing
A funny thing happened to Tim Austin last Saturday night. He went from being a feared 118 champion to becoming a respectable 122 lb opponent. There were certain times in the fight when Austin would square himself up to Marquez and would take a few punches in return. He seemed to take control of the fight in the end of the third round by clocking Rafael Marquez with his powerful left, but the younger Marquez finally caught him in the very exciting 8th round. In front of Austin lies bigger money fights with men such as Oscar Larios, Ayala and the always fun Johnny Tapia. Hell maybe he can even challenge current WBO champ, Agapito Sanchez who is very durable, but also very beatable. At 31, Austin still has some time left. Who said nice guys should finish last.
Once again the "Unofficial" Official Boxing Awards of the Month
Since the for all intents and purposes the boxing calendar is pretty much over with Etienne and Tyson calling their fight off, I would like to once again announce my boxing awards of the month.
- The "I should change my name" Award goes to Michael Corleone of Brooklyn, New York who has lost his 7 of his last 8 fights. Four of those have been by way of knockout. So let me make him an offer he can’t refuse. We’ll let him keep his last name, but how about changing his first name to Fredo?
- The "Getting Jiggy With It" Award goes to Juan "El Pollo" Valenzuela who danced every time Ricardo Williams hit him with anything solid.
- The "Love me Daddy" Award goes to Winky Wright as he tried to make his case to Top Rank kingpin Bob Arum on the Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian show here in Los Angeles. I don’t see the Oscar/Winky fight anytime soon, unless Winky changes his name to Ronaldo " Winkyo" Gonzales.
- The "Everything you could do, I could do better" Award goes to Rafael Marquez in winning the IBF 118 lb championship last Saturday night against Tim Austin. Rafael fought a tremendous 8th round and stole a victory from Tim Austin, who had Marquez in serious trouble. His victory over Austin was much more intriguing than his older sibling’s victory over Manuel Medina.
- The "Panchito Bojado" Award goes to Ricardo Williams in his gallant, but losing effort to Juan Valenzuela. Williams made the mistake of expecting Valenzuela of lying down based on the reputation Williams brought to the ring.
- The "Maybe Next Time, I’ll Keep My Mouth Shut" Award goes to Tim Austin’s trainer Aaron Snowell, as he screamed towards the direction of the Rafael Marquez corner. "It won’t be long now!"
Tooting my own horn
It has been said that if you give a monkey a typewriter and a long enough time, he can write a novel. We’ll this monkey has written his first "novel" as I correctly predicted the Marquez brothers winning titles in 2003. Not too bad for a two bit pug like me. Granted the elder Marquez was destined to win a title, but calling for Tim Austin to be upset was a bit risky in my opinion.
And last, but certainly non least……..
Since I was not old enough to have had the pleasure of following Kid Gavilan’s career, I can only comment of the few fight clips I have watched of this Latin Legend. The first actual fight clips I saw, were on Lee Librado’s Champions Forever: The Latin Legends video. From those few fight scenes I became enchanted with his legend and read all I could about him. He was inducted into the IBHOF in 1990 after posting a career record of 107 wins, 30 losses and 6 draws. He was never knocked out and that’s after fighting men like Sugar Ray Robinson. His death this past Thursday was a great loss to the boxing community. Donations should be made to help Gavilan’s family at the following address.
Funeraria Mascón
7895 S.W. 30th St.
Miami, Florida 33018
