International Boxing Hall of Famer and one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters of all time Roy Jones Jr. joins Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson in-studio on this week’s installment of ALL THE SMOKE to discuss his legendary career. The four-division world champion opens up about being robbed of a gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games, breaks down some of his most memorable matches including James Toney, the Antonio Tarver trilogy, Felix Trinidad and more. He also talks about his favorite ring walks and pre-fight press conference moments, describes what it was like to face Mike Tyson in their recent exhibition and breaks down some of his favorite fighters today including Jaron Ennis and Gervonta Davis. Plus, Jones reveals his Mount Rushmore of boxers .
The following are excerpts from the episode:
On being robbed of a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics…
Jones – “My father used to always tell me, ‘Don’t cry. Just be cool. Don’t worry about it.’ So when it happened, I had been well-versed in how to react to it. What people didn’t understand was, my shirt didn’t say Jones on the back. My shirt said USA. I didn’t represent Roy Jones. I represented us as a country. If I act a fool, that’s going to look bad on us as a country.”
On his pro debut…
Jones – “I remember that the arena was packed. The guy wasn’t dressed right to be a real fighter…If you got on tennis shoes and you don’t have a fitted mouthpiece, you not beating me. Because you don’t care nothing about what you’re doing. You don’t have no business beating me and you got on tennis shoes. This dude came in and I didn’t like the way his trunks looked. He don’t care how he look so how’s he going to beat me? You can’t come in here dressed like that and beat me.”
On winning titles at both middleweight and heavyweight…
Jones – “Nobody had went from middleweight to heavyweight in 106 years. People say, ‘Oh, Roy’s good but Sugar Ray Robinson is better.’ Sugar Ray Robinson collapsed trying to win the light heavyweight title. He was a 147-pounder but he collapsed trying to win the light heavyweight title. So, I mean, really? It’s hard to find a person that was able to dominate from as far as I did. I went from 154 to heavyweight. Nobody ever did that before. So they always tell you, ‘Oh, this one’s pound-for-pound. I’m pound-for-pound.’ No! How many of them covered as much weight pound-for-pound as Roy did? None of them.”
On his fight against Felix Trinidad…
Jones – “I just knew that he was too small for me. It’s like if you get a six-foot guy in the post. And that’s what that was. He’s just a little too small for me. Yeah, I’m coming to 170 but you still too small for me. And I kind of knew that. Actually, that fight, I tore a bicep in my [left] arm a week-and-a-half before the fight. But I still knew he was too small for me. So I said, ‘Shit, if I can’t beat him with one hand there’s something wrong with me.’”
On his first professional loss coming via DQ…
Jones – “That ‘0’ meant a lot to me because had they not disqualified me, I probably would have never lost…That was a hell of a way to take a ‘0’ away from a guy who represented his country and got robbed one time already. Really? That’s what ya’ll going to do to me? After I just went out and represented our country. You saw them rob me over there and now you’re going to take my ‘0’ away from me as a pro? That’s a hurtful feeling, bro.”
On what fights he would like to see in 2022…
Jones – “Them lightweights get together and fight. I would like to see Wilder and Joshua fight just because we’ve always wanted to see that. I want to see [Jermall] Charlo vs. Canelo. I really want to see Eubank vs. Canelo. I want to see Eubank vs. Charlo. I want to see Charlo vs. Boo Boo [Andrade]…Boxing, we’ve got to give the fights that people want to see.”