24.09.04 – By Coach Tim Walker: Make no mistake about it all Roy Jones Jr. has to do to put himself into the light heavyweight mix is win against Glengoffe Johnson. But for the first time in his life a win might not be enough to mend the hearts of his broken devotees. Sure simply winning will get him the belt that he needs for extra bargaining power in the highly anticipated third edition of Jones vs. Tarver. But for the thousands who were in attendance, and for the millions who watched around the world, and for the subsequent tens of millions who were later told about his knock out loss at the company water cooler, nothing less than boxing superiority ending in a hapless Johnson sprawled across the ring floor will be acceptable.
Many have invested their boxing hopes in Jones and he holds himself to a high boxing standard that is based on bending his opponents will into submission. When critics’ opinions would rise from their bellies like a left hand hangover the Roy faithful waged verbal wars to prove that the chiseled chest of Roy is embossed with the superman logo. If he isn’t embossed with the logo then he should be.
In May Antonio Tarver did in less than 2 rounds what no other professional boxer had done in 50 fights. He knocked Jones out. It was only the second time in his career had Jones even been on the canvas. As Roy slid through the ropes there was a loud thud. The thud was not Roy hitting the canvas it was the collective jaw dropping of everyone watching. For those people the hero had been slain by the dragon and that’s just not the way the story is supposed to end. The hero is supposed to ride his steed into the sunset as he strums his guitar. In Roy’s case the steed would be a Hummer H2 and his guitar would be a custom audio system.
Most expected a challenge from Tarver but no one, besides maybe Tarver and Buddy, believed that he could actually KO Junior. In boxing a knock out is the most definitive result of a fight. The KO effectively ends the fight irregardless of the level of successful a fighter has experienced. That has been the thorn in his fans’ side. It is difficult to argue about how good a boxer was doing when in the end he was floored.
The fans of Roy need something clever to come back with during the greatest of all time and pound for pound arguments. “Tarver knocked Roy out” pretty much stops the faithful dead in their tracks and makes the case a one sided spat. For that night the S should be emblazoned on his chest if for no other reason than to give his fans a leg in the P4P race. For that night simply winning isn’t enough. For that night Glengoffe has to be the example of what Jones can do.