03.10.05 – By Geoffrey Ciani: “How many people do you know of, who are crazy enough to come back after two consecutive knockouts and fight one of the guys that knocked you out. When it comes down to it, this really shows the heart that I got.”
These were the words spoken by Roy Jones Junior in the aftermath of his unanimous decision loss to Antonio Tarver on Saturday night. Sadly, the fact of the matter is, simply taking the fight does not in itself constitute heart; heart is exhibited in the boxing ring, and Jones didn’t show any. In fact, this fight might be representative of his entire career. After all, this fight illustrated one thing that was constant throughout his career – the fact that Roy Jones Junior never dared to be great.
Roy Jones Junior was one of the absolute greatest talents to ever enter the ranks of professional boxing. Jones possessed a unique combination of athleticism, speed, and reflexes that few other boxers have had in the history of the sweet science. In fact, he could have been one of the greatest boxers to ever lace up the gloves, but one thing stopped him from ever achieving that level of greatness – the fact that he never dared to be great.
This was obvious in Saturday night’s rubber match between Jones and Tarver. Roy Jones was reluctant to fight. He never gave himself a chance to win this fight. Instead, he was content running for cover throughout the match, doing all that he could to avoid engaging in any type of meaningful exchanges with his opponent. Jones was seemingly more focused on not getting knocked out, rather than being focused on actually winning the boxing match. This has been a consistent problem throughout Jones’s career. In this writer’s view, he’d have better served himself by taking a chance and daring to be great – even if it resulted in him being knocked out. Instead, he lost a lop-sided decision in which he cheated both his fans and himself, because he never even tried to win.
Throughout Jones’s career, he cheated boxing, the fans, and himself, so this is nothing new for Jones. It just further exposes what many suspected about Roy all along: that is, he’d rather take the path of least resistance than to actively pursue a great challenge. Despite the fact Jones has won titles in four different weight-classes, he never beat the man who was considered to be “the top dog” in any of those divisions. On the contrary, it can be said that Jones often avoided such challenges at all costs. A short list of fighters that never appeared on Jones’s resume include Julian Jackson, Gerald McClellan, Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank, and of course, Dariusz Michalczewski. It’s no coincidence that these were some of the strongest punchers in their respective divisions at the time Jones could have fought them. However, instead of fighting them, Jones took the path of least resistance avoiding these challenges at all costs.
I find it interesting that leading up to the past two weeks, many boxing fans were actively discussing the ‘weak chins’ possessed by heavyweight contender Wladimir Klitschko and Roy Jones. Prior to their respective matches, both Klitschko and Jones had been on the receiving end of some rather vicious knockouts. Naturally, this led to fans questioning whether or not their chins were up to the challenge of standing up to a good punch. While I think it might be unfair to consider either of their chins to be made of “glass”, it’s pretty clear that neither fighter had a chin made of “granite”. That said, there is one major difference between the two fighters: Wladimir Klitschko showed heart and dared to be great, whereas Jones clearly did not.
That’s the saddest thing about Jones’s third consecutive loss. He was probably the more talented fighter of the two in the ring, and he probably could have won the match had he not been so reluctant to fight. In the 4th round, Jones began to show signs that he had what it took to beat Tarver, but in the end – he just never dared to be great.
To contact the author of this article, e-mail: geoff@eatthemushroom.com – www.eatthemushroom.com