16.08.09 – Paul Strauss: Roy Jones, Jr., at age forty, can still muster up some incredible skills. At the Gulf Coast Arena in Biloxi, MS on Saturday night he not only beat Jeff Lacy, he did it with the pugilistic version of reading Braille. Instead of feeling the raised dots on a piece of paper, Jones, Jr. would feel the raised lumps on Lacy’s body and head as they erupted after his punches landed. It was an unbelievable demonstration. At first his tactic of looking away from Lacy to the crowd seemed cause for concern. One couldn’t help but conjure up the kayo damages he suffered at the hands of Glen Johnson and Antonio Tarver. But, those concerns proved unnecessary.
It was as announcer Barry Tompkins described, Roy was administering a good old fashioned whuppin on Lacy.. It’s a good thing for Lacy that he kept his head down when on the inside, because if he could have seen Roy mugging to the fans, he would have realized how hopeless his task was in trying to beat Roy. Roy was not one bit concerned with anything Jeff was trying to do. In fact, Roy seemed to be carrying on a conversation with the audience much of the time. It was like that old saying…….”adding insult to injury”.
It was uncanny how Roy could feel the position of Jeff’s body and then demonstrate this innate ability to react accordingly with the correct head movement, shoulder roll, or inside uppercut. The Left Hook Lacy of old was rendered almost harmless. By the end of the stoppage, which occurred at 3:00 of the tenth round, Lacy’s face was badly swollen and he was having difficulty seeing, which unlike Roy, he needed to do.
In addition to the “touchy-feely” technique, Roy also showed flashes of old when he would fire off six or seven left hooks in a row with blinding speed. On another occasion when he and Jeff were at close quarters, he looked to the fans and seemed to say, “Watch this!” Then he proceeded to throw several short right uppercuts accentuated with a corresponding jump off the canvas with both feet. He was enjoying himself, and there wasn’t a darn thing Jeff could do about it.
It now looks like he might be headed to Australia to fight his friend Denny Green, who earlier in the card stopped Julio Cesar Dominquez in the fifth round. Green too was impressive, but in a different way. With Dominquez, Green was dealing with a raw, clumsy but very tough opponent. Green took his time, landing hard jabs, and trying to get Dominquez to throw his wild right, so he could counter it. He dropped Dominquez in the second round with a counter right, and continued the assault into the third. He had Dominquez so flustered and hurt, that Dominquez fired a few swings so wild that they glanced off the back of the referee, who had foolishly stepped in to separate the two wrestling on the inside. Green landed hard shots throughout the fight, but in the fifth he landed several particularly hard shots, and Dominquez’s corner had the good sense to jump into the ring and demand the referee stop the slaughter. Their charge had the will but not the skill.
B.J. Flores hardly had a glove laid on him during his demonstration of superior boxing skill over Epifanio Mendoza. It was evident from beginning that it was only a matter of time before Mendoza would be stopped. Flores’ speed, both of hand and foot, and far better boxing ability led to his fourth round 1:19 TKO of Mendoza.
Jason Litzau was equally impressive in his one-sided annihilation of Verquan Kimbrough. Litzau came out throwing long hard right hands from the opening bell. He obviously was enjoying his five inch height advantage. He was looking to end things early, and was oblivious to Kimbrough’s power or lack thereof, risking counters by transitioning to the southpaw stance while right in front of Verquan. However, Kimbrough came out looking tentative (kind of like Carano did against Cyborg), and Litzau smelled blood. He was swarming all over Kimbrough with hard shots to both the body and head, but in the process was a somewhat wild and vulnerable to counters, but Kimbrough could not take advantage of the openings.
Litzau, as always, was intent on giving the fans a good show and, as previously mentioned, was willing to take chances in the process. In this case, he got away with it, and walked away with an exciting 3rd round TKO (corner stopped it). Undoubtedly his impressive and exciting showing will result in another televised fight. Hopefully for him it will be another good pay day.
One has to worry though whether his lack of good defense will be his undoing against better opposition. He’s already been disposed of by Robert Guerrero and Jose Andres Hernandez. In the latter fight, Litzau was comfortably ahead on points until he got careless and suffered a kayo. His cornerman warned him midway through the fight that “This is the big time and don’t get careless!” Jason, ignored the warning and got caught and KO’d at 2:52 of the eighth round.
Well, he’s only twenty-six, and now has another chance to climb back into contender status. Hopefully, he will understand how fortunate he is to get this second chance, and realize that although it’s a good thing to want to please the fans, it’s also good to protect yourself at all times. Good luck to The American Boy.