By Tony Nobbs: With the most defining punch thrown by an Australian fighter, Danny Green knocked down and soon stopped eight time world champion Roy Jones junior at Sydney’s Acer Arena in NSW on Wednesday night. The West Australian retained his IBO Cruiserweight championship for the first time.
While the fight last just two minutes and two seconds the memory of the ocasion will live forever. For that’s what it was. An occasion. The thirty or so minutes between the main cutain raiser and the headline revved the capacity (18,000) crowd into a frenzy. With John Williamson singing “True Blue” and an old favorite “Old Man Emu” the Aussie spirit in everyone was at fever pitch.
The wait was caused by last minute dramas over who came out first. Green, the champion, won..
By the time Green came out to “Land Down Under” – well the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. Then came Williamson singing the National Anthem. It made you proud to be Australian.
The first minute and a half of the fight saw Jones moving and Green stalking. Jones’ best moment came when he snapped Green’s head back with a stiff jab. A brief flash. Jones positioned himself in a nutetral corner – as he has many times before. Green looked for the opening but a shimmy from the Floridian saw Green allow him out and follow him to the challengers corner. A double jab was followed by an arching right hand. Landing on the temple area, Jones crumbled to the canvas. For a few seconds it looked like he was not going to beat the count. You don’t recover from those shots. Proud, he did rise. Danny rushed in. He wasn’t going to let this chance go. He kept punching while Roy covered up with his arms held high. Instinctively Jones threw a right hand and the champion momentarily stopped his assault before again pinning Jones on the ropes where he continued to work over the future hall of famer. At the2.02 second mark, English referee Howard Foster waved it off.
“I don’t know what to say. I told you guys this one’s for you. This is Australia’s victory” said a jubilant Green (now 28-3, 25 whacks).
“This is the third greatest monent of my life” said the proud 36 year old Perth father of two.
“He (Jones) is one of the greatest fighters of all time. I almost feel bad doing that to someone who I asppired to and looked up to as a professional figher inside and outside of the ring. He is a bloody legend. Thank you Roy Jones.”
“I didn’t surprise myself. We told everyone if I caught him clean we would win by knockout.”
“Paul Briggs, Barry Michael, Dean Waters, you backed me. Thanks guys”.
He then took aim at his detractors. “Everyone who doubted me, shove it up your backsides. To all the critics who bagged me, said I wasn’t an elite fighter – guys, you don’t know shit!”
Jones (now 54-6, 40 ko’s) was distraught after the loss. Perhaps the last of his great career.
“I’ve got to take my hat off to Danny, he fought a great fight. We’re not making excuses. I just fought a great opponent tonight”.
“I didn’t undersetimate him. I knew it was going to be a tough fight. Nothing went wrong. I just got with a good shot. That’s boxing. It happens.”
Retirement?
“Maybe. I’ll go back home and see. I’m forty years old, I have done everything I needed to.”
Green’s trainer Angelo Hyder was delighted with his fighters performance.
“First thing, I want to thank (New York Agent) Rick Glaser, who organised the sparring for this fight. He went about his job professionally and got us the best guys (Cedric Agnew and Anthony Ice Greenidge). They played a big part in the end result “ said the man known as “H”.
“I want to commend Danny on the eight weeks of preparaton. He is not a bloke who likes to change things, he likes to stick to a routine. For this fight he went out of the normal realms of boxing training. I told him we are fighting a super human fighter and we have to do
different things”.
Was he surprised by the quickness of the fight?
“No. I told everyone Danny would knock him out. I said itcould be late or it could be early. I knew when Danny caught up with him, he was going to stop him. Everyone spoke about the speed difference (being too much) but if you look at the fight, Danny was out jabbing Roy. His speed surprised Roy.”
What future fights can we expect?
“Danny needs big fights. Whether it be Holyfield, Dawson, Hopkins, we are now in the position to bring those blokes here. The Australian public got behind this fight. This was a win for all the battlers out there. The battlers support Danny because he is just a good knock about bloke.
He will sit down in a pub and have a beer with anyone.”
In under card bouts: Steve Wills won the IBO regional Asia Pcific light welterweight strap with a four round TKO over ex WBF welterweight champ Chad Bennett. WBO # 14 Wills hurt Bennett in the first two rounds, dropped him hard in the third and continued to punishment until the ref stopped it after Benett fell to the canvas after being hit with
uppercuts inside.
Australian prospect Wild Will Tomlinson kept his perfect knocout win ratio intact stopping handy American Verqhan Kimbrough in three rounds of a lightweight eight rounder. The visitor had good skills but lacked the punch to get the Sydney based Tomlinson’s respect. The fight was wisely stopped after Kimbrough rose from a knock down on
unsteady legs.
WBO # 8 light middleweight Ryan Waters appeared fortunate to get away with a six round draw against ex 154 lb national champ Tui Leveni in a midleweight stoush. Leveni .scored a knockdown in the final seconds which looked to have sealed him victory. However the judges were split. Eastside tabbed it 58-55 for Levini. A willing scrap that was marred by too much clinching and looping punches.
Jones sparring partner Rayco War Saunders scored a seven stanza verdict over Tongan Walter Pupu’a in a classy cruiserweight clash. After a slow start, Saunders got on top over the final few rounds connecting with several clean right hands. Eastside had it 68-65, Saunders.
In the opening bout at light welterweight, Turkish born world gold and silver medalist Sedat Tasci drew with ex Filipino super feather champ Rey Anton Olarte. Olarte looked on his way to a rare victory as Tasci spent too much time show boating. ESB had it 19-19 with Olarte
winning round three.
Promoters: Green Machine & Square Ring.
IBO Supervisor: Phil Austin (Australia).
Commentators: Andy Raymond , Barry Michael & Paul Briggs.