Jones-Hopkins ll: Say It Ain’t So

By Kevin Pasquale: Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, Roy Jones Jr. ruled the boxing landscape with impunity. His once-in-a-lifetime speed and athleticism, coupled with his amazing boxing instincts, rendered him untouchable by other fighters, regardless of whatever weight class he decided to fight in at the time.

He and a 28-year old Bernard Hopkins got in the ring back in May of 1993, a middleweight fight, and an uneventful fight, with Jones winning on all 3 judges scorecards 8 rounds to 4. Jones speed was too much for B-Hop, and to this day, “The Executioner” has been quoted as saying he has truly only lost one fight in his career, and that was to Jones. A high compliment from a great fighter.

Sixteen long years have elapsed from that summer night, when RJ was a sprite and ripe 24 years old, and since then, age has taken it’s inevitable, ravaging toll on him. And now, he and Hopkins are going to do it again. Most would agree that Bernard Hopkins has befriended the pitch-fork wielding force known as aging, refining his boxing skills, sharpening his defensive tactics, and his ring intelligence is nearly unmatched, except for a few select fighters. AND, he is coming off of a laugher of a beatdown of a youthful, talented Kelly Pavlik last October. At the same time, he has slowed a bit, picking his spots, tying up fighters, throwing the straight right hand, usually followed by very little in the way of combinations. But he IS forty-five years old, which would be the equivalent of Brett Favre still starting at QB, playing at a high level, five years from now. Ain’t gonna happen. (But one never knows…)

But aging is not kind to everyone, and can be particularly cruel to elite athletes, specifically in the ring. Ask Joe Lewis, Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, and many others. In boxing, specifically, a solitary sport where one person displays his or her athletic skills as an INDIVIDUAL, not as part of a team, aging can rear it’s ugly head, and render the boxer embarrassingly exposed, and inept, on a large stage where the whole world sees. And, to add insult to injury, more often than not, the boxer will continue to box , even after suffering sometimes humiliating defeats on this stage, in this ring, because of an ego that will not relent in pushing the fighter forward, which in the past was a huge help, but when fighting age, only causes the fighter public misery. And, because no one tells that boxer to STOP FIGHTING.

Roy Jones Jr., as Emmanuel Steward pointed out on HBO last week after the Klitschko-Arreola fight, should have stopped fighting after embarrassing John Ruiz back in March of 2003, at the age of 34. Steward succinctly phrased it as such: “Roy would have been on the top of the world”. And he was right. Jones, at that point, did rule the boxing world, had nothing left to prove, sported a ridiculous record of 48-1, the only loss coming on a dumbfounding DQ after hitting Montell Griffin while he was down in the 9th round of their first fight. But then Antonio Tarver came calling, loudly and brashly, and Roy’s ego took over, and the beginning of the end came. Now, I want to make it clear that Roy Jones has been, since I watched him badly outclass James Toney back in ’94, my favorite fighter. So it almost pains me to make these observations. But it is what it is.

So, with Jones compiling a mediocre record of 6-4 in his last 10 fights, the four losses coming against class opponents (Tarver twice, Glen Johnson, Calzaghe), and the 6 wins coming against lesser fighters (Trinidad and Lacy the only notables amongst them), he has been trash talking on Hopkins, urging B-Hop to fight him. By all appearances, Jones’ confidence is at an all time high, and he actually stated in a recent interview that he’s the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. RIGHT NOW. Roy, whose confidence has been badly shaken in the past, and at one time, was clearly nowhere to be found, has found that self-confidence again, and is letting the world know his mental state is where it should be. But the timing, unfortunately for Jones, is so desperately wrong to have found it. One other statement I’d like to make: Hopkins is my 2nd favorite fighter. So I know he and Jones well, in terms of the work they’ve done in the ring.

At this point, Hopkins is relatively silent about the fight, and letting Jones carry all of the hype and talking. But the brilliant pugilist Hopkins is, he knows exactly, at this very moment, what’s going to take place the night he gets in the ring with Jones. There is not a smarter strategist in the boxing world, with more experience against top-flight opposition. Hopkins has never looked bad in the ring, even now, and it can be argued that he beat Calzaghe when they matched up in April of 2008. He and Jones could not be farther apart at this point, in terms of the skills and ammunition they will bring into the ring with them when they match up again in early 2010. And the sad thing is, Hopkins knows this, and Roy doesn’t, and that’s why RJ will finally call it a career after that fateful night.

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