Green destroys Roy Jones Jr. in 1st round!

By Jason Kim: 40-year-old Roy Jones Jr. (54-6, 40 KOs) got blasted apart in a 1st round stoppage by big punching International Boxing Organization cruiserweight champion Danny Green (28-3, 25 KOs) at the Acer Arena, Homebush, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Green, 36, dropped Jones with a big right hand at the midway point of the 1st round after trapping Jones in the corner. Jones got to his feet and was met with a rain of unanswered shots to the head one after another.

Jones attempted to cover up and try to clinch his way out of the round. However, Green continued the tireless bombardment of power shots until referee Howard John Foster finally stepped in and stopped the horrible slaughter with Jones still on his feet. Green was just too strong for Jones and looked like much too heavy-handed and powerful for Jones to deal with. This loss, a huge one of Jones, may upset his plans of fighting Bernard Hopkins in March 2010.

Although some boxing fans may think that referee Howard John Foster pulled the plug on the fight a little too early, believe me it was the right decision. Jones was taking ceaseless punishment and not throwing anything back for nearly a minute. Green must have hit Jones with 40 consecutive shots to the head before the referee stepped in and stopped the bout, much of the shots landing cleanly. Jones’ nose was bleeding, his face looked beet red and he looked groggy as if he just woke up. He wouldn’t have been able to make it out of the round if the referee hadn’t stepped in and stopped the bout.

Green looked bigger than Jones and much stronger. Jones just seemed much weaker than Green and made the mistake of retreating to the corner on two occasions in the round. Green took advantage of Jones’ mistake on the second time and landed a hard jab followed by a clubbing right hand to the head that sent Jones down. After Jones got up, Green teed off on him with a cascade of shots. It was clear that Jones wasn’t going to make it out of the round unless he grabbed Green and tried to clinch his way out.

Jones briefly tried to clinch, but Green was too strong and fought him off and continued to rain unanswered shots to the head of Jones. In the end, it was a good stoppage by the referee. He could have allowed it to continue, but Jones wasn’t going to go far in the fight. Even if it had gone to the 2nd round, Green would have continued to blast away at Jones until he took him out.

In the early part of the round, Green and Jones exchanged mostly jabs back and forth. Green’s jabs were much more powerful than Jones’ weak pawing jabs. I had a bad feeling about the fight even then, as Jones looked weak compared to Green.

In hindsight, Green was perhaps the wrong type of opponent for the shaky chinned Jones, who had previously suffered bad knockout losses to Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson five years ago. Green is arguably a bigger puncher than either Tarver and Johnson, which made it seem odd that the 40-year-old Jones was willing to risk getting hurt by facing Green.

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