Calzaghe Defeats Jones, Big Surprise – Boxing News

By Boxing News - 11/11/2008 - Comments

Image: Calzaghe Defeats Jones, Big Surprise - Boxing NewsBy Scott Gilfoid: As expected, Joe Calzaghe (46-0, 32 KOs) defeated 39-year-old ring legend Roy Jones Jr. (52-5, 38 KOs) by a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday night, keeping Calzaghe’s unbeaten record intact, his legacy untarnished and proving that he’s good enough to beat a washed up version of Jones. There was little suspense going in, and the outcome came to no surprise as Jones took a beating, and looked old and over-the-hill.

What was surprising, was seeing Jones knock Calzaghe down in the first round with a hard right hand to the head. Instead of going after Calzaghe, who was badly hurt, Jones let him off the hook, and didn’t work hard in finishing him off. In hindsight, perhaps Jones felt that there would be more opportunities later and that he didn’t need to go after him. This in effect let Calzaghe survive the round, a round he probably would have been destroyed in if this were a 30 year-old Jones rather than a 39-year old.

This screw-up by Jones would come back to haunt him as Calzaghe battered him from the 2nd round on, blooding up Jones’s left eye, and giving him a worse beating than Calzaghe had given to Jeff Lacy in 2006. By the 3rd round, Calzaghe was landing at will with his high volume punches, standing directly in front of Jones, daring him to try and land his once-fast shots, and taunting him constantly.

At times, Calzaghe seemed to be imitating Jones’s style, which he probably learned well from having studied him in depth while training for the fight. It seemed as if Calzaghe was going a better imitation of Jones then he could do it himself, and making him look really bad in the process.

Though only three years separated the two fighters, it might as well have been 10-15, because Calzaghe looked much more youthful and energetic in the ring than the aging Jones, who was unable to hit Calzaghe, even when he was standing directly in front of him. Jones did land at times, especially early on in the first few rounds, but as the fight progressed, Jones threw less and less punches.

Calzaghe stood directly in front of Jones, with his hands by his sides and his chin leaning forward, daring Jones to throw. A younger version of Jones, who was much faster than Calzaghe, would have taken his head off the first time that he saw him do this. However, this version of Jones, nearing forty, slower, a more anemic work rate, and having lost three out of his last six fights coming into the bout, was too slow to take advantage of Calzaghe’s cockiness.

At the end of the third round, Calzaghe wiggled his shoulders, taunting Jones, who attempted to hit him, but missed badly. It was tragic to watch, reminding me of seeing Willie Mays play in his final year for the New York Mets, striking out and letting balls go between his legs in the outfield. In the 4th round, Jones landed some good pot shots, catching Calzaghe off guard as he was continuing with his taunting.

The taunting seemed almost cruel, because it wasn’t as if Jones had any chance coming into the fight, and it made Calzaghe look cruel, and small. Maybe he felt that Jones had a chance, and that’s why he felt it was necessary to tease him, but for many boxing fans and writers like myself, we never saw this as a legitimate fight. Jones had no chance given his age and his recent history in the ring, and in teasing him, it was like teasing a blind man. In other words, Jones deserved more respect than that.

In the 5th round, Jones’ left eye began to swell up, and be was now spending more and more time on the ropes trying to cover up. This was expected going into the fight, because Jones’ legs aren’t what they used to be and he can no longer fight at the center of the ring for prolonged periods without needing to retreat to the ropes to rest his weary legs.

In the 6th round, Calzaghe battered Jones unmercifully, hitting him often with a massive amount of shots, causing his right eye to swell up as well as his left. Jones was able to muster up a couple of good uppercuts, but for the most part, he took a terrible beating in the round and looked old, well past a prime fighter. When he was on the ropes, Jones took a terrible beating, taking head shots and hard body shots and seemingly unable to block Calzaghe’s storm of shots that were coming in at him from all angles.

In the 7th round, Jones’ left eye, which was previously swelling, was cut and began to bleed all over the place. Jones still stubbornly tried to fight off the ropes, but he was taking a terrible beating when he would stay there. It looked as if he had no choice, though, because his legs looked as if they weighed 200 pounds each and he seemed to have trouble moving while in the center of the ring. The beating continued in rounds eight through twelve, as Calzaghe poured in his punches from all angles, overwhelming Jones’ defenses with punches.

If there’s anything that good that could be said about the fight during this time, it’s that Calzaghe seemed to let up on Jones after the 8th and didn’t beat him quite so bad in rounds nine through twelve. The final judges’ scores were 118-109, 118-109 and 118-109. Afterwards, Calzaghe said “He’s [Jones] a great fighter. He hit me with some wicked shots.”

As for retirement, Jones had this to say, “I have to sit down and think about it. It could be my last fight. I’ll have to evaluate the situation. “ As for Jones, he had this to say “When I knocked him down, I had two plans. I couldn’t decide which one to use. He was the better man. “ Jones was undecided about a possible retirement, saying “If I feel good, I’ll continue. If not, I might retire.“



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