D121.5...@pacbell.net> <3549209D.A181B...@bix.comNOSPAM>
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: ... he makes sure they're not one-punch KO artists. Toney was the only
: fighter Jones has fought that packed a wallop -even though not *that* hard-
: and look how tentative and afraid of being caught by a counter Jones was.
: Yeah, he did what he had to do to win, but he did not look like a legend in
: the process.
: It's not that I am saying that I can identify a fighter that can beat Jones.
: But there's risk in consistently facing the really best available - a risk
: Jones doesn't run.
: ...paul

Which is why I was so ticked with the smoke and mirrors of the Buster
Douglas fight talk.  RJJ never seriously considered that fight.  He has a
lack of confidence if a fighter is not completely overmatched by him.

That chink in the psyche is what does bother me about RJJ.  Maybe when
faced with adversity, he would rise to the occasion.  But, I think he
doubts it at least as much as we do.
--
        -mwh

How did you come up with top guys like benn and eubank?  They were good
fighters and all,  but not in jones's class at all.  Jones has already
faced many fighters far better than benn or eubank, including a few
punchers and will continue to do so in the future.  ( castro, hopkins,
toney, and up next rocchigiani).  I know he doesn't fight often but when
you step back and look at who he's fought he deserves more credit.  Many of
his opponents went on to win world titles after jones fought them at an
equivalent or higher weight.  His tune up fights are not even looked at but
those opponents are better than many world champions main fights ( byrd,
thornton, sosa, t. tate etc. )

pliesenb...@bix.comNOSPAM wrote in article
<3549209D.A181B...@bix.comNOSPAM>...

: So who's going to beat Jones?  You?  Roy Jones is quite possibly the
: greatest fighter in the history of the sport.  Leonard?  Jones would KO
: him inside of six rounds.  Hearns?  Three rounds.  Hagler?  Easy decision.  Duran?  Yeah, right.  Duran would quit inside of five.  Ray
: Robinson?  Roy is simply too good.  Robinson would get pounded.  In
: fact, Roy would beat most anybody easily.  There isn't a fighter active
: today below heavyweight who can beat him.  That's dominance.  That's
: amazing.  Forget about his attitude...the guy's incredible and if you can't
: see that than you need some new glasses.

If and when RJJ is defeated, it will probably be by some fighter that
noone will predict such an outcome .  He'll probably be stopped and never be
the same again -- if he will ever fight again.  It will happen when he
underestimates some opponent in his ever careful matchmaking.

Noone is so dominant that a person can say nobody can beat them.  RJJ is
having a good time denying almost everybody the chance for that honor.

As for your picks listed above.  RJJ is capable of beating all of them.
But, would have lost to Hagler and Leonard because those two have proven
guts.  Hearns would have been capable of stopping RJJ and that result
would be a crapshoot.  Duran, a fighter at his best between 135 and 147.
Not a good match to pick here.  I doubt RJJ would have made him quit though.
--
        -mwh

Ever One Thats has posted in my favor, Thanks for defending me. I realize that maybe I shouldn't have said that jones needs a beating but that is my opion and EVAN if there was nobody in the history of the world that could take him I would stil say he needs a beating.But my opion is that there is many many people that could take him, And I'm definatly not one of them cause I'm only 14 yrs old!!
***************************************
* Electronic Knockouts
* The Best Game on the Net.
* http://www.boxinggame.com
***************************************

Let's not over-rate RJJ!! After all, Hill was over the Hill went he fought
him!! And before that, like 20 years ago, the last time RJJ fought, it was a
paid off fight against Montell!!

decision.  Duran?  Yeah, right.  Duran would quit inside of five.  Ray

Who won?

RK:  I realize fully that Johnson was told to go easy
on Ketchel, but I also believe that Ketchel hit him
full on with a sucker punch while Johnson was busy
playing nice and getting along with others.  Johnson,
if I recall correctly, immediately got to his feet and
hit Ketchel with such a powerful blow that not only
was Ketchel Ko'd, but several of his teeth were later
found imbedded in Johnson's glove.  Thus endeth the
gentleman's agreement.  Thanks for the good (As always)
info.
***************************************
* Electronic Knockouts
* The Best Game on the Net.
* http://www.boxinggame.com
***************************************

Sugar Ray beat him, though Hagler dished out more punishment.  Sugar Ray's
command of the ring (knowing when to pitty-pat, and dance) won him the fight.
Ray was on his last leg for the end of the fight, but still managed to stay
away from Haglers haymakers and powershots, which won him points with the
judges.  I am probably a bigger fan of Hagler than Sugar, but Ray definitely
TOOK this decision, even STOLE it if you will.  Hagler's inablility to put Ray
down in the last 4 or so rounds, or even dish out what amounted to lasting
punishment was his main downfall in this fight.  Hagler should've slapped the
hell out of Leonard and forgotten about KO'ing him.

MrF...@aol.com
Stepping Razor (EKO)

From the HBO web site:
===
LONELY AT THE TOP
April 29, 1998
In the process of making life difficult for Virgil Hill, Roy Jones, Jr.
unwittingly did the same for himself. Jones has been a man without a
challenge--or a challenger--since that night four years ago when he dominated
James Toney, winning the super middleweight title. Nothing that happened at the
Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi last Saturday night changed that.

Jones' fourth-round knockout of the two-time light heavyweight champion came
courtesy of one right hand so quick and damaging it broke Hill's ninth and
tenth ribs and crumpled him to the mat. Although he arose at the count of
eight, Hill could not even straighten up, let alone continue, and so was
counted out on his feet. That is an unusual circumstance, but so is facing an
opponent as gifted as Jones.

The three-time world champion has everything a boxer needs but a foil. Speed of
hand and foot, power, grace, showmanship, lateral movement, mastery of defense,
and that uncanny gift that Ali had for doing things wrong that come out right.

"If you don't know what I'm doing you always going to think it's wrong, but
because you think it's different, don't mean it's wrong," Jones said after
proving his point by lifting his record to 36-1 with 31 knockouts. "I always
took chances and I always prevailed. Why stop now?"

No reason anyone can think of, yet often it seems as if Jones himself is the
one uninterested in continuing. Murad Muhammad, who has taken over as Jones'
promoter, contends that that attitude is a thing of the past, however. Jones is
talking about an August or September fight with WBC interim light heavyweight
champion Gianfranco Rocchigiani, possibly in Germany, where Rocchigiani won the
title from No.1 contender Michael Nunn after Jones had refused to face Nunn.

Jones had had a point, but part of winning titles is agreeing to defend them
even if the opponent is inferior, which Nunn and just about everyone else at a
weight close to Jones' seems to be.

The problem this creates is obvious. Without a challenge, Jones grows bored,
his fans grow complacent and his sport begins to focus on fighters facing more
formidable matchups.

What keeps fighting alive, despite its best efforts at self-immolation, is the
simple fact that everyone wants to know who the toughest guy in the house is.
Whether it's on an elementary school playground, in a bar room or in an
athletic arena, there is a fascination in that, but with Jones the fascination
is gone because no one from 160 to 190 pounds seems able to unseat him unless
he disqualifies himself, as he did in his one loss. A year ago he knocked
Montell Griffin to his knees and then grew so frustrated that he hadn't
finished the job that he added two more smacks for good measure. He was
disqualified from a fight he surely would have won.

Jones made that clear in their August rematch when he knocked Griffin cold in
one round, the DQ having sufficiently focused his mind to make him as
devastating as many in boxing believe he can be.

But who can push Jones to such a height again? Rocchigiani? William Guthrie?
Reggie Johnson? Darius Michalzcewski? None of those names inspire.

It is perhaps a measure of how dominating Jones has become that the name most
often mentioned as a possibility is IBF middleweight champion Bernard
Hopkins--a man Jones has already beaten!

Hopkins well understands his rival's need for someone to dual with, even if
Jones does not, and thus realizes that this could be opportunity knocking
financially--and maybe fistically--if he can match Jones' skill for one night.

"Rivalries make boxing," Hopkins says. "We've lost that in boxing today. I
think if Roy and I fought at a weight where we'd both feel comfortable it would
be a huge match, but the politics make it impossible. You get one crack at a
guy and if you lose [as Hopkins did on a close decision in 1993 for the then
vacant IBF middleweight title] you don't fight him again."

Jones has said he's willing to fight Hopkins if he moves up and wins the
168-pound title Jones once held, yet he seems to have no faith in Hopkins'
eagerness to do what he says, or in his ability to become the great opponent
all legendary champions need to define their greatness.

"Bernard Hopkins says he wants to come up and fight me at 168, but he keeps
fighting middleweight," Jones pointed out. "When I said I wanted to fight James
Toney I went up to 168 and fought him. What does that tell you?"

Probably that Hopkins knows he doesn't need Jones, even if Jones could use him.

That missing component to his greatness has led Jones to do such things as
playing a semi-pro basketball game on the same day he defended his title and
holding a press conference in the center of the ring 90 minutes before another
title fight.

Such stunts may have amused him, but they did not bring him what the public
demands--an opponent who could take him into the dark places in boxing, the
places where something more than talent is required to survive.

Roy Jones, Jr. has not yet visited such a place, nor does he seem anxious to
make the trip. It is not his fault and, frankly, it's wise to avoid such places
if you can. But if immortality is what he wants, it is a requirement of his
trade, and he seems to sense that, even if he doesn't like it.

Why else does he so often talk of wanting to fight heavyweight champion Evander
Holyfield?

Jones knows some heavyweights, like WBC champion Lennox Lewis or the
hard-punching Mike Tyson, are too physically imposing to square off with when
you fight to stay at 175, but somehow he sees Holyfield as a clone of himself,
a small man stuffed into a heavyweight's body.

Perhaps it is there, he whispers from time to time, that the challenge he
dreads awaits.

"I don't run and duck and dodge from anyone, but I do what's most beneficial
for Roy," Roy said. "In this business you learn many people are in it for
themselves, so you go to someone [for advice] who's concerned about you. You go
to your parents because they'll tell you the truth, whether you want to hear it
or not.

"I like the confidence they [HBO] have in me, but in boxing you've got to look
at your whole career. I'm no heavyweight. Those are big guys. I seen
heavyweights go out in a bad situation. I'm no fool. I'm just like you. I'm a
bad fella but I can get hurt, too.

"If I beat Buster Douglas could HBO guarantee me a shot at Holyfield? As long
as Don King got that guy they can't. Give me in writing they can get me
Holyfield and we can talk, but if I beat Buster Douglas and Don King says no,
then what have I got? Another heavyweight to fight?

"I'm not going to sign with Don King [to fight Holyfield]. If they [HBO] get
that fighter [Holyfield] maybe it would be different, but I'm not looking to
invade the heavyweight division. If opportunity knocks I'd do it. I'm no
heavyweight, but I'd go up to fight Holyfield if people want to see me fight
him. I may be way too fast for Holyfield, but he can punch. I gotta talk with
God about it, but I'd sure do it."

In the end, maybe he will have to. In the meantime, all Roy Jones, Jr. can do
is fight who is there and hope that one day he faces a real challenger.

"My mother and my family don't like to see me punched at," Jones (36-1, 31 KOs)
explained. "They know I'm a bully but they don't like to see it. This game is
not a good game for any of us. Fighters. Writers. Any of us.

"You seen the way most fighters end up. This game don't usually deal you a good
hand. I don't miss going out there and putting my life on the line, and that's
pretty much what we're doing.

"Look at Tommy Hearns with his nose all flat because he had Marvin Hagler [as
his challenger]. Look at Marvin Hagler. He don't even want to come back in the
country because he had his opponent [Ray Leonard] and they robbed him. God
knows best, and God put Roy where he wants Roy to be."

That is, for the moment at least, alone at the top of his weight class and
several others as well.

Alone without an obvious challenger.

Alone with his thoughts, his fears and his phobias.

Alone, just maybe, in all the world of boxing.

SHORT JABS

Jones continues to insist he is the WBC light heavyweight champion and Muhammad
promised that WBC president Jose Sulaiman was sending Jones a champion's patch
to wear on his trunks Saturday night. He sported no such emblem, but Muhammad
insisted that if Jones agrees by the end of May to meet Rocchigiani he will
still be the champion. "I'm the WBC champion," said Jones. "He's the interim
champion. I'll fight him in August or September. I haven't gone to a meeting
and said 'Bam, yes!' but we've agreed." Whatever. The fact is, if Jones retired
tomorrow the title wouldn't be vacant--it would be Rocchigiani's. So how can
Jones think he's the champion too? Because it's boxing. "Jose is bending over
backwards for Jones because he's one of the few champions who's never given him
a problem about paying his sanction fees," a source close to both sides said.

Jones now has a website [a la Oscar De La Hoya] and says he will use it to test
the public's opinion about who he should fight. "If people want to see me
perform, I will," Jones said. "God blesses you with talent, you should use it.
I got a website now so people can call and tell me who they want me to fight.
Whoever gets the most calls will be who I'm looking for."

Former junior welterweight and welterweight champion Buddy McGirt was listening
to Hill discuss the possibility of hitting Jones in the face, since Hill had
heard that Jones hits his opponents from anywhere. "He hits you from anywhere
but Roy Jones can be hit from anywhere, too," Hill said confidently. Clearing
his throat, McGirt chimed in immediately, describing the essence of what would
soon become Hill's problem in a sentence as short, sweet and destructive as a
right hook to the ribs: "Roy Jones can hit you from the sixth row, man." Hill
(43-3, 20 ...

mais »

Roy Jones actualy wants De la Hoya to step up to 168 to"prove" who's the
best pound for pound! Here's a better idea Roy: Clean up YOUR division
of "nobodies" like Reggie Johnson and those pesky German champions
before running your mouth off like that.