Boxing: Jones needs to pound home his legacy

Formidable world champion in a no-win situation against Woods. Alan Hubbard explains

Saturday 31 August 2002 19:00 EDT
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"At first glance, you would not suspect Roy Jones Jnr to be the superb melding of talent, personality and charisma that he is. The quiet, even pensive, individual is a world-renowned boxing superstar and all- round nice guy, pound-for-pound the best in the world."

That's what it says about the undisputed world light-heavyweight champion on his website. And there is more. "A true champion of the ring and in life... ten thousand times more of a human being than he is a boxer."

So exactly who is this pugilistic paragon? Unless you are an avid student of the fight game you may not even have heard of him, yet, according to the cauliflower-ear cognoscenti he's the greatest thing in the ring since swab sticks. Better than Sugar Ray Leonard, say some; greater even that Sugar Ray Robinson, say others.

But how do they know? How does anyone know? True, Jones has a formidable record, having lost only once, on a disqualification, subsequently reversed with a one- round KO, in 47 contests, a career spanning 13 years and three weight divisions.

But most of his opponents would struggle to get a notation in boxing's Who's He? let alone Who's Who. Best pound-for-pound fighter of all time? How do you measure the phrase? Where is the litmus test?

Of the two Sugar Rays, Leonard's greatness is easily gauged by his performances against opponents of the calibre of Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran; Robinson's by a whole galaxy of legends including Jake La Motta, Rocky Graziano and Carmen Basilio.

The only truly world-class men on the Jones pedigree are Bernard Hopkins, currently the undisputed middleweight champion, whom he out-scored in a tedious tussle nine years ago; James Toney; and Mike McCallum, who also took him the distance. But still they talk of him as the ultimate pro's pro, of being faster than Leonard and hitting harder than Robinson.

Yet he has his sceptics on both sides of the Atlantic. "He gets paid megabucks to fight postmen and firemen," claims Jay Larkin, head of Showtime, with whom the British promoter Frank Warren has been trying to entice Jones here for an ambitious four-way tournament also involving Hopkins, Joe Calzaghe and Namibia's Harry Simon.

"They talk about him being the greatest, but how can you tell?" asks Warren. "By what yardstick? Who has he fought? He's like Audley Harrison, he picks his opponents. He doesn't draw big crowds, he's 33 and he's never really been in a defining fight."

As Jones is tied up with Showtime's rivals HBO, these are hardly impartial views, and there is definitely an aura of invincibility about the man from Pensacola, Florida, and one that is unlikely to be pierced on Saturday when he faces the British champion, Clinton Woods, from Sheffield, at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon.

The Rose Garden, you will note, not Madison Square Garden. For strangely Jones does not often headline in the traditional fistic emporiums. He is content to ply his trade in less auspicious venues. The bright lights are not for him, either side of the ropes.

If Jones is known for anything, other than a ringcraft which has aficionados salivating, it is the fact that he probably changed the course of amateur boxing history.

In the welterweight final of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the then 19-year-old Jones was the victim of one of the most outrageous decisions even by the dubious standards of judging in the sport. He was deemed to have lost 3-2 to the South Korean Park Si-hun, a home-town verdict that brought the suspension of the judges who voted against him and an embarrassed attempt by his opponent to hand him the gold medal. That decision, along with a number of others in the same tournament, eventually led to the introduction of ringside computer scoring.

Jones turned professional soon afterwards, initially guided by his father, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship. Indeed, the story of Roy Jones Jnr is embedded with that of Roy Jones Snr. There are tales that, one of 12 children, he was brutalised by his father, who literally whipped him into shape. They are now estranged. Jones was blooded in the theatre of combat by being taken by his father to cock fights, and after watching the roosters rip each other to bits he has developed a love for the birds, keeping more than 400 of them at home.

He also works with kids, as a drugs counsellor, is self- managed, a knockout puncher who prefers to inflict damage, Ali-like, from a distance, and never touches drugs or alcohol. "The consummate professional," they say. And apparently a man of many talents, making several musical recordings under his own label, managing a pop group, appearing in movies, and playing professional basketball. In June 1996 he scored five points for the Jacksonville Barracudas in the afternoon and stopped Eric Lucas in 12 rounds the same evening.

So we come to the Rose Garden. The world may not have heard much about Roy Jones, but it has heard even less about Clinton Woods. Like Jones, the Yorkshireman has been beaten only once in 32 fights, and has had a troubled past as a schoolboy boxer who went off the rails and turned pro after getting badly beaten up by bouncers.

If Woods were to win it would be the biggest upset by a Briton since Lloyd Honey-ghan beat Don Curry, or perhaps even Randolph Turpin's dethronement of Robinson. "People say I'm going to get hammered but this is the chance to earn a lot of money and maybe some glory," says 30-year-old Woods. "I know he has blinding speed and that I'll get hit but I have spotted flaws. He has never fought anyone the way I'm going to fight him."

This time next week Woods will know whether boxing's allegedly supreme hit-man is a myth. But for the rest of us the jury is still out.

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