JONES JNR AND OTHER ANIMALS
Twenty-one years before he took part in his latest fight, Roy made a promise he could not keep
That was the Jones Jnr boxing theory back then. He was pure; his one loss, a disqualification, avenged in a round and his burden as the best boxer on the planet was clear in his head.
“You will never see me getting knocked down or beat up, having blood, sweat and guts type fights,” Jones told us all. “I will never fight that way; I’m Roy Jones Jnr, not Rocky Balboa.”
It was everything we wanted to hear. And we believed it – looking back now, I see that we needed to believe it.
“I’m not going to leave boxing talking funny and needing people to hold my hand,” he continued. “Roy Jones Jnr is not about being the toughest guy – I try to prove I’m the best guy.”
It was an old-fashioned trip with the last members of an ancient press pack, a delight.
We listened to his chicken and man tales, his bareback rides in the pines by the ocean and the silent trickery necessary to catch giant bass. He set traps on both sides of the ropes. Roy Jones Jnr back then was a complex fighting man. He lugged those eight belts of glamour all over the streets of Portland. They even knew about him in Powell’s City of Books.
Woods, meanwhile, arrived in Portland after a media day at a pond near his home in Yorkshire. It had not gone well; the carp had been reluctant players in the underdog’s story. He caught a 2lbs fish; the beasts in the pond’s depths had laughed at him. “Tell ‘em it was at least 3lbs,” Woods joked. There were 40-pounders in that dark lagoon.
In Portland, Woods played his part. “I know how good he is, but when it’s over he will know he’s been in a fight,” he promised. Woods picked up some extra cash for the tattoo. Jones was halfway to becoming a folk hero in the days leading to the fight.
And then it was fight night and the rest, as they say, is history, and it is a very mixed history. A glance at what has happened since makes the time with Jones seem even more remarkable. The Tarzan fanatic from that September is gone.
First, Woods: He was stopped in round six. He tried every single possible thing, but Jones was brilliant on the night. He did praise Woods at the end. Woods won the IBF lightheavyweight title two years later and made five defences. He retired in 2009 and is still chasing carp. And he’s happy.
Jones was having his 48th fight that night against Woods. He would have 29 more. His last official fight was just eight weeks ago. His fight after Woods was for the WBA heavyweight title, and he won it, beating John Ruiz with a masterclass in Las Vegas.
And then it started to go wrong, and Jones left the script, closed down the dream and went into one of boxing’s ugliest freefalls. His words from Portland seem like the wild wishes of a small boy, a kid dreaming of the bright lights and still watching black and white Tarzan films before feeding his 1,700 chickens.
Where did that kid go?
‘I’LL NEVER BE KNOCKED DOWN OR BEATEN UP. I’M ROY JONES, NOT ROCKY’