 Coffe Gives RJ A Java Jolt
The Neutral Corner by Jason Probst (October 2, 2004)
Photo © Mr.Will/HoganPhotos.com
Anybody can be a genius at twenty-five. At fifty, it takes some doing…..
--Charles Bukowski, “The Most Beautiful Woman in Town”
Last weekend’s shocker could’ve been a lot worse. Laying supine on the floor, eyes blank, left leg slightly aloft in the grim rictus of brain trauma, Roy Jones could’ve been seriously hurt.
Thankfully, he wasn’t. Glencoffe Johnson retained his IBF belt, made a million bucks, and became The Guy That Knocked Out Roy Jones Again.
After the fight, I went down to an upscale Chinese joint to pick up some food. Guys in the place were talking about it. He knocked out Roy Jones? Seriously? Wasn’t he heavyweight champ?
I do not engage in serious discussions with the casual fan on short errands outside the home (usually to obtain fuel for another round-by-round assignment, or a pair of kid gloves with which to crank out a mailbag). Nobody cares. But it was a typical boxing bummer that these folks may not remember Jones at his best, instead filing away the memory of him being stretched out Saturday night.
We were never really given a glimpse of Jones in his prime against someone who could trouble him. Is it fair, then, to judge a fighter’s heart on the downside of a career to retroactively quantify what might have been, had fate been different, and Jones had a Frazier to his Ali?
If it is – and that’s entirely another column – historical comparisons suggest that Jones falls well short of how Ali, Robinson, Frazier, etc., stood up to the slings and arrows of Father Time.
Only a hint of Ali’s physical prime was realized in the ring, and such things are subjective, but what Ali, Emile Griffith, Roberto Duran, Ray Robinson, and most of the other all-time greats had in common was the ability to adapt, pull the win out of the hat as they aged, despite reduced resources.
If Ali had never returned from being exiled in 1967 the argument over whether or not to include him among the all-time greats would be a good one. His detractors would ask what making nine title defenses, and twice-beating an aged Sonny Liston really meant.
It was only after he withstood Joe Frazier, George Foreman, and made ten defenses in his second reign that his true greatness was realized – simply because he did it increasingly removed from his prime.
Ray Robinson fought 200 times, until he was 45, facing a who’s who of the top fighters from the 50s and 60s when he should have retired. He was stopped once by the heat and Joey Maxim, in a fight he was leading (Ruby Goldstein, the ref, didn’t even make it was long as Sugar Ray did).
When Jones was being counted out, after getting hit with a slew of shots he would’ve never caught just a couple years ago, my stomach turned. The tragedy of Gerald McClellan had always weighed on Roy’s mind, but in the realm of possibility, it seemed a galaxy away that Jones, of all fighters, the guy who was so rarely touched, would have injury to worry about.
Now, with the progress of time and circumstance, he seemed to be boxing’s next tragedy, despite his own fears over the years from what happened to McClellan.
Thankfully, he got up, and walked out of the ring some 30 minutes later. Gerald McClellan didn’t. If there is a next time for Jones in the ring, we may not be so lucky. And that would be a tragedy to outrank most of boxing’s sad stories, something the sport could not sustain without being knocked down several notches on the credibility ladder (note: there aren’t many left to lose).
Jones has had a fine career and can live the good life – that in itself is a victory over boxing when you’ve flirted with the abyss as he did Saturday night.
Best line of the week was after the Jones-Johnson stunner, when the HBO cameras caught Antonio Tarver talking on his cell phone. Jim Lampley quipped that maybe he was calling Bernard Hopkins for a match. Good stuff.
Jones’ departure makes this week’s Tito Trinidad comeback even more compelling. With the fall of Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya and now Jones, there will be a lot more money available in boxing, if less of it overall. Personally, these fighters having their marketability knocked down a peg is akin to breaking up a cartel.
There won’t be as many $10 million dollar paydays in boxing, but if you look at the boxing market as a whole, that means a lot more untied dollars that can be applied to marketing and developing younger talent.
In other words, that’s less $5 million dollar mismatches like Jones-Rick Frazier, or De La Hoya-Patrick Charpentier, or Tyson-Julius Francis, that simply happen because they generate significant eyeballs watching.
If you had that kind of money and sunk it into Manny Pacquiao, you could get five defenses against very tough competition and they’d all be a treat to watch.
Trinidad became huge because he fought the top fighters, and put together a winning streak that allowed him to crossover into the mainstream press. Knockouts help, of course, but Trinidad’s bold run from 1999-2001 was a throwback to the old days.
The sport could definitely use him – but you wonder if he may just suck back down to 154 with Bernard Hopkins playing roadblock at 160. That, of course, guarantees that “The Executioner” won’t be retiring anytime soon. Would you? Of course not. Give it another year or so, with the Winky Wright-Shane Mosley winner taking on the Trinidad-Mayorga winner. Whoever emerges from there is the natural opponent for Hopkins (I like Wright out of all four).
This weekend, I like Tito, but only on the contingency that he looks more like his old self than a guy who’s taken a two-year layoff. Along with everyone else, that’s my call.
Trinidad’s chin was much better at middleweight, as he had better legs and seemed to take a shot better. Whether he starts slow or fast will probably play a big role in the bout, but Mayorga is sure to bring the ruckus – unlike the Hopkins-De La Hoya bout, it’s doubtful any of the broadcast crew will have time for observations of what a weak fight it is.
If this one’s dull, I’m quitting the boxing game altogether (braces self for cheers).
E-Mail Jason Probst at jasonprobst@hotmail.com
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