Boxing: Roy Jones: Can One Night Erase Fifteen Years?, page 1

The earthly glory is perishable in sports, but probably in no other sport the meaning of one loss can affect athlete’s status as dramatically as in professional boxing. An old saying which goes that a fighter is only as good as his last fight holds literally among many boxing fans. No other species of animal has naturally as poor a memory as does the boxing fan. Tens of splendid performances by a fighter can be erased from people’s minds with one setback, and even the worst of scandals can be soon forgotten after one good victory.

The last one to taste the cruelness of boxing world has been Roy Jones Jr, the former four-time world champion from middleweight to heavyweight. During the last ten years Jones has been ranked as the best fighter in the world pound-for-pound almost continuously, and during this time he has also been ranked highly also among the greatest ring-workers of all times. Only a year ago, when Jones had captured the WBA heavyweight crown, many experts hailed him as the greatest fighter in the history.

One fight can change everything. About a month ago Jones suffered a shocking second-round knockout loss to Antonio Tarver in light-heavyweight championship fight and his bright aureole was shattered to pieces just like that. Over one night Jones turned from the planet’s best to an overrated fighter who had ducked real challengers for his whole career, who made his name by fighting class-C level opposition and who got blasted out as soon as he met a real puncher. The bravest were ready to say that Tarver had even exposed him. Suddenly Jones wasn’t even a top-50 fighter of the history. But can one night and one fight really zero all the achievements from fifteen years? Let’s take a look at what Jones has in fact done.

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