BOXING/ WORLD LIGHT-HEAVYWEIGHT FIGHT: THERE WERE a variety of phrases flung around to describe Roy Jones Jr yesterday in the Marriot Hotel on Times Square as New York, for the first time in weeks, settled into Obama-free conversation.
Finally setting on "legend", the word was, importantly, applied in the past tense. Jones the "legend" is now 39. The pivotal point of discussion during the meeting of Jones' coach, Alton Merkerson, and Joe Calzaghe's father, Enzo, was how far the one-time holder of world titles over four divisions including heavyweight, has strayed from that status. The aim of light heavyweight Calzaghe in Madison Square Garden tomorrow night (live Setanta Sports 1), is to finally close the door on his own and Jones' career.
"I see Roy Jones trying to conjure slick moves, trying to stall Joe's instinctive forward moves," said Enzo. "But when the s*** hits the fan and the power comes on then we will see a completely different Roy Jones after round six.
"Three years out of the ring (Jones) at the wrong time of his career . . . you can't put the engine back there. He's fast but the longer the fight goes on . . . he can't acquire something he never had before."
He has been disparagingly called "Joe the slapper", but as Merkerson pointed out in a conversation free of laborious trash talk, the Welsh 36-year-old has not been beaten in 45 fights and has had troubles with his hands. For the wily old-timer those elements of Calzaghe's career dispel the myth that industry and grind have been substituted for a less than dangerous punch.
But the more taxing question is just what are a 39-year-old and a 36-year-old with little to prove doing in the ring at all. On that topic, Enzo, who has been at his son's side for 25 years, was at his most eloquent.
"It's the passion. It's what you believe," he said. "Are you after something? That's the key. Joe wants to retire undefeated. It's a dream he has always had. Joe picked Roy Jones. Roy didn't pick Joe. Joe had a dream to fight the best guy out there. I know what's in front of him. In that ring they will both search for each other's heart and soul and I know there will be no comparison."
It has been public knowledge that Jones has struggled to come back down from his remarkable win over John Ruiz in 2003, where he added the world heavyweight title to belts won in the light heavyweight, super middleweight and middleweight divisions. Many thought that ambition was a lunatic rush of blood before he defied just about everyone as well as a weight difference of over two stone.
After that journey, which made him the first fighter to move from middleweight to heavyweight titles in 106 years, the man voted 1990s fighter of the decade by American sports writers and Ring Magazine's best pound-for-pound fighter, felt canvas at the back of his head as he was floored by Glen Johnson in 2004 and beaten twice by Antonio Tarver.
But in January of this year he defeated five times world champion Felix Trinidad in a 170lbs catch weight contest in the Garden, while Calzaghe earned a split decision over American Bernard Hopkins. The two have been training for what they see as a grandstand finish.
"Of the young guys coming up now, who would beat either of them?" asked Merkerson rhetorically when the age issue was mentioned. "The only pressure on Roy is to show people they are wrong. He is doing this for self-satisfaction and has nothing to prove because he has already done that. This is going to be like the Roman days. These are two gladiators coming at each other on horses."
Most experts have predicted a fight that will go the distance. Calzaghe will go forward, with Jones relying on moving away and catching Calzaghe with his frightening hand speed. Calzaghe is reaching for a result that will confirm his greatness, while Jones seems ever addicted to his own occasionally mesmerising powers in the ring.
All in the American's corner acknowleged that his recent mistakes were to fight against weight as well as the fighters themselves, not a good idea at 39.
"Is Roy Jones too good for his own good," Ring Magazine one asked. The same can be said once again.
