FATHERS & SONS: ROY SR. IS BACK!

September 27, 2005 - by William Dettloff

You know Roy Jones, Jr. didn't want it to turn out this way. His version of the last chapter of his career picks up after he whipped John Ruiz to win a sliver of the heavyweight title and goes like this: After hard negotiations he and Mike Tyson get together and Jones prevails in the richest prizefight ever. Then he goes after world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. He takes care of Lewis and with no more mountains to climb, retires to his beloved Pensacola farm, wealthy, content, his legacy unparalleled. Then, and only then, on his terms, does he truly reconcile with his father, Roy Jones, Sr. That's the fantasy.

Sometimes things don't work out the way you want them to, even if your name is Roy Jones, Jr. And we all know by now how it worked out in real life: Jones went back down to light heavyweight, struggled mightily to win a decision over Antonio Tarver, got knocked out in the rematch, and then was knocked cold by Glencoffe Johnson. That brings us to Saturday's rubber match with Tarver, during which those who buy the bout on HBO pay-per-view will see none other than Roy Jones, Sr. working his son's corner for the first time in more than a decade.

Don't misread the circumstances of the reconciliation. Roy Jr. didn't go begging Roy Sr. to work with him for the biggest fight of his career. Jones is much too proud for that and his father, from whom Jones Jr.'s proud stubbornness clearly comes, would have been aghast, to say the least, at a display of such weakness. Their professional reconciliation seems, on the surface at least, more pragmatic than anything.

"Roy Sr. is probably the only person that truly understands my style of fighting enough to really come in and critique it and tune me back up," Jones Jr. said during filming of Countdown to Tarver-Jones 3, which will air on HBO until the fight on October 1. "And with a tune up, I mean, it's going to be really hard to deal with me. Not that Coach Merkerson couldn't do the job. Just that sometimes you need to be tuned up.

Most observers would agree that Jones needs something extra for this fight against Tarver. Few would have thought that something would be Jones, Sr. But father/son relationships are enduring and tricky. And there is history there. Jones, Sr., a serviceable journeyman fighter in his day, started his namesake in boxing about as soon as he could walk and drilled him in the rudiments of the sport, with hard physical punishment - beatings - a staple of training. He shrugs off criticism.

"It ain't like they are going shopping in the mall," Jones, Sr. said. "Boxing is a rough sport. Even though it is a sport, it's a knock-your-head-off business, you know what I mean? If you aren't willing to do whatever it takes to make the kid be the best at whatever he's trying to be, then you don't need to be affiliated with him in any way. My methods and my technique were necessary because that's what brought out the best in him. And that way we were more productive. So I don't care what people say."

It's true that you can't argue with the results. On the way to capturing world titles at middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight, Jones became universally recognized as the best prizefighter in the world, the most talented fighter of his generation. Maybe of several generations. But Roy Sr., the man who first tied a pair of gloves on him, wasn't a part of it when the world really discovered Roy Jones, Jr. He'd already been evicted from the party.

There were rumblings early in Jones' pro career that his father was holding him back. We all heard bits and rumors about how special he was but it was difficult to know for sure because he wasn't getting exposure. Roy Sr. didn't think he was ready. So there were problems early on. But it all went bad when one of Roy's beloved dogs bit one of the family kids. Jones Sr., not a sentimental man, promptly shot the dog to death. A short time later he told Roy Jr., point blank that he'd done it and why. For a moment, Roy Jr., considered shooting him in return.

However, allowing for some small fistic accounting, it was also Roy Jones Jr.'s night. For even those who examined the bottle and not the contents had to acknowledge that Jones had added to his stature by coming back, after two straight knockouts, to face one of those who had made him one with the canvas and gained a measure of redemption. And it would take no giant intellectual balloon ascension, even by his pre-fight critics, to know that Roy Jones Jr., based on his career achievements, belongs on that tiny island of boxing greats, having hardly "tarnished" his image with his effort against Tarver.

He decided against that, but did the next best thing: he banished him. And for the next 10 years Alton Merkerson was Jones' official trainer - in the corner, in camp, everywhere that it mattered. Even if, as far as Roy Sr., was concerned, he never was far away.

"Speaking for myself, I've never been away. I've always been there," he said. " I just know my role as a father. I've been right there all the time. If he had needed me at any time, all he had to do was just snap his finger. No matter what they wrote or said, I'm his father. I'll always be there. If he was in Sing-Sing Prison right now, I'd still be his father. But I never really left. I just stood back and watched."

And now, with his son's career - and indeed, to a large degree his legacy - on the line, Jones Sr., has impressed upon his son the importance of his role in the final chapter of his career.

"My dad came in, and said, 'Look, I just want to help," Jones, Jr. said. "I got you into this. I feel like it's my duty to come help finish this off. If you need some help, I want to be part of it.' All right, that's cool with me. I mean -- a fool despises wisdom. A fool despises instruction. Of course, I know he knows me better than anybody else. So, like I said, I knew five years ago that if he came and tuned me up, it would push me a little bit further in the game than I was." Those closest to Jones see a difference. "With his dad coming on, I see another gleam in his eye that I haven't seen in the last couple years," said Merkerson. "I don't know if it's extra security or he just feels more comfortable."

Whichever it is, Jones will need an edge against Tarver, who possesses a style that so far has thrown him off his game. Roy Sr. may provide that edge. And even if it's too late for Roy Jr.'s fantasy to work out, a win over Tarver, with his father in the corner, would have to be considered close enough.