TARVER VS. JONES 3 POST-FIGHT ANALYSIS

October 3, 2005 - by Bert Sugar

To listen to boxing's resident cynics hand down their opinions with all the solemnity of Moses handing down the Tablets from the Mount you would have thought you were going to watch a funeral, not a fight. For reasons that wouldn't stand up to the vaguest of examinations one handwringer called the fight " a disaster ready to happen." Another gloomer-and-doomer wrote, "the specter of a disaster loomed large." And from everywhere a chorus of mourners, dressed in sackcloth and ashes, could be heard chanting that Roy Jones risked "tarnishing his image" and was "putting his legacy on the line." As they say in New York, "Fuhgeddaboutit!" First of all, even if the boxing writers tended to discount Roy Jones' achievements at less than face value and failed to see it, his fans knew "greatness." And they had seen it in Roy Jones Jr., cheering him in anticipation at the beginning of his career, midway through in realization, and now, at the end, in appreciation.

And last Saturday night they came to see him in what may have been his valedictory performance--just as they had come to see Babe Ruth in the twilight of his career as a Brave, Willie Mays as a Met, Johnny Unitas as a Charger and Joe Willie Namath as a Ram--to cheer him to the echo. Granted, his performance was not a vintage Roy Jones Jr., more than a little water having been added to his fine wine, still it was no "disaster ready to happen."

With over 20,000 cheering fans packed into the St. Pete Times Forum, the two combatants came to center ring for the pre-fight instructions from referee Tommy Kimmins. This time 'round there was no "Any excuse tonight, Roy?" from Antonio Tarver, just a "let's get down to business" look from both.

But for the first round it looked like anything but business as the two counterpunchers played a mongoose-and-cobra game, with little, if anything, thrown, their few punches coming at the pace of a responsive reading. The last time a fight had this much non-action was over a century ago when two bareknuckle counterpunchers, Jem Mace and Joe Corburn, stood mid-ring for one hour and 17 minutes waiting for the other to lead until the police stepped in to stop the non-bout.

Thankfully, the action picked up in the second, with Tarver forcing the action and winning Rounds two and three. But in Round 4 Jones began to find Tarver with right-hand leads, and in the fifth gave his fans something to cheer, as vestiges of the Roy Jones of old belabored Tarver with combinations asfastasyoucanreadthis.

But, almost as if he had given his fans something to remember him by, Jones packed it in, and for the next seven rounds became more a hittee than a hitter, a gallant survivor as Tarver almost ran the table--one judge giving Jones none of the remaining seven rounds, another just one round and the third, two.

It was the 11th round, however, that proved Jones' mettle--maybe for the first time in his career. Rocked by a Tarver right and suddenly on queer street, his legs strangers to each other and a look of did you get the license plate number of that truck that just ran over me? on his face, Jones, blinking away the fogbanks, sucked it up and not only lasted out the round but actually came back to go on the offensive and won the 12th.

FIGHTERS	Tarver	Jones
TOTAL PUNCHES
Thrown	620	320
Connected	158	85
%	25%	27%
JABS
Thrown	279	113
Connected	51	11
%	18%	10%
POWER PUNCHES
Thrown	341	207
Connected	107	74
%	31%	36%
JUDGES SCORECARDS
Paul Herman	116	112
Michael Pernick	116	112
Peter Trematerra	117	111

The unanimous decision for Tarver (116-112, twice, and 117-111) made it official, it was Antonio Tarver's fight. And night. No longer would he have to stand in the shadow of Roy Jones Jr. It was, to use his own words, "Tarver's time."

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.