Jones TKOs Lacy In One-Sided Beating
Roy Jones (54-5, 40 KOs) may be 40 years old, but the wily veteran showed on Saturday night (August 15) that he had enough left in the tank to deliver a master-class, 11th round TKO victory against an overmatched Jeff Lacy (25-3, 17 KOs).
After a long delay due to glove issues with Lacy, both combatants came to ring looking warmed up and ready for battle. From the outset, Roy’s huge advantage in handspeed was apparent when Lacy attempted to box from the outside. Jones landed several flush left jabs, and stung Lacy with hard straight rights.
Lacy’s legs wobbled slightly, and within the first minute Jones knew he was in for an easy night and began the taunting. The former pound for pound #1 started shimmying directly in front of Lacy’s punching range, and would simply turn him and crack a left hook from the hip. Lacy took the fight inside, and landed a glancing overhand right as Roy covered up. Still, the early goings didn’t look promising for Lacy.
In round 2 and 3, Lacy decided to make it an inside, mauling fight. This strategy turned out to be bad, as Jones enacted his 2009 version of Ali’s rope a dope. The ropes were loose, allowing Jones to use a high guard and lean and roll off all the power on Lacy’s already pushing punches. In these exchanges, Lacy’s right ribcage took a pounding as Jones would double and occasionally triple the left hook up and downstairs. In several instances the assault made Lacy pause in obvious pain and confusion.
Unfortunately for Left Hook, when he backed off he was a sitting duck for Jones’ handspeed.
Into the middle rounds, the domination started to take the appearance of Lacy’s one-sided 2006 beating at the hands of Joe Calzaghe. Lacy was nursing a swelling around his eyes, and a cut. Roy continued to show his skill on the inside, ripping short, sneaky uppercuts reminiscent of Jack Johnson.
The humiliation became worse from the 6th round on as Jones became bored and started holding full conversations with audience members and the announce team, even telling them to “watch this” before unleashing a combination. When Lacy became angry and flurried, Roy would easily slip them while talking, and rip his own hook flurries in return. Despite looking easy, it was Jones’ years of experience that allowed him to feel where the punches were coming from based on the position of Lacy’s gloves, not the cat-like reflexes Jones once possessed in his prime.
The 9th was almost the end, when a series of Roy Jones left hooks made Lacy stumble full across the ring before desperately holding the rest of the round.
By the championship rounds, a debate ensued in Lacy’s corner about whether to stop the contest. Lacy, who had previously never been stopped, pleaded for more rounds and was given them.
The pro-Jones crowd had no sympathy for Jeff, cheering all of Jones’ showboating and chanting “knock him out, knock him out!” in the 10th.
Jones was clearly amused, and amazingly picked up his taunts of Lacy. In a clinch, Jones debuted the dragon punch/tiger uppercut, which most will know from the Street Fighter video games. It was sad for Lacy, who had the desire to win but not the skill to do anything about Roy’s disrespect against him.
Thankfully, Lacy’s people had finally seen enough, and the corner stopped the fight just before the 11th round.
In the post-fight interview, Jones confirmed his next fight will be on a showdown with Danny Green in Australia, and that he expects to reach the top of the pound for pound rankings again.
“A lot of people think that I can’t fight when you put the pressure on me, like Danny Green over there…I know he’s coming. I go to go Down Under and get prepared for him,” Jones explained. “I am the best h##### in the game, I have the best left hook in business. Roy Jones [is] still the man pound for pound, still one of the baddest throwing down. They don’t have me ranked but they will before long. Just because I’m 40 don’t mean a dag on thing to me!”
While the future looks bleak for Jeff Lacy, the former top super-middleweight titlist vowed to continue his career.
“I don’t want nobody to hold their heads down for me. I came in here and fought my heart out and left it all in the ring,” Lacy stated. “Roy Jones was the man tonight, and maybe hopefully down the road we can do it again. You see that I never took a step back, I’m going to keep doing it.”
Roy Jones looked great tonight, but as always it is wise to keep things in perspective. As long as he continues to fight against B level competition, he will look great. However, against the A level comp in the likes of Joe Calzaghe, Chad Dawson, etc, his age and diminished attributes will be his downfall. It’ll be interesting to see how much longer he’ll stay active. Regarding Green, I like Jones by a clear unanimous decision.
Jones-Hopkins II? It’s as good a time as any.
As for Jeff Lacy, it would be wise to retire. The tough Calzaghe loss and the rotator cuff surgery have left him a shell of his former self. At super-middleweight, the top guys are locked in a tournament through 2010, and he remains too undersized to really do damage against the elite at light-heavyweight.
Undercard Results:Jason Litzau (25-2, 21 KOs) TKO3 Verquan Kimbrough (21-2-2, 7 KOs)BJ Flores (24-0, 15 KOs) TKO4 Epifanio Mendoza (29-8-1, 25 KOs)Danny Green (27-3, 24 KOs) TKO5 Julio Cesar Dominguez (20-5-1, 14KOs)
Pinoy Power 2 PPV
Super flyweight Nonito Donaire (22-1, 14 KOs) escaped with a tough decision over a thought to be easy opponent in Rafael Concepcion (13-4-1, 8 KOs).
Ever since KO’ing rival Vic Darchinyan in 2007, Donaire has struggled to capitalize on that fight’s momentum. Against Concepcion, Donaire was forced to engage in some brutal exchanges early to gain the relatively unknown fighter’s respect.
By the middle rounds, Donaire found himself at a disadvantage since Concepcion had came in 4 pounds over the 115 pound limit. This extra weight allowed him to walk through much of Donaire’s firepower and hurt the champion with hard lefts.
But Donaire was still the more skilled boxer, and controlled the final rounds by smartly boxing from the outside and countering Concepcion.
Final scorecards for the bout read 117-111, 115-113, and 116-112 all for Donaire by unanimous decision.
On the undercard, WBO featherweight champ Steve Luevano (37-1-1, 15 KOs) won by DQ when opponent Bernabe Concepcion (28-3-1, 16 KOs) knocked him out with a blatant hard right after the 7th round bell.
Paul Williams vs. Kelly Pavlik Set for November 21
Weight-class jumper Paul Williams will face middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik this November in Atlantic City, NJ.
The fight was all but thought of as dead when both sides refused to bend on hardball salary negotiations.
But after looking at their alternate options (read: there aren’t any), both camps came to their senses and made the fight.
In recent years, Paul Williams has competed from 147-160 pounds. In Pavlik, he’ll have his first true test at 160 in regards to if he can take a legit middleweight punch.
For Pavlik, he gets his first opportunity to rebuild his name on a known opponent after being embarrassed and shutout against Bernard Hopkins last year.
We have two young, talented fighters getting it on. What else can you ask for?
I’m on the fence about who’ll take this one. But my gut is leaning towards Williams by decision…if he can take Pavlik’s punch.
Knockout of the Year ContenderCheck out this knockout from last Friday’s Telemundo card featuring Antonio Pitalua (47-4, 41 KOs) vs. Jose Reyes (23-7, 8 KOs). The end comes at the 0:53 mark. Brutal!
Vivian Harris Released from Hospital After Headbutt KOVivian Harris’ (29-3-1, 19 KOs) ESPN fight ended in disaster when he collapsed in his corner following an accidental clash of heads with Noe Bolanos (20-4-1 NC, 11 KOs). Knockout Nation has confirmed that Harris has been released from the hospital. At press time, Harris nor his promoter Golden Boy have released a statement on his future plans. The fight was ruled a no contest.
Vitaly Klitschko vs. Chris ArreolaChris Arreola (27-0, 24 KOs) will seek to bring a portion of the heavyweight crown back to America when he faces formidable titlist Vitaly Klitschko (37-2, 36 KOs) on September 26 in Los Angeles.
Originally, Vitaly was supposed to face David Haye after the former cruiserweight champ pulled out of his fight with Wladimir Klitschko. However, Haye broke the arrangement in favor of facing another titlist in Nicolai Valuev.
“First of all, David Haye, tried to sell himself, cut off the head of my brother and after that my head. Also, I don’t believe he had an injury before the fight with my brother,” Vitaly told maxboxing.com. “It was excuses. Right now, he doesn’t understand that the contract we made with him. He didn’t sign the contract,but it was actually the same contract that he signed with Wladimir. My personal opinion [is] his manager talked to Sauerland, promoter of Nicolai Valuev, [the] WBA champion, and he sees his chance to be a world champion against Valuev is much bigger than against Vitali Klitschko. He’s afraid. He has to show his skills against Valuev. My personal opinion is he’s not serious. He’s an unpredictable fighter and not good for boxing.”
For his part, Arreola promises none of the trash-talking of Haye, and that his entire focus is emerging victorious next month in the biggest fight of his career.
“I’m here to make history,” Arreola stated. “I’m going to make him a pop culture question: Who did Chris Arreola beat to be the first Mexican-American heavyweight? I’m honored by this opportunity; it’s not just an opportunity, its history. It’s even hard for me to describe. But come September 26, I know this is going to be a great fight. We don’t need to trash-talk. I respect the man. But we’ll do our talking in the ring.”
This fight should be action-packed for as long as it lasts. Let’s hope that Arreola, who’s notorious for his weight issues, comes to fight in the best shape possible. Still, Vitaly has to be favored because of his activity, reach, and punching power.
Prediction is Klitschko by an 8th round TKO.
Throwback Fight of the Week: Lennox Lewis vs. Vitaly Klitschko (June 21, 2003)Speaking of Vitaly, it was this entertaining loss that catapulted him to the top of the heavyweight division.
Because of a last minute Kirk Johnson injury, Vitaly was inserted as a sub for Lewis’ first post-Mike Tyson title defense.
Woefully out of shape at a career-high of 256 pounds, Lewis was wobbled badly several times in round 2 by a fired up Vitaly. But ever the champion, Lewis gutted out the early assault and turned the contest into a barroom brawl, succeeding in shredding the skin above Klitschko’s left eye in round 3.
Lewis targeted the cut and was coming on despite Klitschko holding his ground.The fight was still up in the air when ringside doctors stopped the bout at the end of round six due to Klitschko’s severe cut. Lewis was booed for what was seen as a lucky escape, while Klitschko was cheered for a gritty, breakout performance.
After a few months of back and forth negotiation, Lennox Lewis decided to retire rather than test fate again against a younger, hungry opponent.
Vitaly would go on to post dominant victories over contenders Kirk Johnson, Corrie Sanders, and Danny Williams before injuries forced him to retire in 2004.
He would return in 2008 and promptly knock out Samuel Peter to regain his WBC heavyweight title. Vitaly is scheduled to face undefeated Chris Arreola in September.
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