In closing, I have to comment on the body blow boxing has suffered with the recent KO’s of Oscar De La Hoya and Roy Jones. The sad fact is that they were really the only two major stars boxing has at this point. Who else is there that can command the media attention, ticket sales and PPV buys?

Add Ol' Leg-Iron Mike's recent loss to the mix and the three biggest names in boxing are on the skids. There are no prospects coming up that create the huge media waves that those three always bring to a fight.

 

No matter how anyone might feel about them, it's apparent that with nothing coming up from the last Olympics and no younger fighters taking their place, boxing is reeling at this juncture.

 

As for the fights, I give huge credit for Oscar for even taking the fight not to mention that he CAME to fight. But Bernard was a bridge too far for Oscar, who did his utmost but ultimately went down to the bigger man.

 

Unlike Roy, Oscar stepped up to the plate and fought everybody the public wanted to see him against. Although there are many reasons to dislike Oscar, there is no getting around that he’s been a true warrior willing to meet any challenge.

 

One thing that bothers me about the fight is the laziness of the media in describing the final fatal blow. Every media outlet has pronounced it as a classic left hook to the liver.

 

Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Oscar was hit by a punch on the back of the floating rib and kidney. This is a paralyzing punch and the same sweet spot that Roy hit Virgil Hill on. But the media, including people like Bert Sugar and Max Kellerman are all parroting the hook-to-the-liver balderdash.

 

Most newspaper reporters know squa-doosh about boxing, but I know Max and Bert know better. I mean, it’s just about impossible to hit somebody in the liver when he is bent over like Oscar was.

 

Roy’s sitch is a different case. Manny Steward probably put it best:

 

“What really concerns me is that I’ve never seen an elite fighter go out like that—ever. Not [Sugar Ray] Robinson, not Ali, not anybody. He was knocked out twice. I don’t mean TKO’d—I mean knocked out before he even hit the floor.”

 

That pretty much says it all. Roy’s comedown and failure is something that doesn’t happen to elite fighters: Leonard, Hearns, Hagler, Chavez, Azumah, Pea, Foreman,and so on.

 

People are going to get mad, because people are in denial. But Roy’s failure IS monumental, and there’s no getting around it. When he faced adversity, he folded.

 

Jon Saraceno brought up a good question in a USA Today column: What would have happened if Roy had faced adversity earlier in his career? That’s a question that will float over Roy’s legacy like a shroud. Because when push came to shove against Johnson, he showed no fire, no heart, no fighting spirit.

 

It’s like Roy was the bully on the block (much like Mike Tyson), and when the bubble was punctured, there was no there, there. Hell, Tyson showed WAY more fire against Williams.

 

This is a stain on Roy’s career and there is no getting around it. The years of fighting beat cops and garbage men and the rest of the trash-heap alphabet contenders caught up with him. When somebody actually fought back hard, he simply didn’t know what to do and couldn’t handle it.

 

Ali, Leonard and Pea: When their talents devolved, they tried to adjust and they still fought back and tried to win.

 

Roy didn’t. And no matter how many excuses anybody comes up with there is NO getting around that fact. I see no reason that Roy shouldn’t be judged by the same standards we judge other greats.

 

Jones’ refusal to fight Tarver again immediately was telling. Lennox Lewis has been hammered by the critics for twice being KO’d. But he came back and avenged both losses, which is something Roy won’t or can’t do. If we are going to criticize Lewis, then there’s no reason Roy shouldn’t be held accountable for his failures ...

 

Roy’s main problem is that he was so physically gifted that, like the young Cassius Clay, he got away with his lack of fundamentals. For instance, Roy never really learned how to really use a jab. He was so fast that he could use left hooks instead.

 

And Roy got sloppy. As soon as the reflexes degraded, he had nothing to fall back on. There was no Plan B, because he never learned how to properly fight.

 

He simply doesn’t KNOW how to adjust his style. As all the great fighters got older, they adjusted. Todd Hodgson has brought up Erik Morales and the subtle adjustments he’s made over the past few years. You can say the same for Marco Antonio Barrera. Go back a few years and there is Chiquita Gonzales. His first fight with Michael Carbajal was one of the great wars of the ’90s, but he got stopped. In his next two fights with Carbajal, he radically changed his brawling style, adjusted, and won the next two bouts via tactical decisions.

 

That’s what great fighters do: They find a way to win. Roy couldn’t, because he lacked the fundamentals. Roy could’ve won the Johnson fight if he had jabbed and moved and given angles. Instead, he mostly stayed on the ropes, because he couldn’t handle the pressure of a fighter that wasn’t scared.

 

Ya gotta have a Plan B and a Plan C, or you’ll end up crashing and burning.

 

One last thing: I rewatched the second Tarver fight, and up until the KO, Roy looked the same as ever. He won the first round easily and looked good until he got caught. I really think this loss was more a case of hubris and lack of proper boxing fundamentals than that Roy is shot.