by James Slater – Only in boxing. As soon as British referee Howard Foster waved off Wednesday’s Danny Green-Roy Jones Junior fight at just after the two-minute mark of the very first round, fans everywhere knew the agreed rematch between Jones and fellow modern day legend Bernard Hopkins, set for next March, was history. With the 40-year-old hammered to another brutal stoppage loss (his third), it was clear the fistic talents that Jones once used to dazzling effect had faded beyond all recognition – at least his ability to take a good shot had gone.
Retirement surely now the only real option for the once superb Jones, all focus shifted to his conqueror, Danny Green. Now a superstar in his Australian homeland, fans wondered if maybe Hopkins, who hours later romped to an expectedly easy and clear-cut points win over Mexico’s Enrique Ornelas, would fight “The Green Machine” instead.
But Hopkins, showing how odd his thinking can be at times, has astonishingly gone on record as saying he still wants to fight Jones! Okay, we all know how annoying it can be when plans we’ve made get spoilt, but is the 44-year-old serious when he says he still wants to fight Jones?
Props must go to promoter Gary Shaw, for the dry sense of humour he has shown in sarcastically offering Hopkins and Jones a supporting slot on his fighter, Chad Dawson’s next fight card. Shaw is no doubt as amazed as everyone else is about Hopkins still wanting the Jones return.
It’s clear to everyone except Hopkins that if he wants a meaningful fight at 175-pounds or thereabouts, he must face either Green or Dawson (this is forgetting for the moment B-Hop’s talk of moving up to heavyweight). But, as quoted by STV.com, Hopkins is insisting the way Jones was beaten inside a round means “nothing” when it comes to their planned rematch.
“It’s the way you lose and I don’t think the ref should’ve stopped the [Green] fight like that, “Hopkins said. “I was ringside when Joe Calzaghe hurt him worse, with a cut, and the referee gave him the benefit of the doubt because of his legendary status. Roy wasn’t throwing many punches and [Green] was throwing more but most of Green’s were missing.
“Everybody knows what happens when you go over to Europe and that’s why I would never go over there. Roy Jones lost on his feet, not on his back. And Green was in his hometown.”
Hopkins, who has always done things his own way and has always told it like he sees it, really has outdone himself here. Jones, who never complained one iota about the stoppage Wednesday, HAD to be saved by the ref and it had nothing to do with where the fight was being held. And since when has Australia been in Europe? Just how much does Hopkins want the second fight with Jones! To suggest Green only won because of a hometown-influenced quick stoppage really is crazy.
I personally felt, upon hearing about Jones’ shocking loss, that Hopkins would definitely call out Green – with the Philly great feeling he’d be able to outbox the Australian in a fight that would perhaps go ahead on the Las Vegas card originally reserved for Jones to appear on. But Hopkins, who also insists he will “be heavyweight champion of the world in 2010,” seems to be obsessed with fighting Jones again, despite what happened to him in Oz.
But who on earth would ever want to see the rematch of the 1993 middleweight title fight now? We’ve seen high profile fighters lose a tune-up when a huge and lucrative fight of far more importance has been already agreed to, and we’ve seen these fighters lose their tune-up and still box the big fight. But the losses the stars suffered were not of the 1st-round blow-out variety.
Hopkins-Jones II is a dead fish. Everyone knows it except the usually wise-headed “Executioner.”