He’s Back.
It was a packed house Saturday at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi. Roy Jones Jr. entered the ring wearing a gladiator costume while mouthing the lyrics to his very own “And Still”. The wait was finally over. Weeks of questions, “is there anything left in the tank”, “is he crazy for fighting a young, hungry, undefeated prospect”, were finally ready to be answered at the opening bell.
In Round 1, Hanshaw pressed the action. His attack was reminiscent of Prince Badi in Boise last year and Glen Johnson three years ago in Memphis. Roy was content to allow Hanshaw to throw as many punches as he wanted for the first three minutes of the fight. Many of the punches were fully or partially blocked, but some of them landed. As the Roy Jones contingency began to worry, Jones landed a few powerful digs to the body that temporarily eased their fears. But as the bell rang to signal the end of round one, it was clear that Hanshaw came to fight, and that he had a very specific strategy: smother Roy Jones.
In the 2nd round, Roy seemed to settle in and began to stay away from the ropes more effectively than he did in the 1st round. Jones landed a leaping left hook and tagged Hanshaw with a few straight rights that seemed to temporarily stun Hanshaw because he never saw them coming. Roy won the 2nd round quite convincingly and seemed very comfortable when fighting in the center of the ring.
Throughout the middle rounds, Hanshaw continued his pressing attack. The crowd and Roy Jones both appeared surprised that the former Super Middleweight contender kept coming forward despite absorbing heavy punishment as Roy threw what seemed to be only power punches throughout the fight. The middle to later rounds featured a taunting attack from Roy Jones. We saw the gamecock strut, the Roy Jones version of the Ali Shuffle, and the patented smile every time Hanshaw landed, or tried to land, anything substantial.
Then, in the 11th round, it happened. The crowd was begging for blood the entire match and finally received a taste. It seemed everyone in the arena was waiting for Roy to piece his punches together in an exciting combination as he had done countless times in the past. Jones and Hanshaw were slugging it out in Hanshaw’s corner. Roy snuck in a left uppercut that wobbled Hanshaw. As Hanshaw staggered across the ring, Jones attacked and for the first time in years, Jones let his hands fly. He hit Hanshaw with “rights and
lefts and all kinds of things”. And in a blink of the eye, Hanshaw was down on the mat.
Hanshaw displayed his heart and resolve by beating the count and by passing the referee’s ringside sobriety test. He found his legs and was able to survive the 11th round.
The 12th and final round began with the fighters shaking hands in the center of the ring. Immediately after, Roy ran to his right and bounced off the ropes like a WWE wrestler. He knew he had won, and he wanted everyone else in the arena to know it as well. As the crowd chanted “Roy, Roy, Roy, Roy”, Jones was content to keep his distance and go to the scorecards.
The Judges’scores were 114-113, 117-110, and 118-109 in favor of Jones. Nobody in the arena, including myself, could make sense of the 114-113 scorecard, but the end result was the same, a well-fought victory for Jones, and another belt to hang on his wall (IBC Light Heavy Weight Championship). I personally scored it 117-110 for Jones. During Roy’s post-fight speech in the ring, he disclosed to the crowd that he began the fight with six stitches in his left eye; maybe that explains why he uncharacteristically kept his hands up.
Is Roy Jones once again a huge player in the world of boxing? Maybe, but he clearly needs a victory over a big name opponent to silence the critics. Last week on the conference call before the fight, I asked Roy if a rematch with Glen Johnson was something he wanted. His response was, “absolutely.” With names like Glen Johnson and Tito Trinidad being thrown around as possible opponents, Roy may get one last shot to answer all of the lingering questions regarding his career. As the saying goes, “you’re only as good as your last fight”. If that’s true, then Roy is STILL very good…………just like he sang as he came to the ring.
Comments can be e-mailed to Dominick Panfile at dpanfile@yahoo.com