Although Roy Jones Jr. has regained his light-heavyweight title with a stunning first-round knockout of Chicagoan Montell Griffin, the restored champion’s boxing future is just as uncertain as the ex-champ’s.
Griffin, 27, whose record is now 27-1, can take consolation from earning his biggest boxing payday Thursday night, with a share between $1 million and $1.5 million.
A strong showing, even in losing, would have assured him of more decent paydays. But his quick demise at Jones’ hands, particularly his left hook, doesn’t just obliterate his perfect record. It pushes him down the ladder as a marketable fighter.
If his team, headed by manager John Caluwaert, can find a top-ranked opponent, Griffin could begin climbing back quickly with a victory. The prize would be smaller. But that puts him in company with other light-heavyweight prospects such as recently upset Virgil Hill or the man who beat him, new World Boxing Association champ Darius Michalczewski of Germany.
Jones, 28, who avenged his loss-by-disqualification to Griffin last March to obscure the only blemish on his 35-1 record, is in a class by himself.
Unfortunately, that seems literally true when it comes to weight. With no sensational light-heavyweight challengers, Jones needs either to gain 30 pounds, or lose about 15, to find a mega-payday fight against the likes of Evander Holyfield or Oscar De La Hoya.
To Jones’ credit, he has established himself as arguably the sport’s best fighter pound-for-pound while remaining independent of any of boxing’s Big Three promoters, Don King, Bob Arum or Dino Duva. He has made himself a multimillionaire without them.
And he has done so in an era when boxing’s biggest paydays and fan adulation most often go to heavyweights.
To his detriment, however, Jones frequently sulks, as he did this week about not getting the recognition he deserves. And he occasionally hints as he did this week that he might take a sabbatical and might part with his attorney-adviser-promoter team of Fred and Stanley Levin.
Those thoughts were put on hold, at least, by Jones’ rapid reassertion of his claim to being the best in boxing.
The rematch of Griffin’s victory-by-disqualification over Jones in March was billed as “Unfinished Business.” It also seems an apt title for Jones’ career.
After Thursday’s victory, he gave lip service to defending his World Boxing Council light-heavyweight title against No. 1-ranked contender Michael Nunn, as mandated by the WBC.
But he and his advisers have been equally vocal about not doing that. Fred Levin said it again only hours before Thursday’s bout, and hinted that Jones’ sabbatical plans could be changed quickly at the prospect of a fight against Arum-promoted De La Hoya. Jones would have to lose weight, and De La Hoya gain, to meet in the 160-pound middleweight range.
Jones had bigger things in mind, a literally bigger opponent to be specific, immediately after demolishing Griffin.
He said he wants to fight WBC heavyweight champion Holyfield, who is marginally promoted by King but, like Jones, retains advisers and keeps most business control for himself.
“If I fight Holyfield,” Jones said longingly Thursday night, “it will be to save the sport of boxing.”
Holyfield, who began fighting professionally as a light-heavyweight, bulked up in weight and muscle to move up to the lucrative heavyweight ranks and its top-dollar purses.
One veteran heavyweight, at least, believes Jones can do that, too.
George Foreman, who was in the Foxwoods Resort Bingo Hall Thursday as part of the TVKO pay-per-view telecast team, said Jones “can fight as a heavyweight . . . pack on weight while maintaining quickness and power. Two hundred pounds is all he needs.”
Conceding that moving up in weight was a possibility for Jones, Stanley Levin qualified, “We wouldn’t go after the 6-foot-5 monsters.”
Asked why he looked so ineffective against the 5-foot-7-inch Griffin in their first fight, in which Griffin fought effectively for eight-plus rounds, Jones said, “I had nothing to prove in the first fight.
“I was the champion. He had something to prove.”
After Thursday’s explosive first round, Jones again has his WBC title and belt. And Griffin again has something to prove.
