Puncher's Chance
Roy Jones Jr. gets his swagger back
by Brandon Guarneri
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MF: You had one of the fittest moments of the last 50 years in sports, when you played a semipro basketball game during the day and defended your super middleweight title that night. Tell me a little about that experience.
Jones Jr.: To me, basketball players are probably the second-best conditioned athletes. Four, five nights a week they're job is running up and down the court. You've got to get in shape if you keep doing that. That's why I like to play in my off time. That's how I got involved in playing, because it's great cardio to get you ready for a fight. For me, it's even better, because in front of a crowd, you're nervous, and nervous energy is the same thing that gets most people overly-exerted when they fight. Basketball gave me a chance to deal with that three or four times a week and it really helped me get my cardio up to par in dealing with a real life situation.
In that basketball arena, I'm going to be nervous, because I'm not at home, not doing what I've been training to do all my life, I'm doing something that's out of my element. So, it was great for me. I knew I could do it, because every day I was going to practice, and then going to train anyway, so it's like, I prepared myself for that too.
MF: So in between the two, you didn't have any doubts?
Jones Jr.: None whatsoever. I went to practice every day, and I'd go to train when I got done with practice. And I used to get up and jog in the morning. I knew I could handle it, there was never a doubt with me. I just wanted to do it to show the world that boxers can do more than one thing.
MF: You mentioned that basketball players are the second-best conditioned athletes in the world. Are boxers the best-conditioned?
Jones Jr.: A swimmer needs to be in some sure enough, hellacious shape. Next has to be a basketball player or a boxer. Just like the swimmer, the boxer doesn't have anybody to come in and call timeout and take his place for a minute because he's tired or because he's hurt, you feel me? They can get that break, but they still have to get their legs for a while before they get that break.
MF: After you beat Antonio Tarver in 2003, you lost three fights in a row. If you beat Trinidad though, you'll have won three in a row. How much longer do you want to fight? What's left to prove?
Jones Jr.: Nothing. I just want to get myself back in shape, get ready to go knock out Joe Calzaghe. After that, I'm good.
MF: Why's that?
Jones Jr.: Because he's the best super-middleweight, and I am older now, but I want to give him a fair shot and see if he can take it.
MF: If you fight him and you lose, would that be it?
Jones. Jr.: Yeah, that'd be it. I'll retire after that. I'm not going to go much longer. I just want to try him and see what he got. They say he's so good. I want to see.
MF: You are a little older now. Your assessment of your own skills — how have things changed?
Jones Jr.: Power is not as sharp as it used to be. I've become more economical, so I only throw power shoots where I need them and when I need them. Speed is about the same. Reflexes are a little bit different. You don't see as much coming as you used to see, or as quick as you used to see it, but I'm not sure if that's reflexes or the fact that I'm just not having fun anymore. So I'll see. I have to find that out shortly.
MF: People wanted to see you fight Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, a lot of heavyweights years ago. If money was no object, who would you want to fight?
Jones Jr.: Mike Tyson. Any time would have been fine with me, because he's always just as dangerous as he would have been for me. He's such a big guy, such a strong puncher. I wanted to see could I outbox him, outsmart him, out-speed him, which I thought I could, and piss him off, make him try to kill me like Ali used to do Joe Frazier.
MF: That would have been such a huge spectacle and a great fight. What held that up?
Jones Jr.: He just never could make it happen. He'd get in trouble, or something else would happen to him. It just wasn't meant.
MF: So you're saying you were pushing for it...?
Jones Jr.: Oh, most definitely. When I won the heavyweight title, he was the only person I wanted to fight. If I could have got a shot at him, I would have stayed at heavyweight. But because I couldn't get that, I came back down to light heavyweight. This was right after Ruiz in 2003.
MF: What do you listen to before a fight to get you pumped up?
Jones Jr.: Songs with good beats to them, good rhythms to them. Sometimes I listen to the lyrics, but most of the time just I listen to the beats and the rhythm of the hook, because I just want a good hook, and a good beat that I can ride to keep my mindset right. The only person word-wise I want to listen to is Scarface, because he's going to speak what I need to hear. I'm very particular about what I want to hear.
MF: Are you still involved in recording music?
Jones Jr.: Oh yeah. I'm still involved in it. I've got a song coming out for Trinidad. I can't give it to you until I'm finished with it, but I got one coming out. In about another week and a half, should be finished. I can send you a copy of it.
MF: Is that your entrance music?
Jones Jr.: More than likely it will be.
MF: Are you going to perform it on the way to the ring?
Jones Jr.: You know I am. This is what I do.
MF: Roy Jones the entertainer is coming back.
Jones Jr.: There you go.
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