A horrible and apparent mismatch is a foul factor within the sport of boxing; for quite a few causes. Chief amongst these causes is the danger to his well being the grossly mismatched fighter faces. Rewind to January of 1999, and Roy Jones Jr actually was the king of boxing, or “Superman” if you happen to desire. At or round his absolute combating peak at age 30, and 38-1 – the DQ loss to Montell Griffin having been swiftly and fairly brutally avenged – Jones was the most effective fighter on the planet pound-for-pound.
Jones was additionally the WBA/WBC light-heavyweight champion, quickly to be the unified WBA/WBC/IBF ruler. However, in his first struggle of the 12 months, Jones was in some way matched with a fighter who, although ranked, for no matter causes, because the #1 WBC contender, was on no account able to giving Jones a struggle. And everybody knew it. The struggle, and with it the expected simple win Jones scored, brought about outrage. Whereas an sudden apology additionally got here.
Jones, having manner, manner, manner an excessive amount of of all the pieces for Frazier, a New York Metropolis police officer, chased his challenger across the ring like he’d dedicated a criminal offense. However the actual crime right here was the match making, together with Frazier’s inexplicable obligatory standing. Jones blasted by way of Frazier, dropping him within the opening spherical (this with a mix that really missed) after which getting the stoppage win a single second earlier than the top of spherical two. Jones barely broke a sweat.
Lou DiBella, who was senior vice chairman at HBO on the time of the struggle/mismatch, later said how WBC president Jose Sulaiman must be “embarrassed” for the best way his organisation had ranked Frazier so extremely. “It was disgraceful,” DiBella mentioned, his sentiments shared by all – together with, to his credit score after the very fact, Sulaiman.
Sulaiman was certainly embarrassed, to the extent that he apologised for the struggle. “I’m embarrassed, I take full duty,” he mentioned, mainly having no different possibility.
As for Jones, he would go on to wipe out anybody in his path, with good fighters similar to Reggie Johnson, Richard Corridor, Eric Harding, Julio Cesar Gonzalez, Clinton Woods, and, up at heavyweight, John Ruiz being overwhelmed. This made the actually gorgeous loss Jones suffered by the hands of Antonio Tarver, of their Could 2004 rematch, all of the extra earth-shattering.
On the time of the Frazier farce, this was nonetheless some years away. Fortunately, Frazier didn’t endure critical damage in his inconceivable, it-should-never-have-happened struggle with Jones. But right here we’re, all this time later, nonetheless seeing mismatches placed on. Some issues by no means change, do they?
Frazier, a great, sincere fighter, shouldn’t be remembered only for the Jones episode, though that is actually the case. Frazier, who completed at 18-4-1, by no means fought once more after the Jones hammering, but he did choose up good wins over Tyrone Frazier, Anthony Hembrick, and Maurice Harris previous to that unhealthy evening, that embarrassing evening, in Pensacola.
Boxing Information » Roy Jones Jr KO2 Richard Frazier: The Gross Mismatch That Made Jose Sulaiman Apologise