Roy
Jones Jr. vs Antonio Tarver II, billed as More Than Personal, was
a professional boxing match contested for the WBA (Unified), WBC,
IBA, IBO, The Ring, and vacant WBF light heavyweight titles.
Background
The
two men had previously fought each other on November 8, 2003. Roy
Jones, in his previous fight at heavyweight against John Ruiz on March
1, 2003, had weighed in at 193 pounds and was at 199 pounds on the
night of the fight against Ruiz. In his following fight, which was
Jones' first fight against Tarver, Jones was clearly weakened and
slower in the ring after losing 24 pounds to get back down to the
175 pound light heavyweight limit, while Tarver, who had captured
the WBC and IBF titles Jones had vacated after his WBA heavyweight
title win against John Ruiz in March, was able to land several punching
combinations through the course of his first fight against Jones and
fought a closely contested fight. However, while one judge scored
the bout a draw (114-14), the other two judges had Jones clearly ahead
by scores of 117-111 and 116-112, giving Jones the win by majority
decision. Following his victory Jones initially talked about returning
to the heavyweight division to take on Mike Tyson in what would be
his final fight. The planned Jones-Tyson superfight never came into
fruition and Jones eventually decided to meet Tarver in a rematch
on May 15, 2004.
The fight
Jones got off to a good start and served as the aggressor of the first round using his trademark quickness to his advantage and easily won the first round of the fight on all three of the judges' scorecards. Jones attempted to repeat his success in the second round as Tarver held back, seemingly waiting for Jones to make a mistake. Just over midway through the round, Jones attempted to hit Tarver with a right hand, Antonio Tarver however countered with a quick left hook that dropped Jones to the canvas for only the second time in his professional career (Lou Del Valle scored a knockdown against Jones in 1998). Jones struggled to get back up but eventually made it back to his feet, however referee Jay Nady deemed Jones too hurt to continue and quickly ended the fight and Tarver was rewarded with the knockout victory. It was the second loss of Jones' professional career and the first time that he had been knocked out. Jones' previous loss had come via disqualification against Montell Griffin in 1997, a loss which was avenged by Jones with a first round knockout of Griffin in the rematch later that year. The manner of Jones' loss to Tarver was arguably the biggest surprise in boxing since James "Buster" Douglas had knocked out Mike Tyson on February 11, 1990 as a 42/1 outsider. Jones' loss ended his near decade reign at the top in boxing's pound for pound list.
Aftermath
A little over four months later, Jones
returned to face Glen Johnson in an attempt to regain the WBF light
heavyweight title (Johnson had defeated Clinton woods to capture the
title after Antonio Tarver vacated it just prior to the first fight
with Jones). Though Jones came into the fight as a heavy favorite,
he trailed Johnson on all three scorecards (75-77, 75-77, 74-78) before
he was knocked out for the second consecutive time, this time in the
ninth round by an overhand right to the head from Johnson which saw
Jones laying down on the canvas for some minutes afterward, producing
an even more shocking knockout loss for Roy Jones than against Tarver
in his previous fight. After Jones' loss, it was Tarver who fought
Johnson next. However, prior to the fight both the WBA and WBC stripped
Tarver of their titles while the IBF stripped Johnson of their title
after the two men decided to face each other rather than the organizations'
mandatory challengers. As a result only Tarver's IBO and The Ring
titles were on the line. For the second straight fight, Johnson picked
up the upset win after defeating Tarver by split decision (one judge
scored the fight 116-112 in favor of Tarver while the other two judges
scored the fight 115-113 for Johnson). After Tarver defeated Johnson
by unanimous decision in a rematch to recapture his titles, a rubbermatch
with Jones was set for October 1, 2005.