Columnist Dean Juipe: Weight is Jones’ first challenge

Dean Juipe

Friday, Nov. 7, 2003 | 10:45 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Roy Jones Jr. and Antonio Tarver not being on the best of terms, I wasn't real sure that Jones would show up for today's weigh-in at Mandalay Bay anything near the 175 pounds he's not supposed to exceed.

Having fought last time in excess of 200 pounds (on the actual night of the fight) and having taken this fight simply to rid himself of Tarver, I found it easy to picture Jones saying he could make 175 but then not doing it. I was envisioning him stepping on the scales and having it read 180 or so and then saying to Tarver, "Well, do you want to fight or not?"

Contractually, if Jones was over the weight limit Tarver's World Boxing Council light heavyweight title wouldn't be at stake. But if Jones were to come in over the limit, the onus would be on Tarver to take the fight or call the whole thing off (and miss not only the biggest fight and paycheck of his career, but the one fight he has been begging to get for years).

But then I saw Jones this week and saw the determination he has and -- beyond being told that his weight would be OK today -- realized that he's going to weigh precisely 175 because he not only wants to beat Tarver but he wants to leave him with no excuses.

So this is a twofold prediction: Jones makes the assigned weight today and he defeats Tarver when they fight Saturday night in the hotel's Events Center.

Not that Tarver is going to go down easily. He's tall, he's a southpaw, he's a legitimate world champion, he doesn't like Jones, he lost to him when each was a 13-year-old amateur and he knows he will never see an opportunity like this ever again. He has plenty of incentive to give his very best effort and I'm sure that he will.

Except I don't believe it will be enough. He is, after all, fighting the toughest man in the world, the pound-for-pound champion, a man so dedicated to boxing that he can move up to heavyweight and defeat a reigning champion before returning to a division where the weight requirement forces him to lose around 25 pounds.

There hasn't been a great deal of attention paid to this weight issue, yet it's a focal point as you attempt to evaluate this fight.

Jones admits to having had trouble losing weight in recent weeks, and you have to wonder if the process will leave him zapped or without his usual verve. Many a fighter has lost a bout on the scales, making the assigned weight but depleting his energy and resources.

Those fighters may answer the bell the night of the fight, but they do it without much fight left in them. And that could actually happen to Jones. How would you like to go on a stringent, eight-week diet and then face a man who's anxious and itching to hit you in the face over and over? You could get worn out in a hurry.

But Jones is a special fighter and I think he has adapted to the special circumstances of this fight. He has done it because he wants to quiet Tarver, wants to dispel the myth that he has been evading him and wants to do it in a manner in which everyone will leave impressed.

The first step in that process is making 175. The second step is meeting the challenge of the fight itself and coming out ahead.

I think Jones will do both. I think he wins and looks good in the process.

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