Thursday, Oct. 23, 2003 | 10:30 a.m.
Training in his native Pensacola, Fla., for his Nov. 8 fight at Mandalay Bay with Antonio Tarver, Roy Jones Jr. uses his dislike for his upcoming opponent as motivation.
He has made it clear he doesn't care for Tarver and that he will dominate their fight and reclaim two-thirds of his undisputed light heavyweight championship.
Tarver's World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation titles at 175 pounds will be at stake. Both of those championships, as well as one sanctioned by the World Boxing Association, belonged to Jones before he abandoned them to fight as a heavyweight earlier this year.
Jones said two episodes, each just after he beat John Ruiz in March at the Thomas & Mack Center, were typical of Tarver and reasons to despise him.
"If I have something to say, I'm going to say it to your face as soon as I see you," Jones said Monday during an open media session at his camp. "When I came down the aisle after I beat Ruiz, (Tarver) went right up to my face and said 'Congratulations.' If he had anything (else) to say he could have said it right there ... but he didn't. He said 'Congratulations' and got right the hell out of the way.
"Then he gets to the press conference with all of the cameras and I'm way away from him and I can't get to him like I want to, and he wants to talk. This is a coward to me."
Tarver continually interrupted that postfight press conference by hollering at Jones and calling him out. He created a sufficient disturbance that security was summoned to escort him out.
"Is that a man I could respect?" Jones said. "That's a cowardly act.
"I've seen this man a thousand times (and) away from the cameras he's not saying nothing. He won't say (anything) to my face.
"He talks. That's what he's been doing his whole career."
Tarver is 21-1 and lost a fight to Jones when both were amateurs.
Jones is 48-1 and generally regarded as the finest fighter in the world.
Their fight tops a pay-per-view card that will also include a title defense by IBF junior middleweight champion Winky Wright (vs. Angel Hernandez) and a 10-round bout featuring promising middleweight Jermain Taylor (vs. Rogelio Martinez).
"Don't get me wrong," Jones said, "(Tarver) is going to rise to the best that he can bring to the table. But, come on, Reggie Johnson dropped him.
"I feel there is no light heavyweight that can bother me anymore."
Jones said he also predicted that a distant nemesis and a man previously regarded as his leading challenger at 175 pounds, Dariusz Michalczewski, would lose to Julio Gonzalez, as happened Saturday in Hamburg, Germany. The loss was Michalczewski's first in 49 fights and virtually eliminated him as a future opponent for Jones.
"I knew Dariusz was never much anyway," Jones said. "I couldn't understand all of the fuss about him when he wouldn't come from Germany to fight me.
"I knew he couldn't beat Gonzalez because Gonzalez is the type of fighter that can take it and keep coming."
Jones defeated Gonzalez by decision two years ago.
With Jones, 34, running out of noteworthy opponents at his natural weight, he's leaving open the option of returning to the heavyweight ranks. Without revealing too many details, he said he spoke to Mike Tyson last week.
"You know Mike," he said. "He could have problems of his own, but we can work out a deal. Mike isn't tough to deal with. He isn't like people think he is.
"Actually, he's a very intelligent dude."
As for two other heavyweights who are angling to fight him, Jones said he has no particular interest in either Chris Byrd or James Toney.
"If I had nothing to do and was just into doing something for the money, for the fun of it, I probably would do Chris Byrd," Jones said. "But to me, he lost (his most recent fight) to Fres Oquendo. And that was a boring fight. Who has he fought that was an exciting fight?
"I don't need what he's got."
As for Toney, who Jones defeated by decision as a super middleweight in 1994, a rematch seems unlikely and Jones was not impressed by Toney's Oct. 4 victory against Evander Holyfield.
"That was the easiest fight to pick in the history of boxing," he said of Toney vs. Holyfield. "It was like taking candy from a baby. That was one of the dumbest fights in history.
"James Toney just talks a lot of junk. Really, who cares?"
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