Jones has come long way since ‘88 Olympic debacle

Dean Juipe

Friday, May 14, 2004 | 9:53 a.m.

As the victim of one of the most offensive Olympic scoring disputes in history, Roy Jones Jr. was forced to take stock of his interest in boxing after what happened to him in Seoul, South Korea, in 1988.

For a few days at least, he wavered.

"I remember him saying, 'I don't know if I'll ever fight again,' " recalled Kenny Adams, who coached the U.S. boxing team in the '88 Games. "Immediately after the fight he was so down that all I could do was try to console him. I knew how he felt and I knew he wasn't sure if he wanted to continue.

"I said, 'Hey, man, you won the fight. Don't worry about it.' "

At the heart of Jones' unrest was a gold-medal round fight against Korea's Si-hun Park at 156 pounds. Jones, who had romped through the competition to reach the final, appeared to defeat Park yet the judges awarded Park the decision by a 3-2 score.

"I knew there was a problem even before they announced the decision," Adams said Thursday. "I looked over and saw our Olympic team's attorney and our executive director arguing with some of the officials who were there and shaking their heads.

"I knew what was going down wasn't good."

Public reaction both in Seoul and America was so intense that the International Olympic Committee interceded and awarded Jones the Val Barker Cup as the Games' "most outstanding" boxer. It remains the only time in Olympic history that a man who did not win a gold medal was given the award.

"I think it softened the blow of not getting the decision against the Korean," Adams said.

Sixteen years later Jones is widely regarded as the finest fighter in the sport and he comes into his Saturday fight against Antonio Tarver with only a single loss on his professional record. And that loss was the result of striking Montell Griffin with a punch as the referee attempted to intervene, with Jones being disqualified in a fight in which he was ahead on the judges' cards and had floored Griffin twice.

Jones rebounded from that setback as well to knock out Griffin in the first round of their 1997 rematch.

He's 49-1 with 38 knockouts as he meets Tarver for a second time at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Tarver, 21-2 with 17 KOs, took Jones to the 12-round limit in their first fight, Nov. 8, although Jones was able to escape with a majority decision win and reclaim the World Boxing Council light heavyweight championship.

"I think Roy's going to tear into Mr. Tarver almost like he did with Griffin in that rematch," Adams said. "He might not knock out Tarver as quickly as he did Griffin, but I think he's going to step to the plate and put a whipping on him.

"Roy just wants to do it so bad."

Jones, who is receiving in excess of $6.3 million for the fight, is a minus 550 betting favorite. Tarver, who gets a little more than $2 million, is plus 375.

They headline an 11-bout card that opens at 2 p.m. and is also available to Cox digital cable subscribers on pay-per-view at 6 p.m., with a $50 price tag.

If Jones has emerged as the finest fighter in the world, it was the '88 Olympics that launched him.

"I'll say this much: Once the Olympics started that year, Roy Jones just exploded," Adams said. "It was like a demon got him.

"To be honest, I didn't expect him to be this great. But just as soon as we got to Korea he turned it up another notch.

"He blossomed. I saw it and I remember saying, 'This kid is going to win everything.' "

Jones hasn't legitimately lost a fight since.

archive