Talk Tough 9-28-04

INSIDE BOXING (September 27, 2004) - How about that Glen Johnson (41-9-2)? That was one impressive display of courage and determination that accumulated into a knockout of a ring legend. I can't wait to hear Roy Jones' (49-3) excuse for this one. With Tarver (22-2) it was ''just a lucky punch''. I know this will hurt Roy's place in history. His critics will bring up the fact that he was protected, and did not fight all the top guys in his divisions. They will bring up the well-known fact he was put in against policemen, schoolteachers, and garbage men who were mysteriously moved up the rankings waiting for RJ. Jones did beat Bernard Hopkins and James Toney by decision about ten years ago, but they will ask what has he done since. He passed up opportunities to fight cruiserweight champ Vassiliy Jirov, former heavyweight champ Buster Douglas, light heavyweight champ Dariusz Michalczewski and the list goes on. Hopefully he will also be remembered for his impressive performance at the 1988 Olympics and for being a four-division champion. My opinion on his second knock out loss is that it must be hard for guys who are very wealthy like RJ, Lennox Lewis and Oscar DeLaHoya, who normally live a life of luxury, to go away to camp to train, spar, and run day in and day out. Now take a guy like Glen Johnson, {who I saw lose a close decision to Omar Sheika at the Blue Horizon back in 2000} he's accustomed to making $5-10,000 for a fight. Of course he's going to train hard and be focused. It's like Roy said last time ''everybody gets up to fight me. I can't get up to fight these nobodies.''

If you happen to be in the central New Jersey area Saturday night, a bunch of us are getting together at my uncle Pete's to watch the Tito Trinidad (41-1) vs. Ricardo Mayorga (27-4) middleweight fight on pay- per-view and the Wladimir Klitschko (42-3) vs. DaVarryl Williamson (20-2) fight on Showtime. (Uncle Pete doesn't know it yet, but he is the only one who has Showtime, and we have to be able to change the channels back and forth to watch them at the same time.) They should both prove to be good match ups. At Madison Square Garden, Tito will be coming off a two-year retirement (that I knew wasn't going to last) and Mayorga has a rape case hanging over his head. At Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas, the Klitschko vs. Williamson bout is more of a crossroads fight with Klitschko coming off his third loss (to Lamon Brewster back in April) and the NABF champ, Williamson pushing 37 years of age. The winner could be put in the top ten rankings and the loser might think about hanging them up. The undercard at M.S.G. should be decent with current champs: Zab Judah (31-2), Travis Simms (23-0), and Wayne Braithwaite (21-0) in separate bouts. The undercard in Vegas features 2000 US Olympian, Jeff Lacey (16-0) against former NABO middleweight champ, Syd Vanderpool (35-2) for the vacant IBF super middleweight title. (An interesting side note is that Vanderpool is one of the 9 guys who beat Roy Jones conqueror, Glen Johnson.) Both cards are scheduled to start at 9:00pm EST.

Another interesting match up takes place October 9 in Erfurt, Germany. The 6'11 324lb, "Russian Bear'', Nicolay Valuev (37-0) takes on the 6'3 240lb, "Italian Gladiator", Paolo Vidoz (17-1) for the vacant WBA International heavyweight belt. Vidoz was the 2000 Olympic super heavyweight bronze medalist and Valuev is a former basketball player who is now considered a freak of nature. So what we have here is a Russian fighting an Italian in Germany for an international title. Sounds about right.