Jones has sights set on Calzaghe
NEW YORK (TICKER) —Roy Jones Jr. continued his bid to attain a bout with Joe Calzaghe by dispatching fellow veteran Felix “Tito” Trinidad at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
The 39-year-old Jones believes he still has what it takes to compete with boxing’s best, three years after being written off as past his prime. The eight-time, four-division champion believes a showdown with Wales’ undisputed world super middleweight champion Calzaghe is the perfect way to prove it.
Jones and promoter Don King claimed they would be flying to Wales by private jet on Sunday in an effort to ratchet up the pressure on Calzaghe and his promoter Frank Warren. Jones is seeking a fight in Cardiff either after the Welshman has fought Bernard Hopkins in Las Vegas in April or in place of the 43-year-old challenger.
“We’re going to Wales in the morning on a (Boeing) 737,” King said Saturday night.
“I’m definitely looking to make that fight and I’m going there (Sunday),” Jones added. “I’ll fight anybody, anywhere, anytime, and if Hopkins-Calzaghe finishes how I think it will, I’ll even go to Wales and fight. I don’t care.”
Jones was delighted with his performance against Trinidad, particularly considering he was perceived as being too old to be in the ring. He twice knocked down the 35-year-old Puerto Rican, who himself had come out of a near three-year retirement, to win a unanimous decision after a 12-round contest at or below a catch weight of 170 pounds.
“All my fans around the world said I was done,” said Jones, who was named Boxer of the Decade for the 1990s. “But you never know when you’re going to be here or when you’re going to go, so you can never know when it’s your time. I had a great training camp and great sparring partners, and I’m pretty much ‘Mr. Unstoppable.’”
Jones claimed he entered the fight with a torn left bicep muscle he suffered in training camp three weeks ago, which denied him one of his best punches - the left hook.
That may explain the cautious start to Saturday’s fight, as he allowed Trinidad to do all the early running. However, the Puerto Rican did not inflict any serious damage on Jones with his flurries of body shots.
Jones warmed to his task as the fight wore on, knocking down Trinidad in the seventh round and again near the end of the 10th before taking the fight on the judges’ scorecards, which read 117-109, 116-110 and 116-110.
“He took a lot of punches,” the American said of Trinidad. “I tried to put him away a few times, but he slipped a lot of good punches. It was a great fight. I can’t believe he stayed in there for all those rounds for me.”
Jones said he had not been hurt by Trinidad, who was a long way from prime form. But “Tito” claimed he was satisfied with his performance after almost three years away from the ring.
“I take nothing away from Roy, but if I could have avoided the (knockdowns), I think I would have won the fight,” Trinidad said through an interpreter. “He was very fast and strong and threw great punches. I have no excuses.
“Roy Jones was very fast and he fought a good fight. I think he won the fight, but not by such a wide margin.”
