BoxRec

DKP wins Jones-Tarver bid!
By Karl Freitag
Don King Productions won today's WBC purse auction for the rematch between WBC light heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. and Antonio Tarver. DKP's bid of $8.5 million easily outdistanced bids from Star Boxing ($6,675,999), Sports Network ($6,500,000) and Square Ring (($6,401,113). The purse will be split 75%/25% in favor of the champion Jones and the fight should take place within 90 days.

Mmmm -whilst easily beaten, that did sound like a fair old effort from Sports Network.

Roy's getting a nice pay day - still don't think the fight will happen though. I thought Tarver was guareenteed a shot at Johnson, of course this is the bigger fight - but I'd also like to see Tarver vs Johnson.

Was fw trying to get the fight to maybe get options for a calzaghe vs winner fight, if calzaghe goes for the IBF or WBO titles, I thought fw wanted nothing to do with the WBC after they dropped hatton down a place. The fight won't happen jones will struggle to make the weight, or they might make the weight a little higher

Yes, that is a huge bid from Frank. Surely, one of the biggest ever from a British promoter.

1/ How reliable is the source ?
2/ Size of the bid is irrelevent when you're $2 mill short even if true.
It's like walking into a Rolls Royce garage and bidding £50k under book.
Impresses the mates, but means f@@k all.
That said both Hennessey and Warren have totally confused me this week with all these bidding issues.
Hennessey secures Witter but loses Eastman.
Warren ignores Witter then bids (allegedly) a huge sum for this American affair.
One question - and it is simple.
Mr Warren if your Company is awash with funds like this why can't you secure the big fights for
1/ Hatton
2/ Calzaghe
Instead of feeding us hopes and aspirations.
Anyone care to comment ?

Kieran wrote:1/ How reliable is the source ?
2/ Size of the bid is irrelevent when you're $2 mill short even if true.
It's like walking into a Rolls Royce garage and bidding £50k under book.
Impresses the mates, but means f@@k all.
That said both Hennessey and Warren have totally confused me this week with all these bidding issues.
Hennessey secures Witter but loses Eastman.
Warren ignores Witter then bids (allegedly) a huge sum for this American affair.
One question - and it is simple.
Mr Warren if your Company is awash with funds like this why can't you secure the big fights for
1/ Hatton
2/ Calzaghe
Instead of feeding us hopes and aspirations.
Anyone care to comment ?

Source is fightnews.com.
Good post, Kieran. I suppose Sports Network could bid for the fight knowing full well they're gonna lose.

I can't wait for this fight to happen, it's very winnable for Tarver. Oh and i go back on my original comments at the time, Jones did win the fight, i took a second look with a clear head and he nicked it.

yeah I was surprised at that as well. Maybe FW wanted to be big in the States and try and make it this time?

$8.5 million...

so RJJ gets $6.37m
Tarver gets $2.12m

so the judges incompetence cost Tarver $4.25m ........ damn

Oh but hang on knockout - Jones Jr "stole" the fight didn't ya know? That made it all alright.

Sven Ottke "steals" fights all the time. What a great champ!

Kilburn wrote:Oh but hang on knockout - Jones Jr "stole" the fight didn't ya know? That made it all alright.

Sven Ottke "steals" fights all the time. What a great champ!

Patently ridiculous comparison. Tarver stole rounds (especially in the minds of the Jones dislikers) with those mostly-ineffective flurries towards the end of many of the rounds. Meanwhile, Jones landed a large number of clean, hard right-hand leads to the body in the center of the ring. But you probably didn't notice that, you were apparently too busy being wowed by the mere fact that Tarver was throwing leather with Jones resting on the ropes. Sure he landed a few good shots - but fewer clean punches than his opponent did. And yes, Jones' face looked worse than Tarver's afterward, for the obvious reason that most of Tarver's landed shots were to the head, whereas most of Jones' were to the gut. The former aren't supposed to count double, you know.

But it was a close fight, and it'll be interesting to see how the rematch plays out. Presumably Jones is comfortable around 175 again, so the weight loss issue is moot in this one.

The fight was fairly close, but Jones was pretty marked up at the end, which is a first for him....
For a fight which has generally been accepted as razor tight it seems wrong for Tarver to get $4m less than Roy....

Eric if Jones Jr won every fight like he "won" against Tarver there would be nothing ridiculous about comparing him to Sven Ottke, a champion now ridiculed everywhere outside of Germany.

Jesus you can't say anything on these bloody forums without some cretin bringing up "hater" or some equivalent nonsense.

Jones Jr is a great fighter, one of the best in history I have no doubt, but he was terrible against Tarver and DID NOT win that fight with a few keep-away jabs and the odd right to the body. I hope beyond hope that he does beat Tarver next time around and looks good doing it.

You "nuthugger".

I watched that fight several times, and I had it a draw in what was a close fight, but no way did Jones deserve to get his belts back with that performance.

If anyone won it was Tarver, but I did think a draw would have been the right result.

It will be interesting to see if it was just being weight drained which caused Jones to look so bad, he really did look a pale imitation of himself...

Kilburn wrote:Jesus you can't say anything on these bloody forums without some cretin bringing up "hater" or some equivalent nonsense.

I didn't say "hater," I said "disliker." ;)

And despite the fact that Jones looked far from his usual peppy self vs. Tarver, to compare that fight - which at least showed Jones gutting it on arguably the worst night of his career - to outright frauds like Ottke vs. Reid is, as I said, patently ridiculous.

Re. the purse amounts (which someone else brought up) - Jones won the first fight (even if close), and is by far the bigger name. The ratio would've actually been closer to 2:1 based on the $2M Jones offered before the WBC mandated the purse bid, and the $6M-plus total purse bid by Jones' Square Ring Promotions. But Don King wound up having the final say. Tarver's refusal of the $2M wund up earning him an extra hundred grand or so (25% of King's $8.5M = $2.125M), which Tarver will likely spin as a huge negotiating-table coup over his rival. ;)

totally agree with James and Kilburn, Jones didnt do enough in my book to get a win. That and the even more farcical Mosely and the even more farcical tha that Barnes vincent decisions put me off boxing for a few months then along came Pacman Barerra and that ignited the fires hahaha.
Jones is and has been a great fighter but he isnt superman as some seem to think, it did make me laugh the way Lennozx was pilloried and some people reckoned Jones would have spanked Lennox I mean come on.

I'm reluctant to give Jones too much credit for his supposed brave display against Tarver. It wasn't like he was "taking one to give one" as such. He didn't throw caution to the wind at any stage, he just faced up to the fact that he was in nothing like his usual shape and hoped to nick a decision with a few darting punches. Hardly the performance of a warrior.

Had Jones been the champ it might not have been so hard to swallow but he wasn't, that was Tarvers title and it was stolen from him.

But like I say, I hope to see Jones back to his best form next time because boxing would not be the same without it.

It's amazing how your views change depending on which station you watch it on, i watched it on BBC and felt Tarver was robbed, i suppose John Rawling's melodramatic "That is a disgraceful decision" shout at the end kind of swayed it as well I saw it after on HBO and seriously Jones nicked it i would say or at most a draw, he was awesome in those last two rounds and showed real heart. But Tarver CAN win the rematch, he just needs better tactics.

Looking forward to the rematch in any event - it'll be my birthday present to myself.

Steve, don't you ever sleep? ;)