BoxRec

Watch the KO clip in slo-mo or frame-by-frame: Tarver snaps a right jab which Jones deflects upward with his left. At that instant it's in fact Tarver who is very vulnerable, off balance and with his chin forward and wide open for a counter. Jones then throws an overhand (straight) right over Tarver's now-dropped right which JUST misses Tarver's chin, as Tarver bends himself double to get out of the way. With Tarver bent over like that Jones can't throw a followup, so he waits with his left low but his right (the side Tarver winds up landing on) up by the side of his head. Tarver sees an opening, takes one small step in and winds up the left hook - but his left elbow is blocked from Jones' view by his body. While he's winding up the left he actually drops the right, and Jones quickly tries to land a short left hook of his own. But he doesn't have the leverage Tarver has coming up from his crouch, and Tarver is by then so far inside his guard that Jones' left glances off Tarver's right shoulder and just taps him in the side of the head. At that very moment Tarver's crushing left, thrown with all his weight behind it, is 6 inches from connecting. And Jones' right is up by the side of his head the whole time, but the left lands on the point of the chin just ahead of the guarding right glove. It's not the kind of photogenically spectacular KO shot that makes the classic highlight reels, but watch it in slo-mo - it's a BIG shot thrown with all of Tarver's leverage behind it, and because Tarver cocked his arm when it was out of sight, the punch travels those last few feet in a hurry. A beautiful shot, not in the same sense of classic left hooks like Jones was known for (especially at middleweight), but still beautifully timed and devastating when it lands. Trust me - there are very few fighters that shot would not have put down, especially who aren't heavyweights.

So not a lucky punch by any means, but it did occur just an instant after Tarver barely avoided a big straight right after leaving himself open after a missed right jab. That's the breaks sometimes. Tarver isn't as good a pure boxer as Jones, but has the great equalizer - power.

i might get this fight on dvd after that little review

No question it must have been a good shot to leave Roy Jones on rubber legs like that.
But I wonder what would have happened if Nady hadn't waved it off.
Roy beat the count after all.
Maybe, great champion that he was, Nady should've given him a chance to carry on?
I'll always remember Larry Holmes getting up from the Shavers knockdown ( and has a harder punch EVER been thrown? ) then staggering across the ring. The ref gave him a chance to carry on, and he stopped Shavers a few rounds later.
Could The Great Roy have found a way to survive? Maybe not, but thanks to Nady we'll never know.

MightyWarrior wrote:No question it must have been a good shot to leave Roy Jones on rubber legs like that.
But I wonder what would have happened if Nady hadn't waved it off.
Roy beat the count after all.
Maybe, great champion that he was, Nady should've given him a chance to carry on?
I'll always remember Larry Holmes getting up from the Shavers knockdown ( and has a harder punch EVER been thrown? ) then staggering across the ring. The ref gave him a chance to carry on, and he stopped Shavers a few rounds later.
Could The Great Roy have found a way to survive? Maybe not, but thanks to Nady we'll never know.

No, I think it was an appropriate stoppage. Roy MIGHT have been able to hang on for dear life until his head cleared, but you can't fault the referee for looking at his glassy eyes and wobbly legs at the count of 10 and waving it off.

MightyWarrior wrote:No question it must have been a good shot to leave Roy Jones on rubber legs like that.
But I wonder what would have happened if Nady hadn't waved it off.
Roy beat the count after all.
Maybe, great champion that he was, Nady should've given him a chance to carry on?
I'll always remember Larry Holmes getting up from the Shavers knockdown ( and has a harder punch EVER been thrown? ) then staggering across the ring. The ref gave him a chance to carry on, and he stopped Shavers a few rounds later.
Could The Great Roy have found a way to survive? Maybe not, but thanks to Nady we'll never know.

I think the ref was right, I don't want to see fighters in any trouble - I wonder if Nady would have stopped Clay vs Cooper. After all Clay's eyes were in orbit and he didn't lift his hands up to indicate he was okay. Yes, it happend on the bell, but remember Tszyu vs Judah.

Also, I don't think Roy was in any worse state as Joe Frazier was in the 4th (or 5th) knockdown vs Foreman, he was all over the place.

I'm not saying the fight should have continued, but I have seen fighters in as bad or worse states that have (Holmes was another).

Nady is certainly quite controversial with his stoppages, IMO Vargas vs Trinidad continued far longer than it should have, reffed be Nady.

You're right, I didn't realise he was ref in the Trinidad/Vargas fight - not exactly consistant is he?!
That went on far too long, and the critisism he took has obviously made him much quicker to stop a fight.
His stopage of Zab/Tszyu was early as well - the bell had just rung, why not make your decision after the one minute interval?

I wont argue the Jones stopage, Roy didn't complain, so fair enough. But it was a bordeline stopage in my opinion - he'd probably taken one punch the whole fight!

Still, I'll take Nady over a guy like Jack "The Butcher" Reiss any day - Reiss is a walking time bomb, one day a fighter will get killed as a result of his diabolical refereeing.

Nady reached 10 before jones got up

Tarver's crazy personal life continues:
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing ... id=1803493

i thought boxers these days were meant to make money

regarding refs stopping fights i dont blame any ref who stops a fight early, its frustrating sometimes but its better than being fatal.
i`m amazed there wasn`t a greater number of serious incidents years ago, especially when you look at fights like ike williams/ beau jack and ortiz/ matthews.
i dont know what the refs were looking at in these two fights but it certainly wasn`t the fighters!!

MightyWarrior wrote:No question it must have been a good shot to leave Roy Jones on rubber legs like that.
But I wonder what would have happened if Nady hadn't waved it off.
Roy beat the count after all.
Maybe, great champion that he was, Nady should've given him a chance to carry on?
I'll always remember Larry Holmes getting up from the Shavers knockdown ( and has a harder punch EVER been thrown? ) then staggering across the ring. The ref gave him a chance to carry on, and he stopped Shavers a few rounds later.
Could The Great Roy have found a way to survive? Maybe not, but thanks to Nady we'll never know.

I totally disagree.

If it had carried on and Jones ended up getting killed due to a blood clot on the brain from a subsequent heavy knock down, I dare say you'd be saying "If only Nady had stopped the fight when Roy got up on rubber legs he'd still be alive, god damn Nady!!!"

Refs can't win on this issue. They're damned by some if they do, damned by others if they don't. They should always air on the side of caution with a boxers health at stake.

Nady did completely the right thing.

Nice analysis Eric, deserves some illustrations!

Tarver snaps a right jab which Jones deflects upward with his left.

Jones then throws an overhand (straight) right over Tarver's now-dropped right which JUST misses Tarver's chin, as Tarver bends himself double to get out of the way.

Tarver sees an opening, takes one small step in and winds up the left hook - but his left elbow is blocked from Jones' view by his body.

Jones' right is up by the side of his head the whole time, but the left lands on the point of the chin just ahead of the guarding right glove.

...devastating when it lands.

By the way, I can't help but wonder if Tarver is the campest champ since Camacho.

Eric the Viking wrote:Watch the KO clip in slo-mo or frame-by-frame: Tarver snaps a right jab which Jones deflects upward with his left. At that instant it's in fact Tarver who is very vulnerable, off balance and with his chin forward and wide open for a counter. Jones then throws an overhand (straight) right over Tarver's now-dropped right which JUST misses Tarver's chin, as Tarver bends himself double to get out of the way. With Tarver bent over like that Jones can't throw a followup, so he waits with his left low but his right (the side Tarver winds up landing on) up by the side of his head. Tarver sees an opening, takes one small step in and winds up the left hook - but his left elbow is blocked from Jones' view by his body. While he's winding up the left he actually drops the right, and Jones quickly tries to land a short left hook of his own. But he doesn't have the leverage Tarver has coming up from his crouch, and Tarver is by then so far inside his guard that Jones' left glances off Tarver's right shoulder and just taps him in the side of the head. At that very moment Tarver's crushing left, thrown with all his weight behind it, is 6 inches from connecting. And Jones' right is up by the side of his head the whole time, but the left lands on the point of the chin just ahead of the guarding right glove. It's not the kind of photogenically spectacular KO shot that makes the classic highlight reels, but watch it in slo-mo - it's a BIG shot thrown with all of Tarver's leverage behind it, and because Tarver cocked his arm when it was out of sight, the punch travels those last few feet in a hurry. A beautiful shot, not in the same sense of classic left hooks like Jones was known for (especially at middleweight), but still beautifully timed and devastating when it lands. Trust me - there are very few fighters that shot would not have put down, especially who aren't heavyweights.

So not a lucky punch by any means, but it did occur just an instant after Tarver barely avoided a big straight right after leaving himself open after a missed right jab. That's the breaks sometimes. Tarver isn't as good a pure boxer as Jones, but has the great equalizer - power.

zapruder film anyone?
vike, roy jones lost, the president didnt get shot.

The Devil In Roy Jones wrote:By the way, I can't help but wonder if Tarver is the campest champ since Camacho.

The Devil In Roy Jones wrote:Nice analysis Eric, deserves some illustrations!

Many thanks for providing the pictures to accompany my text, TDIRJ!

To headhunter, the Kennedy conspiracy theory analogy is cute but off the mark - the frame-by-frame clearly bears out what I wrote. I wasn't denying that it was a sweet left counter which KTFOed Roy, but that sequence could've very easily had a different outcome - both guys took chances but only one won the lottery. Kudos to Tarver - but that "I planned the whole thing - rocked him with the right jab and then waited for him to miss, all the while looking to land the left counter" by Tarver post-fight (I'm paraphrasing what he said, not directly quoting it) is just bogus.

After watching Judah-Tszyu it was obvious Nady was not going to let Roy continue, and i do believe 10 was counted as he dragged himself up. I forgot Nady reffed Trinidad-Vargas (one of my favourite fights) he let Vargas take a beating in that final round although after a great fight it would have been nice to see it go to points, however Vargas was out and his chin has never been the same since IMO.