{"id":1175,"date":"2010-02-10T12:29:23","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T17:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ringsidereport.com\/?p=1175"},"modified":"2010-02-10T12:29:23","modified_gmt":"2010-02-10T17:29:23","slug":"april-fools-the-roy-jones-%e2%80%93-bernard-hopkins-rematch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=1175","title":{"rendered":"April Fools: The Roy Jones \u2013 Bernard Hopkins Rematch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Geoff \u201cThe Professor\u201d Poundes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As freak shows go, the Roy Jones \u2013 Bernard Hopkins bore-fest scheduled for April 3<\/span>rd<\/span><\/sup> should attract its fair share of thrill-seekers.<\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019ll not be interested in the boxing, or the sport, or the competition; they\u2019ll not tune in to witness history in the making, as the fighters would have us believe, nor will they watch to see two faded greats strut their stuff. <\/span><\/p>\n

No, this audience shares a common goal \u2013 to consume the most boorish, gratuitous, shocking \u201centertainment\u201d with no other purpose than to titillate the worst elements of human nature. When they\u2019re not at the Mandalay Bay Hotel (suspiciously just two days apart from April Fools Day), you\u2019ll see them at MMA events, or gawping at accidents in the street, or down-loading bizarre videos of disadvantaged human beings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, I\u2019m over-stating the case. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even I\u2019ll own up to a kind of middling curiosity over the outcome of the fight, probably because these two practitioners were so exceptionally good in their day and had a fight back when they were young men and at least one of them was at the peak of his powers. Although Hopkins was the older man back in 1993 at 28, when he contested his first world title fight against the 24 year old Jones, the suspicion back then was that both fighter\u2019s best years were yet to come. That proved to be the case, and this rematch should have occurred in the late nineties, when Bernard was compiling 20 title defenses, and before Jones became bored with making weight and assaulted the super-middle, light-heavy and even heavyweight divisions.<\/span><\/p>\n

They fight in April because Hopkins is now 46 and burdened by middle-aged weight-gain and Jones really has nowhere else to go. <\/span><\/p>\n

In December, Jones travelled to Sydney, Australia and got himself knocked out in less than a round by middling contender Danny Green, which had at first glance appeared to put paid to any chance of Hopkins-Jones II, until the money men sat round a table and decided that the freak-show audience was still up for the debacle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jones\u2019s response to the knockout in Australia changed overnight when he realized he still had a fight with Hopkins to sell. Immediately after the fight he praised Green for jumping on him so quickly, but later decided that Green\u2019s gloves were loaded and wanted the authorities to remove the result from the record books.<\/span><\/p>\n

He needn\u2019t have created the subterfuge. The freak-watchers will tune in anyway. <\/span><\/p>\n

They don\u2019t care that Jones is 5-5 in his last ten fights, including three devastating knockout losses and a fourth loss to Joe Calzaghe in which he was systematically beaten to a pulp over twelve freakish rounds. Jones, JR., is so far removed from the fighter who carried all before him in the late nineties and early-nineties that he\u2019s barely recognizable as a fighter at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same cannot be said for Hopkins, who seems to mature like a fine wine.<\/span><\/p>\n

At 46 he\u2019s a freak of nature. He too got into a fight with Calzaghe, but gave the gritty Welshman all he could handle over twelve rounds before dropping a majority decision. <\/span><\/p>\n

In October 2008 Hopkins took to the ring with new middleweight sensation and unbeaten puncher Kelly Pavlik and boxed his ears off over twelve rounds, when he had no right to be competitive in the fight. We\u2019ve all forgotten Hopkins two losses to Jermain Taylor in the wake of those exceptional performances, but time, as they say, stands still for no man, and there has to come a time even for an icon like Bernard Hopkins, when age will catch up with him.<\/span><\/p>\n

It might catch up with both of them right there in the ring on April 3<\/span>rd<\/span><\/sup>, right in front of our eyes. Two old men, way past their prime, trying to beat the living daylights out of each other\u2026for our entertainment, and their bank balance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jones this week likened Hopkins task to that of an old man who flunked college the first time going back for another dose. He says he believes that Hopkins will flunk again. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m like that high school test. He flunked it back then, now he wanna try it again when he think he done finished college. He wanna come back to see if he can pass. He still can\u2019t pass, but he welcome to try.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brave words from an old warrior, who must know that beneath the bravado there\u2019s nothing left in the tank. <\/span><\/p>\n

If Jones makes it to the fourth round it will be a huge surprise. If he\u2019s able to walk unassisted from the ring that too will be a huge surprise.<\/span><\/p>\n

But not for the freak-watchers\u2026that\u2019s what they turned up for.<\/span><\/p>\n

Advertise Now On RSR<\/a><\/p>\n

Purchase Boxing Interviews Of A Lifetime<\/a><\/p>\n

Watch The Trailer For Family Secret<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Geoff \u201cThe Professor\u201d Poundes As freak shows go, the Roy Jones \u2013 Bernard Hopkins bore-fest scheduled for April 3rd should attract its fair share of thrill-seekers. They\u2019ll not be interested in the boxing, or the sport, or the competition; they\u2019ll not tune in to witness history in the making, as the fighters would have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[81,105,402,627],"class_list":["post-1175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-bernard-hopkins","tag-boxing","tag-joke","tag-roy-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}