Roy Jones reclaims light heavyweight title

Jet, Dec 1, 2003

Roy Jones Jr. recently regained the light heavyweight title, but it wasn't easy.

Taking as much as he could handle from the light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver, Jones won the 175-pound title by majority decision. The ringside judges scored the match 117-111, 116-112 and 114-114. The Associated Press had it an even 114-114. The Las Vegas crowd loudly booed the decision.

Jones regained the title he vacated to make his historic move up to win the WBA heavyweight title from John Ruiz in March, but in this fight Jones seemed in danger of his first real loss in his 14-year career.

In a fight full of trash-talking and taunting, Jones appeared tired early, and said having to lose weight to come down from heavyweight took its toll.

"I was very tired because of the weight," said Jones (49-1, 38 KOs). "It was a tough fight because of the weight. I had to lose 25 pounds, and it was a tough 25 pounds to lose."

The 34-year-old Jones, who had to drop from 193 in his last fight with Ruiz to the 175-pound limit, had vowed to make Tarver (21-2, 17 KOs) pay for that. Jones, a Pensacola, FL, native, said the fight would be his last at light heavyweight, and that he planned to end his career with a heavyweight fight against Mike Tyson sometime next year.

"One mega-dollar heavyweight fight with Tyson and then I'm done," said Jones.