Long before the show fight between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones junior, it was clear that there would be no winner. Even so, there was a brief moment of confusion at the Los Angeles Staples Center as the eight two-minute rounds ended. Referee Ray Corona asked both boxers to stand in the middle and grabbed their wrists to then put one arm in the air, both of them as a makeshift. Like you do after a boxing match. The cameras waited for the moment. But then suddenly the director switched off.
It was the moment when everyone involved – boxers, their supervisors, association representatives, TV crew and also the audience – were pulled back from the dream world into reality. Although one could believe it in the meantime, Tyson and Jones Jr. had just not fought a boxing match. It wasn’t about any title, not about victory or defeat, not even about proving to the other who the better, stronger, faster or more skillful is. The event took the existential core of boxing away. Of course, the protagonists could have been seriously injured in spite of everything, but they weren’t interested in risking their health for the hope of a better life.
Tyson and Jones Jr. had not fought against each other, they had fought with each other. For a good cause, as Tyson had announced in advance that he wanted to donate a large part of his stock exchange to educational projects, among other things. But above all against their age, the physical decline and the feeling that they are no longer needed as ex-professionals.
There was no winner, but in the end they both got a belt
Photo: Joe Scarnici / AP
The younger one looked significantly older
They only succeeded in part. Tyson’s movements actually seemed surprisingly smooth for a 54-year-old and brought back faint memories of the phenomenon that had swept through the boxing world with the elemental force of a devastating hurricane from the mid-1980s. The former heavyweight world champion hinted at the fast pendulum movements, which nobody has mastered as well as he does today, and ticked one or the other hook. However, he did not develop the old violence of destruction.
It was a different story with Jones Junior. Although he is three years younger than Tyson, he looked significantly older in the ring. The former dominator of the middleweight division, who was simply invincible in the 1990s and around the turn of the millennium because of his insane pace and ring intelligence, tried to imitate his earlier style with the concise “shoulder roll defense” and low fists. But what with Tyson looked like a reminiscence of earlier, better days, with Jones junior distorted into an unsuccessful parody.
The difference between the two became particularly clear during the lap breaks. While Tyson looked calm and exchanged ideas with his team, you could see at Jones junior how much he suffered from the unfamiliar exertion. He huffed, screwed up his eyes contorted with pain and didn’t give the impression that he would ever want to get up from the little stool, on which he was only supposed to relax for a minute. And that after the first round.
“You still have it, man”
Since Tyson seemed to notice that and didn’t want to seriously injure his opponent, he always seemed to withdraw a little in decisive moments. In addition, Jones junior used his still very precise sense of situations in the ring to prevent many offensive actions with brackets. So a “fight” developed that kept exactly what one was allowed to promise from it: not much.
The biggest highlights were the rapper Snoop Dogg, who, as co-commentator, openly expressed what he thought: “It’s like a fight between my uncles at the barbecue. If one of them says to the other: ‘Come on, let’s go into the garden and sort it out.’ And the rest of us shout: ‘Hey, Grandma, they’re fighting again.’
When the confusion about the obsolete award ceremony had subsided, the protagonists gave interviews on the way back to the booths to describe their point of view. While Tyson, who had initiated the project and wants to continue with the “Legends Only League” he founded, was at peace with himself and the world and showed his opponent the greatest respect, Jones junior looked a little out of place in the ring. His first statement was hard to understand because a quarter of an hour after the end of the fight he still couldn’t catch his breath again. He later admitted how much Tyson’s punches hurt him. When asked if he wanted to do something like that again, the 51-year-old referred to his family, with whom he wanted to discuss first. Tyson stepped in immediately and said, “Of course you’ll do it again, you’ve got it, man.”
Jones junior swallowed briefly and then switched from simply exhausted former hero to promotional mode. Maybe because he realized it was a way to make money over the long term. Or maybe out of fear that Tyson might get serious and reach out. In this respect, it will probably not just be a one-off experiment.
Each viewer can decide for themselves whether this is good or bad news.
