Roy Jones Jr. wants it with Hop???

[The Sir]

http://www.fightnews.com/vandevender19.htm

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Roy Jones Jr: He's got to go to sleep!

August 24, 2004

By Scotti Vandevender

Hurricane Bonnie may have KO’d Roy Jones Jr.’s plans to attend the initial press conference kicking off his bid to regain the IBF Light Heavyweight championship, but on Monday Roy Jones, Jr. held his own personal media festivity the way he likes it - on his own terms.

While Roy doesn’t always take the keenest interest in promoting his fights, he certainly knows who butters his boxing bread so to speak. Roy understands the importance of his business relationships outside of the boxing ring. The ex-champ took time out to tour his sponsor Nike’s distribution warehouses in Memphis, TN and worked in a little press coverage in the process. Roy took his time in arriving then took time to share his thoughts on training, basketball, the Olympics, Don King, and other topics with all in attendance. He explained his favorite style of training consists of basketball and more basketball as the interaction with the crowd works to motivate and encourage him more than training in the ring or gym.

“As a matter of fact the best condition I’ve been ever been in was when I fought Lou De Valle. I only trained real boxing training for two weeks,” Roy stated to the press.

Roy also commented on the questionable scoring in the Olympic games. “I wouldn’t care if my kid grew up to go to the Olympics. Nobody cares anymore. It’s like watching five or six Don King fights and every one of them ends up in a draw. It’s the same thing and it’s destroying a kid’s dream.”

He then continued by praising his opponent Johnson. “Glen is a good fighter. He’s a very strong fighter. People don’t understand that he’s very durable. He’s gonna’ keep coming at you.” After a brief question and answer period it was off to shoot some basketball as the start to a whirlwind tour of Memphis.

Fightnews was able to catch up with Roy en route to the Nike Gymnasium:

Roy, are you looking forward to returning to the ring?

Oh yeah. I almost feel like last time I got paid for nothing, I wasn’t out there long enough (laugh).

Roy, what is your motivation coming into this fight?

To be honest with you, my whole motivation this time is that God has a plan for me. I know he has a plan for me. A lot of people never get to the top, never know what it’s like. Take Mike Tyson, when he came down he couldn’t get back to the top. God brings even the best people down to see if they will remain faithful and go back up.

<b>What are your future plans?

I’m actually gonna beat this boy, go stop Tarver, then probably see who wins the Hopkins – De la Hoya fight. I may go back to 168.”</b>

How about your music career, do you have a new CD coming out?

Yeah, we got a new CD coming out. As a matter of fact we have the new CD coming out three days after the fight, Sept. 28. We’ve got one of the songs on the album that they’re going to bring me into the ring to. I’m gonna start back entertaining, totally entertaining. People talked me out of being entertaining.

Can we expect and entrance like you entered the Clinton Woods fight?

Yeah! You know, I gotta bring one of those to Memphis.

The Glen Johnson camp claims you’re doing too much to take the fight seriously. What’s your take?

It’s better when I do too much. For the last Tarver fight I wasn’t doing nothing, and look what happened. I probably should have been doing some extra stuff, then maybe I would have been better focused for it. When I have too much to do I operate best. That’s always been the way for me. If I ain’t got nothing to do I’m not interested. I’m gonna be doing too much. I will be doing too much inside the ring and outside of it. I’m gonna put on a show before, in the ring, and after. But, when I’m in the ring we’ll find out what kind of chin he’s got.

Hopkins exploited it.

Did Hopkins knock him out? Ah, you shouldn’t have told me that. Now he’s GOT to go to sleep! If I didn’t have a plan for the fight, I got one now.

With all that activity you don’t sound like a 35-year-old boxer.

I don’t look like one either! I’m just happy to be able to be back in the ring. I’m happy that Memphis opened its arms to me to come out. Even the radio stations here have been playing my music and I really appreciate that. I love opening new arenas. I love doing different things, opening them up to boxing.

* * *

And with that Jones hit the court where he landed nine of his first ten shots from the field adorned in blue jeans and a button down. On Sept. 25, at the brand new, state-of-the-art FedEx Forum in Memphis, TN, we shall all see if he can still land his shots on the apron like he did before his first professional knockout loss, and the subsequent fall from his lengthy reign as the pound-for-pound best in the world. </i>

That'll never happen, but It's funny to me that he actually talks like he'd consider it, especially at 168. He's smarter than that. Everyone knows he's smarter than that. Just by saying that(and expecting people to believe it), he is underrating the intelligence of boxing fans.