Roy Jones, despite knocking Montell Griffin out, lost his
title and blemished his perfect record. How? By Disqualification (Riddick Bowe-Buster Mathis
style). After getting off to a very slow start, Jones came back to knock Griffin out. Too bad
the knockout punches were after Griffin was down on his knee. In the first round, Jones allowed
Montell to punch at him while he was laying back on the ropes (as in his fight with Bryant Brannon).
But Jones stole the round when he caught Griffin with a well placed shot. The next couple rounds,
Jones let Griffin dominate. Jones' chin was also tested a few times during these rounds. As the
fight went on, Jones began to steadily take charge, improving each round. Griffin used a couple
dirty tactics during the fight. The most notable of them, was when Griffin hit Jones in the chest
with his left forearm (to push him back) and then landed a hard right to the chin as Jones was moving
backwards. But as the fight progressed, Jones began to win rounds and even knocked Griffin down.
Griffin complained it was a slip (and maybe it was), but he was hit with a good shot and went down.
Jones won the next round, but the 9th was the last. At the time of the foul, Jones was leading on
two of the Judges scorecards and guaranteed at least another 10-8 round (if he didn't KO Griffin first).
Jones pummeled Griffin around the ring until Montell finally took a knee. Jones hesitated for a second
or two and then threw a short left and a devastating right. Griffin went down and when he got up (about
thirty seconds later), he was the victor and the WBC Light-Heavyweight Champion. The referee had
Disqualified Jones for hitting Griffin while he was down. Most of the blame falls directly on Roy Jones,
but a small amount also falls on the referee. The referee should have moved in to separate the fighters
after the knockdown, but instead he did nothing. When Jones hesitated, he was waiting for the referee to
move in and break them up. However, this is still no excuse for Jones' actions, he should have known not
to strike Griffin while he was down. Even though Griffin won in a bad way (as did Riddick Bowe in his two
fights with Andrew Golota), he still came the closest to beating Roy Jones than anyone before him did. As
of this time, a rematch is supposedly being setup (at least that's what Jones said on HBO, during the Oscar
De La Hoya-Pernell Whitaker preview). I think in the rematch, Jones will be more prepared and win the
fight more convincingly. Well, who knows? On the other hand, we might be seeing another Bowe-Golota II.
