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| Tuesday, July 24 Updated: July 28, 5:19 PM ET Tired of Jones' antics? Stage a Roycott! By Tim Graham Special to ESPN.com |
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The greatest thing to happen in boxing this year is not a unification tournament. It doesn't pertain to Don King traveling to the other side of the globe for an extended period. And it has nothing to do with Naseem Hamed receiving the ass kicking he long deserved.
In a sport full of Ruiz-Holyfield III, Frazier-Ali IV and fighters so old they drink prune juice between rounds, an awakening is transpiring. The only entity that can bring some desperately needed legitimacy to boxing is beginning to stir. Fans are getting sick of being told that liquid falling on their heads is rain. They've decided it's better to be ticked off than ticked on. To brace up for Saturday night's pay-per-view bout between undisputed 175-pound champ Roy Jones Jr. and unheralded contender Julio Gonzalez at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, a group of spirited and knowledgeable boxing fans are banding together to stage what they have cleverly called a Roycott. You see, these fans are tired of two things in particular: being presented mismatches poorly disguised as title fights; and being forced to pay extra for bouts that should be on free TV or, at worst, ordinary cable. The Roycott groundswell began on the HBO.com Fan Forum message board in April, shortly after Gonzalez was announced as Jones' next opponent. Gonzalez owns an attractive 27-0 record with 17 knockouts, but there was a big question to be answered: Who is this guy? For all anybody knew, Julio jacked up his record down by the schoolyard. "Fight fans want to see someone who takes on a challenge," said one of the HBO Web site's regular visitors, Gary Burton of Portland, Ore. "We were displeased with Roy's selection of another fighter ... who appears to have no hope against him. "We all agreed that if this pay-per-view fight were a success, Roy would be allowed to go on fighting no-hopers like Julio, and people who wanted to see Roy fight (in the future) would be forced to pay to watch a fight that was, in effect, a glorified sparring match." Right on. Burton made it a point to watch Gonzalez box in person. Burton had been in Las Vegas to see Marco Antonio Barrera pummel the ego out of Hamed, so he made the quick jaunt southward to Laughlin, Nev., where Gonzalez was to fight Koko Semerdjiev, a fighter who has more KOs in his first name than on his record.
"I wanted to give Gonzalez a closer look to see if he could contend with Roy," Burton said. "It was obvious after just a couple minutes there was just no way. It's going to be another David Telesco." David Telesco, Richard Hall, Eric Harding, Derrick Harmon. All of Jones' opponents in recent years are homogenous and monotonous. The names and faces are a boring blur, and the Roycott faction wants to show it's not willing to assist such a hollow and pointless trend. Noted Internet oddsmaker Charles Jay makes Jones a 30-to-1 favorite over Gonzalez, who surely won't be able to keep up with the much quicker champ. And since Jones, 44-1 with 36 KOs, has shown an ever-increasing disdain for toe-to-toe combat -- the only chance Gonzalez has of winning -- this bout will be frustrating for Gonzalez and fans alike. "If it were an HBO bout, we'd still be saying 'Hey, Roy. Step up and challenge yourself,'" Burton said. "But since we're being asked to pay for it, it's adding insult to injury." The Roycott won't shut down Saturday night's card, which will be buoyed by the presence of the great Erik Morales (those of Mexican heritage are strong pay-per-view supporters) and Mia St. John (porn fans help keep systems like DirecTV and Spectravision afloat). However, the Roycott certainly could put a noticeable dent in Top Rank's promotion. Burton estimated the Roycott could cost Top Rank as many as 20,000 pay-per-view buys. Top Rank president Bob Arum is hoping for between 300,000 and 400,000 buys, but Burton said the initiative will be a success if they can limit the total to 150,000. "That's just a small percent of the fans," Arum has been quoted as saying of the Roycott. "It's irrelevant." That pompous statement alone is reason enough to steer clear of this event, just to remind promoters fans should be treated with more respect. If people who pay for a service say they're getting ripped off, then they are. Why should Arum care about people like Burton and the rest of the Roycott brigade? Because they are precisely the fans who buy not only pay-per-view telecasts, but also tickets to see fights in person. Burton, for instance, is no casual boxing fan. The 38-year-old electrical contractor travels across the country for the blockbuster matches. He shelled out big bucks to attend six major fights last year, and he goes to the smaller cards, too. He saw Gonzalez knock out Tony Menefee, who had flown in from Nebraska that day as a last-minute replacement and wasn't approved by the commission until 10 minutes before the fight, in the main event of a show in Anaheim. Roycott supporters want Jones to fight Darius Michalczewski, the only light heavyweight widely considered to have a chance at wresting the titles, but whom Jones has a reluctance to face. They also would like to see Jones move up to heavyweight, a plan Jones has teased the public with for years but has never followed through on. "I think the Roycott is going to be a fairly big issue," Burton said. "I think it's going to make a difference. It may take a few more fights to make a major difference, but they're going to feel it. I think they might be disappointed in their pay-per-view receipts. I hope they're getting a little worried." For the sport's sake, we can only hope. If boxing fans can't evoke change through protests such as these, then we all should be a little worried.
ESPN.com boxing writer Tim Graham covers boxing for The Buffalo News and The Ring Magazine, and formerly wrote for the Las Vegas Sun. |
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Roy is ready
