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Sunday, February 3
Updated: February 12, 10:18 AM ET
 
Jones would fight Hopkins -- on his terms

Associated Press

MIAMI -- Roy Jones Jr. is willing to fight Bernard Hopkins, but it has to be on his terms.

Jones, who stopped Australia's Glen Kelly in another successful defense of his unified light heavyweight titles Saturday, won't drop to middleweight or split the purse evenly with Hopkins.

Jones shouted at Hopkins during an interview between their fights, which were televised on HBO, and reiterated his point at the postfight news conference.

"Come up in weight, fight for my title," Jones said. "I already beat you one time. You're just as sorry now as you were then."

Hopkins, a middleweight at 160 pounds, defeated Carl Daniels on Saturday to retain his WBA, WBC and IBF belts. Jones beat Hopkins in 1993 for the then-vacant IBF middleweight title.

"I told him a long time ago: If you want to fight me, win a super middleweight (168-pound) title," Jones said. "Give me something to come take away from you. I love titles."

Hopkins, whose 15th straight defense of at least a piece of a middleweight title broke Carlos Monzon's middleweight record of 14, won't agree to Jones' terms.

"My career is not based and predicated on me fighting Roy Jones," Hopkins said. "I'm glad that I have three belts because that means I have three mandatories a year and I can make $2 or $3 million every time I step in the ring with Donald Duck. I can deal with that. I can live with that. I'm not going to be upset if I don't get Roy. If you really look at it, you can't blame a person for not wanting to get in there with Bernard Hopkins."

Jones, 46-1 with 37 knockouts, required minimum effort to successfully defended his WBC, WBA and IBF titles in the 175-pound division.

Jones said Hopkins is just looking to get rich off him.

"You want to retire off me," said Jones, again addressing Hopkins. "You ain't gonna use me that way. I ain't here to be used."

Jones said that, while he would like to fight Hopkins, he has priorities within his division, too. Mentioned as possible future opponents are Antonio Tarver and Glenn Woods, the top WBC contender who is based in England and was present at the news conference.

"Bring me anything in the light-heavyweight division that's a challenge," said Jones, holding his young son in his arms. "I'm not here to call out names. I don't have one Bernard Hopkins that I need to fight. I'm bigger than that. I have a whole division I need to defend."

Jones floored Kelly (28-1-1) with 2:17 elapsed in the third with a left uppercut that snapped back the challenger's head.

He dropped Kelly again in the sixth round with a vicious left to the body that left Kelly gasping for air. Jones had landed two other crushing body shots in the round.

Jones kept his distance and was able to use his speed to measure his shots. He connected on 53 percent of his power shots, while Kelly landed 20 percent.

Kelly said he couldn't react to the surprise punch that floored him at 1:55 of the seventh round.

"He's the best fighter in the world, pound for pound," Kelly said. "Forget about Shane Mosley and Vernon Forrest and guys like that. Roy beats them all."




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