Tarver Outworks Jones for Win

The good news is that Roy Jones Jr. was not knocked out in his third meeting with Antonio Tarver. Jones also displayed flashes of the quickness that made him the best fighter in the world for a decade. The bad news is that Jones appeared content to simply make it to the final bell and never took any chances to try and win the fight. Most great fighters end up unable to pull the trigger when they see an opening because their reflexes have left them. In Jones' case, he still seemed capable of pulling the trigger but elected not to do so in order to avoid taking any punches in return. Tarver fought a smart, controlled fight but also appeared completely content to see the bout go the distance, especially after seeming to run out of gas shortly after staggering Jones in the 11th round. Judges scored the fight 117-111, 116-112 and 116-112 all for Tarver. Punch stats reveal how little action there was in the fight: Tarver landed 158 of 620 punches (25%) to only 85 of 320 (27%) for Jones. After the fight, Jones - somewhat suprisingly - seemed quite satisfied with his performance and left the door wide open for continuing his ring career.