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HBO PPV Boxing Roy Jones Jr. vs. Antonio Tarver
May 15, 2004 Mandalay Bay Las Vegas, Nevada HBO PPV - 6pm
After televising a great fight last week, HBO comes back with it's pay-per-view card this Saturday with a main event that has the potential to be a slugfest. The WBC & IBO light heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. will defend his newly won titles against the former champion and the man he took the titles away from, Antonio Tarver. The under card will feature the WBO Jr. welterweight champion, Zab Judah, going up against Rafael "Derby" Pineda for the WBO Intercontinental welterweight title. Also, Gerald Nobles will be facing former heavyweight champion Bruce Seldon and Victor Burgos will put his IBF flyweight title on the line against Fahlan Sakkreerin.
The main event will feature Roy Jones Jr. (49-1, 38 KO's), who up until his last fight (Tarver - 10/03), looked virtually unbeatable. Jones is basically undefeated having only lost by disqualification to Montell Griffin (44-4, 28 KO's) back in March of 1997 for hitting Griffin while he was down in the ninth round. Jones came back a little over four months later and knocked out Griffin in the first round of their rematch. Jones was the undisputed world light heavyweight champion from about 1999 to 2002 holding just about every major title there was to win in that division. Jones then decided to go up in weight and challenge John Ruiz (40-5-1, 28 KO's) for his WBA heavyweight title in March of 2003 and walked away with the title after defeating Ruiz by a 12 round unanimous decision. But Jones didn't like the talking that the WBC & IBO light heavyweight champion was doing and decided to vacate his newly won title and went back down to the division that made him famous. In his last bout, Jones went up against the light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver and had to lose 25 lbs. to make weight and it showed in his performance. He gutted it out for 12 rounds, often looking sluggish and slow, fighting defensively. Very uncharacteristic of Jones. But in the end, he just did enough to recapture two of the titles he had vacated and won a majority decision 114-114, 117-111, 116-112 over Tarver.
Antonio Tarver (21-2, 17 KO's) went into his last fight having only lost once, a 12 round unanimous decision to Eric Harding (21-3-1, 7 KO's) in 2000, but avenged that one loss in 2002 when he TKO'd Harding in five. Tarver was on a five fight win streak when he faced Jones and he almost made it six. Tarver pressed the fight at times, popping his jab, going to the body and backing up Jones to the ropes but really didn't let his hands go until Jones would just cover up.
Jones seemed to know ahead of time that the weight loss in his last fight was going to be an issue as he stated it in a couple of pre-fight television interviews. This time around, he's had plenty of time to adjust. Expect the Jones Jr. of old. Tarver will be popping the jab, trying to land to the body while Jones just counters. I think Tarver will be surprised at the speed of Jones in this fight as opposed to their last fight. Ultimately, Tarver is going to have to take chances that he didn't take in his last fight if he hopes to win. And in doing so, he will get tagged by Jones. Jones. Jr. wins by unanimous decision in what I hope is a slug fest.
On the under card, the WBO jr. welterweight champion Zab Judah (30-2, 22 KO's) will try for the second time to capture a welterweight title (albeit an Intercontinental title). In his last bout, April 10th of this year, Judah lost a 12 round unanimous decision to undisputed welterweight champion Cory Spinks (33-2, 10 KO's) despite having put the champion on the canvas in the last round.
Judah will be facing the former IBF Jr. welterweight champion Rafael "Derby" Pineda. Pineda has been around for a while, having fought for the WBA welterweight title back in 1989...yes, 1989. He went into that fight with a 20-0 record with 19 KO's but came up short and lost to then champion Mark Breland (35-3-1, 25 KO's). Two of Pineda's other losses have come in title fights - he lost to Pernell Whitaker (40-4-1, 17 KO's) in 1992 for the IBF Jr. welterweight title via 12 round unanimous decision and to Cory Spinks in 2002 via a seventh round technical decision (accidental cut on Spinks) for the vacant WBA Fedelatin welterweight title. Pineda only fought once in 2003, which also happens to be his last fight, winning a 10 round unanimous decision over Tybius Flowers (17-6, 10 KO's).
Judah started off really slow in his last bout with Spinks but came on in the later rounds to hurt Spinks. Pineda was doing really well against Spinks until the stoppage. Judah by unanimous decision.
In heavyweight action, undefeated Gerald Nobles (22-0, 17 KO's), coming off a first round knockout win over Willie Williams (16-7, 11 KO's) in April, will face the former WBA heavyweight champion Bruce Seldon (35-4, 31 KO's), who's on a two fight win streak since coming back from his eight year hiatus after losing to Mike Tyson (50-4, 44 KO's) via first round TKO in 1996.
Nobles has only fought eight times since 1998, so he's not exactly burning down the doors to get a heavyweight title shot. Can't help but think this is a build up for Seldon. Seldon by whatever round TKO.
And rounding out the card will be IBF Jr. flyweight champion Victor Burgos (36-13-3, 21 KO's), who last battled the WBA Jr. flyweight champion Rosendo Alvarez (32-2-2, 20 KO's) to a draw back in December of 2003, will put his title on the line against the former WBF flyweight champion Fahlan Sakkreerin (54-3-2, 23 KO's).
This should be the most action packed fight of the card. Sakkreerin already attempted to capture the WBO Jr. flyweight title in 2001 but lost a 12 round unanimous decision to champion Nelson Dieppa (20-2-2, 12 KO's). Sakkreerin hasn't lost a fight since, winning eight in a row, his last win coming in December of 2003. He'll lose against Burgos. Burgos by 12 round unanimous decision.
SN
Heavyweight
Bout
(5/10/04)
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