To Jones, No Challenge Is Too Big to Overcome

Roy Jones Jr., not content with being considered by some the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, continues to search for new worlds to conquer.

He found one this week. Jones, having already renounced his World Boxing Council light-heavyweight championship, will make the big plunge and take on heavyweight Buster Douglas May 2 in Atlantic City, N.J.

Despite all his success--his 35-1 record is tainted only by a fluke loss to Montell Griffin, and he has held titles in three weight classes--Jones has never seemed content.

Being a middleweight champion at 160 pounds wasn’t enough.

Being a super-middleweight champion at 168 pounds wasn’t enough.

Being the light-heavyweight champion at 175 pounds wasn’t enough.

Jones tried television commentating.

A good playground basketball player, he even tried playing professionally on the minor league level.

But now he finally has a challenge worthy of his talents. Some say it’s beyond his talents. Some say that even with his speed and talent, he can’t make up his weight disadvantage in the heavyweight division.

Maybe so. But not in the Douglas fight.

Yes, Douglas will probably outweigh Jones by at least 45 pounds. Douglas weighed 235 pounds in his last fight, a fourth-round TKO over Quinn Navarre on July 13.

Jones was at the 175-pound limit in his last fight in which he avenged his only loss by knocking out Griffin in the first round of their fight Aug. 7. Jones had lost to Griffin earlier last year when he was disqualified for hitting Griffin twice after Griffin was already down.

Having gotten his revenge, Jones gave up his light-heavyweight title rather than fight Michael Nunn, the No. 1 contender.

Instead, Jones had bigger fish to fry.

Like Douglas.

“I think it’s a fascinating fight,” said promoter Bob Arum who, of course, is fascinated by the thought of how much money he can make from it. “It’s amazing how much interest there is. People are really intrigued by whether Jones can do anything fighting at that weight.

“Remember [Rocky] Marciano fought in the 180s, and [Joe] Louis fought in the 190s.”

Of course the people they fought usually weighed about the same. Weight can be a huge factor when all other things are equal.

But in the case of Jones-Douglas, all other things are not equal. Douglas’ reputation was built on one memorable 1990 night in Tokyo, when he knocked out an out-of-shape Mike Tyson in the biggest upset in boxing history.

But even that night has lost some of its luster because of Tyson’s recent performances against Evander Holyfield, which have made Tyson look like something less than one of the great heavyweights of all time.

Douglas subsequently lost his title in his next outing, suffering a third-round knockout at the hands of Holyfield.

After that, Douglas’ life spiraled downward as his weight soared upward. He surpassed the 400-pound mark and nearly died of the effects of diabetes.

Since launching his comeback in 1996, Douglas has beaten six opponents, running his record to 36-5-1 with 23 knockouts. But the quality of those opponents does little to bolster Douglas’ claim that he is getting ready to reclaim a place atop the heavyweight division.

Now 37, Douglas had to go 10 rounds to beat the likes of Rocky Pepeli and Dick Ryan last year.

What would Holyfield do to Douglas?

A lot worse than Holyfield did eight years ago, when he whipped Douglas easily.

One early line on the Jones-Douglas fight has it even.

No way. Jones will beat Douglas. But that probably says more about Douglas than it does about Jones.

THE FLYING NUNN

With Jones out of the picture, Nunn (52-3, 34 knockouts) flew to Germany on Friday where he will fight Graciano Rocchigiani on Feb. 7 for the title vacated by Jones.

Nunn, a former two-time champion, will have his lucky charm, trainer Joe Goossen, in his corner. Goossen was Nunn’s original trainer before Nunn walked out on the now-defunct Ten Goose Boxing Club.

Nunn, who returned to Goossen 2 1/2 years ago, is 49-0 with the San Fernando Valley-based trainer in his corner.

THIS CARR’S BACK IN THE FAST LANE

Oba Carr wants to fight Oscar De La Hoya.

Headline news? Hardly. Anybody in the middle weight divisions would love a shot at De La Hoya and the huge payday that comes with him.

But Carr, after languishing as an undercard fighter under promoter Don King, might have an advantage, since he just signed with Arum, De La Hoya’s promoter.

De La Hoya, whose dance card is usually filled a year in advance, has a couple of open spots because of the upset of Terry Norris in December by Keith Mullings.

De La Hoya is set to put his WBC welterweight title on the line against Patrick Charpentier of France on Feb. 28 in Atlanta City.

If Yory Boy Campas successfully defends his International Boxing Federation junior middleweight championship on March 23 in Connecticut against Anthony Stephens, then Campas will face De La Hoya in Las Vegas on June 6, when Norris was penciled in as De La Hoya’s opponent.

What happens beyond that will be determined by the Pernell Whitaker-Ike Quartey fight in April. If Quartey wins, Arum wants him as De La Hoya’s opponent for September. If Whitaker wins, Arum isn’t sure he wants a rematch between De La Hoya and Whitaker, who lost a close decision to De La Hoya in April.

Translation: Negotiations between Arum and Dino Duva, Whitaker’s promoter, are not going well.

Either way, Arum is looking for a November or December opponent for De La Hoya, should he keep winning, and that could well be Carr.

First however, Carr (43-2-1, 27 knockouts) must win on Monday night when he faces Jesus Gutierrez (10-3-1, eight knockouts) in a 10-round welterweight bout, the main event on a Forum Boxing show at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.

The semi-main event on the six-card show will match super flyweights Joel Luna Zarate (31-2-1, 24 knockouts) and Victor Hernandez (20-13-1, 15 knockouts).

CALENDAR

Monday--Oba Carr vs. Jesus Gutierrez, welterweights; Joel Luna Zarate vs. Victor Hernandez, super flyweights, Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, 7:15 p.m.