Roy Jones Leaves No Doubt

Roy Jones Jr. won every round and now owns every light-heavyweight boxing title.

Jones, the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Assn. champion, claimed the International Boxing Federation title Saturday night with a brutal beating of Reggie Johnson. All three judges scored the fight 120-106.

Jones, who said Johnson was partially responsible for his split with his father, punished the Houston fighter from the third round on, punching him at will in the late rounds.

“I just did what I had to do,” Jones said. “Any time somebody comes to beat me, that’s what I do.”

Jones, 40-1 with 33 knockouts, became the first undisputed light-heavyweight champion since Michael Spinks relinquished the title in 1985 to campaign as a heavyweight.

“It didn’t mean much to me. I already knew I was the best fighter in the world,” said Jones, who dominated despite a rib injury during training.

“I didn’t tell anyone about it, because I wanted to fight and I wasn’t taking any chances,” he said.

Jones, who weighed 174, used a straight right 1:58 into the first round to knock down Johnson. The IBF champion got up quickly, but was bleeding from his right eye.

In the third round, Jones countered a right from Johnson with a left-right combination that sent Johnson to the canvas. Again Johnson got up quickly and the bell ended the round. By that time, blood was streaming from Johnson’s eye.

Johnson, 171, was only able to fight back in spurts by the fourth round. The rest of the time he was backing away or covering up. When he managed to get inside, Jones punished him with jabs and uppercuts.

“I’m going in there with caution,” Johnson said, “because the punch that gets you is the one you don’t see.

“He does a lot of things wrong, but his hand speed makes up for it. He’s got fantastically fast hands.”

By the fifth round, Jones was hitting Johnson (39-6-1) at will. At one point, he backed Johnson to the ropes, looked at Michael Jordan seated in the front row and shouted “Watch this!” before throwing a flurry of jabs.

In the sixth, Jones backed Johnson into a corner and poured it on while Johnson, blood dripping down his chest and staining his white trunks, covered up as well as he could.

Jones landed 273 punches to Johnson’s 49, and connected with 63 jabs to 16 for Johnson.

CompuBox showed that Jones landed 210 power punches, Johnson 33.

When he wasn’t hitting Johnson, Jones danced around, taunting him.

Johnson seemed to be in desperate trouble throughout the fight, but kept answering at the bell.

The crowd, which included a big contingent from Jones’ hometown of Pensacola, Fla., called for a knockout. There were some boos late in the fight when Jones didn’t press his attack. Johnson did go down in the 12th after a solid right from Jones, but it was ruled a slip.

It was the fifth defense of his titles in the last 18 months for Jones.