Roy Jones Jr. vs. Antonio Tarver II

Background

The two men had previously fought each other on November 8, 2003. Jones, having fought weighed 199 pounds in his previous fight at heavyweight, was clearly weakened after losing 24 pounds to get back down to light heavyweight and Tarver, who had captured the WBC and IBF titles Jones had vacated after his WBA heavyweight title win against John Ruiz in March, was able to land several powerful combinations through the course of the fight and fought a closely contested fight with Jones. However, while one judge scored the bout a tie (114–114), the other two judge's had Jones clearly ahead by scores of 117–111 and 116–112, giving the Jones the win by majority decision. Following his victory, Jones initially talked about returning to the heavyweight division to take on Mike Tyson in what would be his final fight. The planned Jones–Tyson superfight never came into fruition and Jones eventually decided to meet Tarver in a rematch on May 15, 2004.

The fight

Jones got off to a good start and served as the aggressor of the first round using his trademark quickness to his advantage and easily won the first round of the fight on all three of the judge's scorecards. Jones attempted to repeat his success in the second round as Tarver held back, seemingly waiting for Jones to make a mistake. Just over midway through the round, Jones attempted to hit Tarver with a right hand, Tarver however countered with a quick left hook that dropped Jones to the canvas for only the second time in his professional career (Lou Del Valle scored a knockdown against Jones in 1998). Jones struggled to get back up but eventually made it back to his feet, however referee Jay Nady deemed Jones too hurt to continue and quickly ended the fight and Tarver was rewarded with the knockout victory. It was the second loss of Jones professional career and the first time he had been knocked out professionally, his previous loss had come by disqualification to Montell Griffin in 1997.

Aftermath

A little over four months later, Jones returned to face Glen Johnson in an attempt to regain the IBF light heavyweight title (Johnson had defeated Clinton Woods to capture the title after Tarver vacated it just prior to the first fight with Jones). Though Jones came into the fight as a heavy favorite he trailed Johnson on all three scorecards going into the eighth round before he was knocked out for the second consecutive time by an overhand right. After Jones' loss, it was Tarver who fought Johnson next. However, prior to the fight both the WBA and WBC stripped Tarver of their titles while the IBF stripped Johnson of their title after the two men decided to face each other rather than the organization's mandatory challengers. As a result only Tarver's IBO and The Ring titles were on the line. For the second straight fight, Johnson picked up the upset win after defeating Tarver by split decision (one judge scored the fight 116–112 in favor of Tarver while the other two scored the 115–113 for Johnson). After Tarver defeated Johnson in a rematch to recapture his titles, a rubbermatch with Jones was set for October 1, 2005.