Roy Jones Jr. vs. Antonio Tarver I / 2000s
The fight itself intensified the rivalry. Tarver landed more total punches—175 of 506 to Jones’s 167 of 406—and visibly damaged Jones’s face, swelling his left eye and causing his nose to bleed. Jones, however, landed at a higher percentage and was credited with the cleaner and harder power shots. When the bout went to the scorecards, one judge scored it 114–114, while the other two gave Jones a wide majority-decision victory, 117–111 and 116–112. The result produced an immediate backlash inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena: the crowd loudly booed, chanted “bullshit,” and rejected the official verdict while Jones remained in the ring for his interview with Larry Merchant. Tarver pointed to Jones’s battered face and declared, “All you have to do is look at his face to know I won,” while Jones argued that Tarver had stolen rounds with brief flurries rather than consistently outboxing him. The controversy was not merely a matter of crowd sentiment: the Associated Press and New York Daily News scored the bout a draw, BBC commentators John Rawling and Duke McKenzie had it a draw and a Tarver win respectively, and Rawling called the 117–111 and 116–112 cards for Jones a “complete disgrace.” Harold Lederman scored for Jones, while Ring Magazine also favored Jones, demonstrating how sharply divided the boxing world was. Jones announced that he planned to retire or return to heavyweight for a proposed Mike Tyson bout, but after that fight collapsed he vacated the WBA heavyweight title and instead agreed to a rematch with Tarver—turning a close, hostile first encounter into an even more consequential rivalry.
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