It is Uatu's sworn duty to watch and report back about the sport of boxing as he sees it. Sometimes he gets to watch a Pavlik-Taylor or a Pretty Boy-Hatton, sometimes he has to watch Friday Night Fights on ESPN so you don't have to. Tonight's main event is Guinn vs. Hawkins. As with a lot of the shows, the in-studio guest will probably be better than the fights. Today it is Mr. Unknockoutable, Body Head Entertainment's and Square Ring's own, Ya'll must've forgot, Roy Jones, Jr.
Roy is having fun with boxing again. He has 'refound' himself. He practiced with the Knicks today. He gave them a pep talk and shot around with them. Roy told them that all professional athletes go through low points, and if they believe and have faith, they can turn their season around. Uatu actually enjoyed Roy's contributions to HBO back when he was a commentator for them. Uatu thought he was great on HBO and was frank and honest.
Sargeant vs. Woods is up first. 8 rounds from the River Rock Casino.
Big right hand! Woods goes down and is in trouble in round one.
Announcers say this is the third straight time that Woods has been on FNF and has been hurt in the first round.
Tons of unanswered power shots from Sargeant in the second. Surprising there was no stoppage.
In Round 4 Atlas says Woods's legs look like the pasta he had last night.
Both fighters really putting it on the line.
Gritty stuff considering the stakes.
Woods won't quit.
Woods's trainer stops the fight? Or maybe the ref. Either way the right move. TKO win by Sargeant. Looks like the ref made the stoppage.
Back to the KFC studios. Roy likes the stoppage. Roy thinks the ref did a great job. Brian Kenny and Uatu agree.
Discussion goes to Roy's big fight with Tito.
Discuss his fight over the Prince in Idaho. That was just to reassure himself.
Then he took on an undefeated young fighter and took down Henshaw.
Roy doesn't fight bums. It's a waste of his time and his fans time.
He wants to entertain and can't fight a nobody.
They are showing great Roy and Tito highlights over the years.
David Reid and Fernando Vargas go down hard.
Roy was impressed with Tito's win over Mayorga. He believes the time off will really help Tito. Roy says he is excited and this is what he loves.
Only God has a timetable for him he says.
BK says Roy is glowing right now.
Roy says he had to go back down from heavyweight and win the Light Heavyweight championship again for the history of it.
Roy says that he and Bernard have not actually been seriously negotiating over the years.
Roy says Bernard wants no part of him.
He offered him 60-40 a number of years ago and Bernard said Don King would take too much so Bernard said no.
Roy offered him twice as much as Bernard got to fight Tarver, but Bernard still fought Tarver instead.
Then the Winky fight came around and Bernard took that instead. Roy says B-Hop really didn't want to fight him.
Bernard doesn't interest him because Bernard's not serious about fighting him.
Roy would go to fight JoeCal at 168 in England.
Ricky came here so Roy will go there.
Tyson vs. Ortiz is up next. It's Byron not Mike.
Ortiz has a big cut.
Ortiz goes down from a low blow and is getting recovery time.
Ortiz literally trips Tyson. He gets a warning from the ref.
They show footage from the Atlas Foundation Dinner in November. Lots of celebs. Gerry Cooney, Lou Duva, Michael Moorer, Curtis Martin, Eric Mangini, Bill Parcells, and Paulie Walnuts among others.
Ortiz takes a knee on purpose, but with no punch! Strange. So there's no eight count?
The ref DQ's Ortiz for his various shenenigans. Too many fouls as Ortiz hit in the back in the head.
Back to the studio.
Roy's favorite fight of the year: The Contender fight was the best fight, but PBF-Hatton was more hype and for boxing fans it should be the fight of the year, and he is a PBF fan.
Roy breaks down the fight. PBF fought with smarts, got Hatton revved up and took advantage of it. He fought a beautiful and smart fight.
He thinks the ref being so active gave Floyd some small advantage and the ref warned Hatton for nothing, but Floyd was in control anyway and would have won anyway.
Roy says unlike MMA, if you lose once the fans throw you in the trash heap. That's why Bernard and Floyd fight so cautiously. Roy says that is just smart boxing, and along the way PBF is pecking at his opponents, he is wearing his opponents like Hatton down. He says Bernard can be boring at times.
They then show vintage highlights of RJJ vs. Toney.
He says he was way too fast for Toney and entertained the fans by being right in his face the whole time.
Roy says his speed has never left. Not even the speed from his lead right hand from '94. He surprises himself with his speed even right now in training.
"Pensacola is still in the house, don't let it fool you!"
Uatu was doing some thinking and he figures he has seen Guinn fight on TV possibly close to ten times! That's as many times as Uatu has seen many of the top-flight boxers in the world. Were Grant, Toney, Thompson, Harrison, Chambers, Lawrence, Barrett, Lyakovich and Hawkins all on TV? A lot of those definitely were. Just goes to show the fact that heavyweights still catch all the breaks and exposure.
Guinn vs. Hawkins. 10 rounds.
During the fight they show a promo of some motorcross dude named Robbie Madison who on New Year's is going to jump the distance of football field on his motorcycle. Neat.
Guinn is not throwing his hands much. If you have seen any of those above mentioned fights, you know that this can often be his M.O. 3 rounds done, not much to say.
Roy time as guest analyst during the fight.
Roy would tell Guinn that he has to let his hands go. Too methodical. He fights like a robot. He is not going to win like this, his opponent is out in front of him. Atlas asks what is wrong with Guinn mentally. Roy says he doesn't understand it. He says he looks like he doesn't want to be hit. Atlas goes through his "silent agreement" bit, and Roy agrees that Guinn has made such an agreement.
Ronnie Shields talking now.
Guinn is not doing anything on the outside according to him.
Looking over the upcoming FNF schedule, Uatu does not foresee himself reporting on all of those fights. Per the legend of Uatu, he is traditionally only to appear at moments of great significance to watch and record. These fights certainly are not all of great significance.
Hard to say who is winning. Not many punches of great value.
Wow. In the ongoing MMA explosion, Uatu notices on his TV Guide that the next UFC preview show is on MTV. Surprising perhaps, but considering during the wrestling explosion that the WWE was on MTV, it isn't. MMA is the new poker, which was the new wrestling. Sure, MMA is here to stay and deservedly so. Doubtful that MTV will be a long term partner though.
Cotto-Mosley being replayed tonight as well. Great fight with lots of drama the first time, but with no knockdowns or classic individual rounds.
Atlas has Hawkins up 70-65 after 7 rounds. Hawkins has done a little more. Both announcers agree that Guinn cannot win by decision at this point.
Guinn has six minutes left to make his career turnaround per Tessitore.
Atlas has been preaching distance the whole fight. Guinn could score a knockout, but he needs distance. He has been disappointed with the fact that Guinn hasn't been fighting from a distance.
Every round up to this point has almost been exactly the same.
Punch Track - Guinn - 117 landed Hawkins - 221
the scores:
97-93, 99-91, 100-90 - all for the winner by unanimous decision- Robert "Big Philly" Hawkins!
Back to Roy
most likely scenario when the bell rings for Roy vs. tito
Roy is talking way too fast to keep up.
Hilarious break down of the pre-fight and first three rounds.
"Round fo', he's got to go."
Roy repeats again that if Bernard and Joe can't make a fight Roy is going to go to Wales in front of 50,000 fans to fight Joe.
Roy Jones was great in-studio, no surprise.
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