If parts 6 and onward are working for anybody else, could you copy and paste them for a humble Hut? Was a very good piece.
'Toney's a man locked inside the large house of his own body, hearing a rapping at the back door, running there but finding no one.' I like that.
Nothing, it was just a good read. edit: Actually, I had never read much about Roy's father specifically other than general stuff about how hard he'd been on RJJ growing up, so that was interesting
I do have to say, I have had the privilege of speaking with Roy Sr. I was a young 139 pounder back in '05. I fought one of Roy Sr's fighters (Mujtaaba Muhammad, who incidentally is the only son of Murad Muhammad). We fought in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. I still have the trophy from that fight. Anyway, we all went to the PAL Nationals together in Dallas, Texas in Oct./Nov '05. Roy Sr. the U.S. Marines Boxing Team and myself stayed at one of those hotels on a naval base in Dallas. Roy bought three fighters, including Muhammad. He had one guy named Savion Porter who was damn good, but Big Roy was known for over matching his fighters. Porter put up a heck of a fight against Dante Craig and was robbed in my opinion. I ended up losing to some guy from Buffalo, N.Y. who had won all of his ammy fights by KO (NO, I lost by decision and by one freaking point!). I actually thought I was going to have a shot to fight Zab Judah because I had heard so much about him. I have to admit, Zab was pretty damn good as an amateur (Which could be expected from a known "Front Runner") I knew big Roy from fighting in that southeast/gulf coast region (I moved from NYC and was fighting out of Montgomery, Alabama where I had gone to college for a bit). So, to say the very least, I was used to Big Roy's act! That guy was pure mean as shit to his fighters. He cursed out Mujtaaba Muhammad when I knocked him down with a left hook. I mean, he cursed him out with his mom there! Mind you, the corner is not allowed to speak from the corner during the course of a fight in the ammys! Big Roy got away with a lot of shit. After I lost my match at the nationals, Big Roy and I talked the whole night. In fact, we talked until the sun came up! He told me about his army days, his fight against Hagler and Little Roy's upbringing. He was not such a mean bastard after all. I'll tell you this, he's as honest a guy as you'll meet in life. If Roy Jr. were to say something and Big Roy disputed it, I'll go Big Roy all the way. As a side note, Roy Sr. recognized me after all of these years when I saw him at the third Tarver/Jones fight, even though I was over forty pounds heavier than the last time I had seen him. I also got a chance to meet Jake out there, too!:mj:
I saw Roy "Panther" Jones get knocked out here in Houston in 1977 at the Sam Houston Coliseum by Melvin Dennis. He didn't show me a whole lot to be honest with you.
He may have taught his son how to fight but, if the article is accurate, it makes him sound like a piece of shit as a father.
Yeah, although he is a very honest man in my opinion, he does come across as a crappy father. There is a fine line in some instances. For instance, I have two children, a daughter who is eleven (Will be twelve in Oct.) and a son who is five (Will be six next month). My daughter is intelligent and has big plans for her future. She also likes to play basketball. She has always told me how she wanted to go to Harvard since she was five or six years old. The reason that is the case is because I have spoken to her about having aspirations and the best way to reach them since she has been old enough to understand. I always make it a point to MAKE her realize what's important in life. She has known from the beginning that she could not play any sports if she had gotten anything less than a "B" on any of her report cards throughout the year. Well, she did well at the Nike Basketball Camp in Atlanta last July, '11 and was ready for a break out year starting this fall. She had gotten a "C" in a class, now she can't play. Does that make me an asshole? I don't believe so. The same class she had gotten a seventy-nine, which constituted a "C", she ended up getting a 103 the very next report card for an "A". To her, I'm being harsh and maybe even an asshole; to me, this is just an early life lesson of not taking what your talents are for granted, both athletically or academically. On the other hand, my son is going into his first year of pee wee football. He, too, has said from three years of age how he wanted to play football on television (Which is now, the NFL, since he knows what it is at five years old). He also knows the rules about grades as it relates to participating in sports. The deal here is, I take him out three to four times a week and we go through all types of drills; sprints, push-ups, sit-ups, hand offs, etc... The point I'm making is, I'm not being a vicarious parent living through my children. The fact is, regardless of what it is, I want them to know that if they say something they want to be committed to, I will see to it that they pursue it wholeheartedly and give it their all. Just like I go out there with my son in the heat or cold to hone his skills as a football player, I speak to my daughter about what she aspires to be, and that's a lawyer. Just last Friday, I had her read a business plan a friend of mine had written just to give her an idea of the analytics involved in business; business law is just one branch of law that she may be interested. We went through the constitution, amendments and the three branches of government recently, so she may be interested in constitutional law. Finally, I had her write down ten colleges and had her research their law programs just to know. Yes, she's only going to the seventh grade, but she is going to have an idea of what's going on and knowing what's important in life. Is she going to be happy that I push her to strive for what she wants? Of course, but not all of the time. Is this going to guarantee a happy ending? Of course not.... But as harsh as it may seem to an eleven year old right now, she does not have the capacity to see the long-term goals as her forty year old father does.
