 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | November 22, 1996 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | Ice Palace, Tampa, Florida, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | WBC interim light heavyweight title | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Result | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jones Jr. wins via 12-round unanimous decision (120-107, 120-107, 120-107) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Roy Jones Jr. vs. Mike McCallum , billed as Fire on Ice, was a professional boxing match contested on November 22, 1996 for the interim WBC light heavyweight championship. [1] It was Jones' first fight in the light heavyweight division.
As the current WBC light heavyweight champion Fabrice Tiozzo decided whether to remain a light heavyweight or move up to the cruiserweight division, the WBC organized a match for the interim WBC light heavyweight title between 39–year old number-one contender, Mike McCallum (whom Tiozzo had defeated for the title) and the reigning IBF super middleweight champion Roy Jones Jr., who was making his light heavyweight debut and was also regarded by The Ring as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in boxing. The future hall-of-famer McCallum was the underdog for one of the only times in his professional career and McCallum himself admitted that he "have to utilize everything I have if I'm going to win." [2]
Prior to the fight, controversy arose when the WBC and the Florida State Athletic Commission feuded over whose officials would judge the fight. Neither side budged and, ultimately, two sets of judge's, one from each organization, would score the fight. The official judges were from the FSAC, however the WBC judges would score the fight from the first row of the media section and WBC president José Sulaimán made it known that the organization would go by their judges scorecards, regardless if the FSAC judges ruled in favor of a different fighter then the WBC judges. [3]
Jones was not as aggressive as he had been in some of his past fights, choosing to fight McCallum cautiously for the most part. McCallum, though, had difficulty with the younger and quicker Jones and despite throwing 651 punches, 116 more than Jones, he connected with only 209 for a 32% success rate. Jones, meanwhile, landed nearly half of his thrown punches, connecting with 254 of 535 punches for a 47% success rate. Jones also scored the lone knockdown in the fight. Just before the end of the tenth round, Jones connected with a right to McCallum's jaw that put him down on the seat of his pants, however McCallum was able to quickly get back to his feet. The bout went the full 12 rounds and as a result went to the judge's scorecards. The official FSAC judges had Jones winning all 12 rounds and scored the bout 120–107. The WBC judges were also unanimously in favor of Jones, albeit with three different scores of 119–108, 117–110 and 116–111. [4]
Shortly after his victory, Jones "interim" tag was removed and he was upgraded to full championship status as Tiozzo officially vacated his light heavyweight title and moved to the cruiserweight division. Jones' first light heavyweight title reign would not last long. In his next fight on March 21, 1997, Jones was disqualified after hitting his opponent Montell Griffin as he was down on one knee, becoming Jones' first loss as a professional. Jones, however, would knock out Griffin in a rematch later in the year and held the WBC light heavyweight title (eventually unifying it with the WBA and IBF versions along the way) until 2003 when he moved up to the heavyweight division.
The bout would prove to be the final title fight of McCallum's career. After his loss to Jones, he would fight only one more time, losing by unanimous decision to James Toney in the third fight of their trilogy before announcing his retirement with a 49–5–1 record.
Confirmed bouts: [5]
Al Cole vs. Matthew Charleston| Country | Broadcaster |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | British Eurosport |
| United States | HBO |
The World Boxing Council (WBC) is an international professional boxing organization. It is among the four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Organization (WBO).
Roy Levesta Jones Jr. is an American professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in four weight classes, including titles at middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight. As an amateur boxer he represented the United States at the 1988 Summer Olympics, winning a light middleweight silver medal.
Marco Antonio Barrera Tapia is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2011. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes between 1995 and 2007, from super bantamweight to super featherweight.
Hasim Sharif Rahman is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1994 to 2014. He is a two-time world heavyweight champion, having held the unified WBC, IBF, IBO and lineal titles in 2001; and the WBC title again from 2005 to 2006. He was ranked as a top 10 heavyweight by BoxRec from 2000 to 2007, and reached his highest ranking of world No.6 in 2000.
James Nathaniel Toney is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2017. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and lineal middleweight titles from 1991 to 1993, the IBF super middleweight title from 1993 to 1994, and the IBF cruiserweight title in 2003. Toney also challenged twice for a world heavyweight title in 2005 and 2006, and was victorious the first time but was later stripped due to a failed drug test. Overall, he competed in fifteen world title fights across four weight classes.
Antonio Deon Tarver is an American former professional boxer and boxing commentator. In boxing he competed from 1997 to 2015, and held multiple light heavyweight world championships, including the WBA (Unified), WBC, IBF and Ring magazine titles, as well as the IBO light heavyweight and cruiserweight titles.
Mike McCallum is a Jamaican former professional boxer who competed from 1981 to 1997. He held world championships in three weight classes, including the WBA super welterweight title from 1984 to 1988, the WBA middleweight title from 1989 to 1991, and the WBC light heavyweight title from 1994 to 1995.
As in the 1980s, the 1990s in boxing's popularity focused on all divisions. When 1980s legends Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, as well as others retired, newer superstars filled the void: Pernell Whitaker, Julio César Chávez, in the early 1990s, Oscar De La Hoya, Félix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr. and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the mid to late 1990s.
Graciano Rocchigiani was a German professional boxer who competed from 1983 to 2003. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the IBF super-middleweight title from 1988 to 1989, and the WBC light-heavyweight title in 1998. At regional level he held the European light-heavyweight title from 1991 to 1992. He was the younger brother of former cruiserweight world champion of boxing, Ralf Rocchigiani.
Artur Asilbekovich Beterbiev is a Russian and Canadian professional boxer. He is a unified champion in the light-heavyweight division, having held the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title since 2017, the World Boxing Council (WBC) title since 2019, and the World Boxing Organization (WBO) title since 2022. As an amateur, Beterbiev won a silver medal at the 2007 World Championships, gold at the 2008 World Cup and 2009 World Championships, as well as gold at the 2006 and 2010 European Championships, all in the light-heavyweight division. He also reached the quarter-finals of the heavyweight bracket at the 2012 Olympics.
Boxing in the 2010s includes notable events about boxing which occurred between 2010 and 2019. The decade saw high intensity action in the welterweight division. The match between veterans Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao broke PPV records. The broadcast of the fight in the Philippines was watched by nearly half the country's households. Mayweather retired at a record 50-0-0 while Pacquiao became the first eight division champion. The middleweight division saw immense action in the later years of the decade. After a draw in 2017, Canelo Alvarez ended Gennady Golovkin's long reign in 2018. The heavyweight division was dominated by Klitschko brothers before Wladimir's loss to Tyson Fury in 2015. Other talents that emerged were Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder and undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksander Usyk.
Roy Jones Jr. vs. Antonio Tarver, billed as Now It's Personal, was a professional boxing match contested on November 8, 2003 for the vacant WBA (Unified) title, Tarver's WBC light-heavyweight championship, Jones' IBO and The Ring light-heavyweight championships.
Bernard Hopkins vs. Roy Jones Jr. II, billed as The Rivals, was a professional boxing match contested on April 3, 2010. The fight was a rematch of the May 22, 1993 bout between the two where Jones defeated Hopkins for the IBF middleweight title.
Sullivan Barrera is a Cuban professional boxer. As an amateur, he won the middleweight gold medal at the 2000 AIBA Junior World Championships. He challenged once for the WBA light heavyweight title in 2018.
Joe Smith Jr. is an American professional boxer. He held the WBO light heavyweight title from 2021 to 2022. In 2016, Smith became the first boxer to score a stoppage victory over former undisputed middleweight world champion Bernard Hopkins, who retired after their fight.
Evander Holyfield vs. James Toney, billed as "The War on October 4", was a professional boxing match contested on October 4, 2003.
Anthony Joshua vs Éric Molina was a heavyweight professional boxing match contested between undefeated IBF champion Anthony Joshua, and the IBF's number 7 ranked contender and former world title challenger, Éric Molina. The bout took place on 10 December 2016 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Joshua defeated Molina, retaining his heavyweight title via third-round technical knockout (TKO).
Anthony Joshua vs Oleksandr Usyk, billed as The Perfect Storm, was a professional boxing match that was contested between WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, and former undisputed cruiserweight champion and the WBO's heavyweight mandatory challenger, Oleksandr Usyk. The bout took place on 25 September 2021 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Usyk winning by unanimous decision.
