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The Sun Sets on Jones

Tonight was a sad night in sports history, and not just because the Spurs lost.

One of the finest boxers to ever grace the ring, Roy Jones, Jr., was finally handed his first real defeat.

Whether you are a boxing fan or not, odds are: if you know one name in boxing outside the super-heavyweight class, it is Roy Jones, Jr. I have been a Roy Jones, Jr. fan for over twelve years, and he has never failed to surprise me. Tonight, however, I was shocked.

As a boxer, Jones was hypnotizing. Circa 1992, you could see him moving his head like a snake charmer, both fists in front of him as if fighting praying mantis style. Changing his style to conserve energy, Jones dipensed with much of the head movement, but remained the most entertaining boxer both in style and record. He still kept his fists far out in front of him, though typically hi-lo with a dropped left hand. He would often wind-up, talk shit, and generally clown his opponents. Jones once even went so far as to put both hands behind his back and hang his chin out while against the ropes, only to drop Glen Kelly with a lightning left.

Jones' only professional "loss" prior to tonight was a disqualification against Montell Griffin where he dropped Griffin like a load of bricks after Griffin had put his knee down in the ring. (Good lookin' out, ref.) Jones subsequently cleaned Griffin's clock in the rematch.

Coming into tonight's fight, Jones had a diffferent demeanor from the usual. No rapping, no hype. He appeared as a man with the resolve of a champion. He fought with confidence, staying in the middle of the ring and landing numerous power punches. Then, in the second round, Antonio Tarver hit the button.

With a left to the chin, Jones went down, and with it went 12 years of awe. I had never seen Jones even get KNOCKED DOWN until then. The ref should have at least given him a full 8-count, but since Jones faltered when getting up, the ref called it. It was obvious that with another two seconds, Jones would have been right back in it.

But so it goes. I never liked Jones dropping weight to fight middleweights, and had always hoped to see him fight the likes of Lewis, Holyfield, or Tyson. He had trounced John Ruiz just last year, again proving that both speed and power were part of his arsenal. His middleweight bouts started to seem like interludes, and it was thought he would never fight light heavyweight again after Tarver II.

Now, Jones has fallen. Straight up he got his chin checked. I believe he could have kept fighting, and I also believe that the hit was more luck than skill, since Tarver appeared to be falling into the punch. In the exchange that dropped him, Jones threw a couple punches that just as easily could have felled Tarver. But so it goes. Jones got his first loss that didn't require an asterisk.

Though his boxing future seems in doubt, Jones will forever be both a legendary and unique boxer.

It was good while it lasted. Thank you, Roy.

Posted by justin at 1:11 AM | Comments (6)

New HAC Photos

Another non-development in the HAC saga is the emergence of "new" photos of the "Hot Abercrombie Chick". They appear to be taken in the same zero-context room as several of the "earlier" ones. These photos prove a lot of things, I'm just not sure which.

Either:
(a) Dan got his wife to slut it up this time around.
(b) Despite all "her" protestations, the HAC really is trying to be a little philoso-ho. You can see by the type of attention she attracts from users on her Yafro page ("Hot hot very hot").
(c) Dan finally recovered those photos of his ex-girlfriend that he deleted a year ago.

It is pretty clear that the hoaxster is desperately trying to recover from the tremendous loss of traffic that has resulted from the blogosphere collectively smashing its crack pipe.

Thanks for proving nothing yet again, HAC - except, as Cameron pointed out, that the HAC appears to be married at 19. Which makes me lean towards (a) above as the explanation.

Posted by justin at 7:26 AM | Comments (3)

Robot Roundup

It seems that a new robot comes out every week, and this week's robots were cut from a bit of a different cloth. To recap the more newsworthy robots in the past year, one must recall the Sony QRIO. The QRIO has some voiceovers on its movies that gives it an edge over Honda's ASIMO. Toyota's robot, the YET TO BE SANRIOIZED, can, umm, play the trumpet. Fujitsu's HOAP-2 can do sumo moves, which are about as useful as the QRIO's Tai Chi. Though significantly less functional than the others, the NUVO wins on style points. And with form following a great deal of function, there is the Robovie-M.

One new robot this week went WAY down in scale. It is made out of DNA, and is capable of walking. While not exactly capable of fetching the newspaper, "[p]ersuading the walker to ferry a load, such as a metal atom, is the team's next challenge".

The other robot this week was made in about 30 seconds and consists of 3 Sony Ericsson T616's, 1 Sidekick, and 2 Nokia 6600's. It runs on beer.

Posted by justin at 8:25 AM