Roy Jones Jr. still thinks he could have beaten Joe Calzaghe

First off: The headline over at the Miami Herald says "James Jones," and that's pretty sad. I mean, it IS Roy Jones Jr. we're talking about.

``I was a speed-combination puncher who has power, and when I went to the heavyweight division I focused on getting more power and less combination and speed,'' Jones said. ``Now I am focused on my combination and speed.

``Now I am back to that Roy Jones and that Roy Jones was a technician.''

Also back will be Jones' father, Roy Sr., as lead trainer. Throughout Jones' amateur career and his early days as a professional, Jones Sr. trained his son until they parted ways.

``My dad was with me from Day One and a guy that knew what I needed to do to beat Calzaghe,'' Jones said. ``I didn't have the knowledge of my skills in my corner that I needed to get through that fight.

``Then I got the cut and I didn't know I was going to have to go through something like that. I needed him to get me through that.''

Roy Jones has been a lot of things, but I don't think I'd really list "technician" as one of them. He was really one of a kind. Nobody fought like Roy Jones. Others have tried to, and nobody has been half as good at it. He was so fast -- with his hands, with his feet, with his reflexes -- that he was impossible to break for a good while.

Jones has got to give up the ghost on the Calzaghe fight, though. He had no chance at beating Calzaghe past the flash knockdown in the first that did seem to shake Joe up, but then he lacked the killer instinct anymore to really pounce and go for the throat. And that's the only round I had Jones winning. No "knowledge of (his) skills in (his) corner" was going to prevent Calzaghe from wiping the mat with him that night.

For the record, I actually thought Jones handled his first real cut quite well in that fight. It was his cutman that let him down.