American happy to be 'bad guy'
The Age
Wednesday December 2, 2009
BOXING great Roy Jones jnr insists he has no worries about being portrayed as the bad guy in tonight's world title bout at Acer Arena that his opponent Danny Green predicts will be decided by a knockout.Green, who stands in the way of Jones becoming the first person to win world titles in all five weight divisions from middleweight to heavyweight, admits that he will go into the International Boxing Organisation cruiserweight bout as the underdog and said he was under no illusions about what he is up against."It's very difficult to beat Roy Jones on points and I just think that the way he fights and the way I fight it is going to make for a knockout one way or the other," Green said."My style is suited more for the aggressive style, to go forward and try to take my opponent down but I'm up against one of the greatest fighters of all time so that isn't going to be an easy task."Asked if he was wary of Jones' lethal left hook, Green said: "You haven't seen all of his fights because that's not all that is lethal. He's like a cobra, he could strike at any time."After initially being welcomed as the greatest American boxer to fight in Australia since Jack Johnson in 1908, Jones said he had gradually been painted as the bad guy in much the same way Anthony Mundine was when he fought the former Olympian. "They wanted to make Choc [Mundine] out to be the bad guy so if they want to make me out to be the bad guy that's fine," Jones said."He obviously can't beat bad guys because he couldn't beat Choc."After being robbed off a gold medal in the 1988 Games at Seoul in one of the most outrageous decisions in Olympic boxing history, Jones said nothing fazed him.Asked whether he was worried about being knocked out, Jones said: "Not at all. He's too slow. I mean he's quicker than he was [when he fought Mundine] but he's too slow for me. I'm super quick."
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