It’s easy to be outraged. It’s easy to be sad. It’s even easy not to care at all. But nothing will be easy Saturday night for Alton Merkerson, whom Roy Jones Jr. calls “coach” with the kind of affection a kid has for mom and dad.
Other than the piece of square canvas that Jones and Bernard Hopkins will contest, no spot at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas figures to be as difficult as the corner Merkerson will occupy.
Concern for Jones, more than confidence in his chances, has been the flashing red light, the warning sign, throughout talk preceding a rematch of a 1993 fight. Merkerson has heard it, acknowledges it and repeats it.
“My concern is the same concern that everybody else has,’’ said Merkerson, whose 22-year-old friendship with Jones started when he as an assistant U.S. Olympic coach at the infamous Seoul Games in 1988 when Jones was robbed of a gold medal.
Despite acquiring a Nevada license after passing a battery of tests that included a brain scan, the 41-year-old Jones steps through the ropes against the older, yet-seemingly ageless Hopkins, 45, stamped with anecdotal evidence that he is damaged enough to be in serious peril.
The medical tests have been criticized on at least two fronts:
· Either they failed to account for three stoppages in six years that indicate Jones has lost the reflexes he needs to defend himself.
· Or, they have been diagnosed as business as usual. To wit: Las Vegas’ struggling casino industry needs the action.
Whether it’s one or both or none of the above, the controversy has shifted the focus onto whether Jones should be fighting at all in the rematch of a forgotten bout, a Jones victory that happened when Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. were teenagers.
The talk might prove to be a timely diversion for Jones, who has promised to knock out the heavily-favored Hopkins in what would be an upset and a role reversal. Instead of Jones, the worry would be for Hopkins. On a night not long after April Fools Day and a few hours before Easter, it’s hard to say what will happen. But the controversy is a certainty and it raises questions about whether it will influence Merkerson and perhaps referee Tony Weeks.
At the first sight of trouble, will Merkerson be quick to throw in the towel? Or Weeks quick to stop it?
Merkerson’s loyalty for Jones is as evident as it is admirable. Some trainers express their concern for a fighter in apparent decline by leaving the corner altogether. But Merkerson is always there for Jones, almost like a concerned parent.
“Yes, it’s getting close to the time where Bernard and Roy are going to give this thing up because you can’t do it forever,” Merkerson said in a conference call. “But right now, from a medical standpoint, he’s fine. I stick with Roy, and I’ve been with him for 20 years, and I’m going to continue to be with him.
“I’m not afraid to stop a fight. If in fact he was getting punished and didn’t get caught with one shot clean, I would stop the fight, and that’s what another young, inexperienced trainer probably wouldn’t do just to worry about their credibility and what people say about them. But it’s not going to be long before we give it up and do some other things, but Roy is fine right now.”
Right now is just one punch from forever wrong, however
That’s true for anybody who answers an opening bell, not just Jones or Hopkins or some other forty-something fighter. The repeated concern for Jones is that age has turned his reflexes into stone. He has become a stationary target for that disabling blow. For years, he fought with his hands down, yet his instincts, anticipation and unrivalled speed kept dancing in, out and always mere inches from harm. Through 12 rounds, the only sure bet is that those hands will fall and leave him defenseless.
Quickness might vanish, but habits rarely do.
Jones argues that Australian Danny Green’s hands were wrapped illegally before Jones suffered a first-round stoppage last December. Maybe, they were. But Jones’ protest misses the point the way punches missed him so long ago. Alter or unaltered, the relatively-unknown Green quickly and easily hit somebody that nobody could a decade ago.
Worried? You bet. There is no easy way out of that. In the end, Merkerson might be Jones’ only defense.
NOTES, ANECDOTES
· There was only one class act last Saturday in another stage of the super-middleweight tournament. It was delivered by Andre Dirrell, who was accused of acting when a desperate Arthur Abraham teed off with shot to the jaw with Dirrell on one knee after slipping on ice in Abraham’s corner. A disqualification of Abraham resulted in a victory for Dirrell, who was leading on the scorecards. The DQ was incomplete. Abraham should have been suspended. Now, it looks as if Dirrell will fight Andrew Ward, his 2004 Olympic teammate. Ward-Dirrell would re-ignite interest in the on-again, off-again tournament.
· Jose Benavidez Jr., a junior-welter-weight prospect from Phoenix, has an opponent for his fourth pro fight on April 10 at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas on a Top Rank card televised by Fox Sports Espanol. Expect Benavidez to go 4-0 against Scott Paul (5-4) of Ontario, Canada. The 17-year old Benavidez turns 18 on May 15.
· Is there an AARP convention scheduled for Las Vegas next week? Eight days after Jones-Hopkins, 47-year-old Evander Holyfield is scheduled to fight 41-year-old Francois Botha at Thomas & Mack Center. That adds up to two main events with an average age of 43-plus years.
King Hussein’s stance poses dilemma for US policy
The Boston Globe (Boston, MA) February 10, 1991 | Mary Curtius, Globe Staff NEWS ANALYSIS WASHINGTON — The administration faces a dilemma as it struggles to deal with its longtime friend King Hussein of Jordan: It cannot live with him and it fears it cannot live without him.
King Hussein’s bitter denouncement Wednesday of the US-led coalition fighting Iraq for waging what he described as a war against all Arabs deepened a well of anger toward him on Capitol Hill.
Shocked by the speech and alarmed by Congress’ response, Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d recommended to President Bush that the administration announce it is reviewing aid to Jordan. At the same time, Baker cautioned Congress during testimony Wednesday and Thursday that alternatives to King Hussein leading Jordan, do not present “a pretty picture.” That is the essence of the problem facing the administration. It is counting on King Hussein to resume his posture as a moderate to help stabilize the region after the war. But it cannot continue to shelter him from the wrath of Congress and Arab members of the coalition if he appears to act on Saddam Hussein’s behalf by inciting the Arab world against the West and its Arab partners. site feed the king
Baker hopes the aid review announcement will both defuse congressional anger and send a signal to King Hussein that he has gone too far. Baker does not want to cut off aid, senior officials said. However, they acknowledge that anti-Jordanian sentiment may snowball in Congress. Even in the administration, supporters of King Hussein have a harder time making their case for the king as a force for moderation.
Margaret Tutwiler, the State Department spokeswoman, announced the aid review Thursday night. On Friday, she said that none of the aid already committed to Jordan for 1991 has been released, nor will it be until the review is completed. In addition, the department is reviewing 1992’s military and economic aid, Tutwiler said.
Administration officials said that some in Washington argue that King Hussein has gone too far and must be punished. Other officials say that cutting off Jordan will feed the king’s belief that the administration is trying to drive him from the throne.
The king’s supporters say his anti-American rhetoric must be tolerated in the hope of reviving an Arab-Israeli peace process after the war. In Washington’s view, the Palestine Liberation Organization has counted itself out of any direct participation in negotiations by openly aligning with Saddam Hussein.
That leaves King Hussein as the most likely candidate, with Jordan’s population believed to be more than 60 percent Palestinian, to head a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation to talks with Israel.
Supporters argue that King Hussein needs to appease a citizenry that is more enthusiastic about Saddam Hussein than any other population in the region, and urge patience with him while he rides out the passions unleashed by the war.
The administration has to ask itself: “Is there a Jordan without {King} Hussein?” said Professor Michael Hudson, director of Georgetown’s Arab Studies Center. “If {King} Hussein goes, does that become the trigger for Israel’s expulsion of Palestinians in the territories to Jordan? Does it usher in an Islamic fundamentalist regime? Do Palestinians take over? Do the Syrians move down or the Saudis move in?” Each alternative, Hudson said, is unattractive for the administration as it ponders the region’s fate after the war. see here feed the king
Hudson said he believed King Hussein was moved “by genuine moral outrage” to denounce what allied bombing is doing to Iraq.
“It is not just a question of tactics, or of pragmatism,” Hudson said. “People very close to him believe that Bush’s `new world order’ translated into the Middle East is a crusade really to prop up the old order. King Hussein sees the war against Iraq as a blow to Arab culture, civilization and dignity. He fears the political repercussions of what the Americans are doing and he may think that his long-term survival may depend on his having been on the side of popular opinion during this war, not damned as one of the collaborators who participated in the destruction of Iraq.” But the king’s detractors argue that in appeasing his people, King Hussein has crossed the line from neutrality to open support for Iraq. If he continues down that path, these advisers argue, the administration will not be able to persuade Congress to offer financial support to Jordan, particularly not if King Hussein makes more anti-American speeches after a ground war begins and American casualties rise.
King Hussein’s detractors aruge that his days may be numbered. By declaring himself with Iraq, King Hussein has destroyed the careful political balancing act that made him valuable, over the years, to the Persian Gulf states, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Syrians and even the Israelis.
King Hussein now has isolated himself almost totally from Saudi Arabia, the nation that provided most of Jordan’s essential foreign aid after 1979. He has also alienated the Kuwaitis and other gulf states that in the past provided both aid to Jordan and places for his rapidly growing population to work. He has alienated President Hafez Assad of Syria and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, whose troops have joined the coalition forces arrayed again Iraq.
King Hussein’s detractors argue that he may emerge from the war to find himself more dependent than ever on Palestinian nationalists and Islamic fundamentalists. Both groups are gaining political power in Jordan as a result of the their fervent support for Iraq.
Analysts fear King Hussein will be pushed by radicals to adopt policies toward Israel and the West that will make it impossible for him to serve as the political buffer he has been for more than two decades.
Both sides are watching Jordan closely, and listening carefully to the king’s statements on the war, as the time for a ground war approaches and fears in Washington mount of a backlash in the Arab street against the assault on Iraq.
