FightHype.com takes you back in time to revisit all the action of fights gone by. In this unique series, get a firsthand look at what it's like to experience the physical, mental and emotional ups and downs of a professional prizefight. Find out what the fighters were going through before, during and after the fights as they relive some of the highlights of their most memorable bouts. On March 21, 1997, Montell Griffin became the first man to put a blemish on the record of Roy Jones Jr. when the previously undefeated fighter landed two shots that would ultimately get him disqualified. Check out how Montell Griffin remembers what turned out to be one of the most definitive moments of his career.
TRAINING CAMP
I trained in Big Bear, California. We had a house out there. I had some good sparring and everything went good in that whole camp. I'm one of those guys that's deceptively fast and quick, so I knew...I'm not saying I'm faster than him [Roy Jones Jr.], but I knew I could match speed with him because of my timing. What we were working on in the gym is we had guys that were fast and threw a lot of punches, but what you want to do is punch when they finish punching. That's what I worked on all during camp. Thell Torrence was my trainer and he had my sparring partners come at me with the pads, or whatever, throwing fast and I would block all of their shots and as soon as they would finish punching, I would start punching. At the time, we knew Roy didn't like pressure, so we wanted to bring it right back to him. He wanted to fight when he wanted to fight, and you want to fight when he don't want to fight, so we worked on putting pressure on him and just counter-punching him and the main thing was just keep my hands up. There ain't no question he is the fastest man I have ever been in the ring with in my life. I sparred Floyd Mayweather when he was fighting at 140 pounds and he was no comparison as far as speed. Roy was that much faster than him.
PRE-FIGHT
One thing that happened was I knew he respected me because we both got up to go on stage and we crossed each other's path and he spoke to me, "Hey, how you doing Montell?" That's when I knew he respected me and that meant a lot to me because he was world champ and pound-for-pound the best. I had only been a pro for 4 years and it meant a lot to me to know that he respected me. That just gave me that much more confidence. I had a lot of confidence going into the fight anyway because I wasn't one of these guys that they brought in for Roy to beat up. I had beaten James Toney twice. I had been #1 in the world. I was #1 in the WBC, #2 in the IBF and WBA, so I was respected. When I beat Ray Lathon, may he rest in peace, the fans may not have gave me all of the respect in the world, but the boxing public did because that dude had all of the talent in the world. Then I beat James Toney, and then fought Toney a year and a half later and beat him again, so I gained respect in the boxing world.
The funny thing about it...I gotta tell this quick story. I was in camp when he [Riddick Bowe] fought his third fight against Evander Holyfield. I had just got offered a fight with Roy, but they wanted me to go down to 168 and I was like, "I don't know about that." Throughout my career, even in the amateurs, the lowest I could get down to was 172 because they wanted me to fight at middleweight for the Olympic team and I couldn't make it. I always been an in-betweener. I really wasn't big enough to be a light heavyweight, but I was too big to be a super middle. But to get back to the story, HBO was interested in me fighting Roy and they offered me the fight at super middleweight. I was in camp with Bowe and it was the last day of training, so I said, "Look, I'm ready to go bet [on Bowe's fight with Holyfield]. What's going to happen?" He said, "I'm going to knock him out in the 8th or 9th round." I said, "Okay." So I'm on my way to the casino to go bet on the fight and I run into Evander Holyfield. The first thing he says is, "I heard you fighting Roy. I told everybody you gonna win. They don't know nothing about you; you the man." I said to myself right then and there, "I can't bet against this man." He showed me too much respect for me to bet against him. A friend of mine was interested in betting on the fight and I told him, "I'm not gonna bet, but Riddick Bowe said he gonna knock him out in the 8th or 9th round." You know he stopped him in the 8th round. My guy won so much money, he called me the next day and said, "Thank you. I'm getting ready to go buy a Mercedes Benz." But I just couldn't bet against the man. He really made me feel good when he told me that. The funny thing about it is when I fought Roy, if you watch the tape, Evander Holyfield got out of his seat to come give me a high-five and say, "Take care of your business." It really worked out. He showed me love all the way through the end.
THE FIGHT
I used to talk to Thell and I couldn't ever understand how come I wasn't nervous or excited. It just wasn't a big deal to me. When Roy walked down to the ring, I was like, "Let's roll. Let's get it on." I knew I had great reflexes and timing, so I was like, "Let's not get hit with nothing stupid. Keep your eyes on him and let's get warmed up real good." He caught me with a good shot in that 1st round. It woke me up and I was like, "Okay, this is what I'm dealing with." To this day, Roy is not close to being the hardest puncher to ever hit me. But he was so fast that his speed was power. And you know, it's out there now, so it ain't no big secret, but he tested positive for steroids. People always questioned it, but then he tested positive and failed a test and it made me think he was on steroids for all of those fights. It is what it is. It's the past and it's over with.
In the 7th round, he got credit for a knockdown. He actually threw a punch and then he leg-whipped me. If Roy Jones catches anybody or hurts anybody, he's going to jump on them, and even the announcers said after the knockdown that they didn't think it was a knockdown and that Roy knew he didn't even hurt me because he didn't try to jump on me. He hit me in the shoulder and he leg-whipped me and I lost my balance. I was telling the referee that he didn't even hit me and that it wasn't a knockdown. They really didn't make a big deal about it until after the fight, but it ain't no big deal. And then, in the 8th round, I beat him real good. I actually busted him up a little bit. It was an old school move. He was laying on my shoulder, so I hit him with my shoulder and then threw a left hook right hand and it kinda swole his eye up. In the 9th round, things were going smooth and the one mistake I made, instead of putting my right hand up to block the right hand, I kinda rolled with it, and when I rolled, he hit me in the back of the head. I just told myself...I was talking to myself...I said, "Well, I'm not hurt, but I'm a little dizzy. I know he's winning the fight, but I got 3 rounds left. Go ahead and take a knee and finish these last 3 rounds hard and win it like that." So I take the knee, and if you see the tape, I didn't take the knee right in front of him. I looked at him and pulled back about two or three feet just to get away from him. So then, I look up to get the referee's count and I got hit. I didn't know where the hit came from. Then he loaded up and hit me the second time, and then my body just short-circuited. I just thank God that I never lost consciousness or I didn't get knocked out cold because no telling what could have happened. I actually could have gotten killed because I wasn't braced to take a punch. I just let my guard down. My body just...I felt paralyzed because I knew everything that was going on and I heard everything, but I just couldn't move. It's just crazy that you got fools out here that actually said I was faking. This guy hits me with a shot while I'm not braced and then loads up the second time. But I know what it is. Just because he's Roy Jones, they want to make a big deal about me faking. If I would have done that to him, I would have been kicked out of boxing for 5 years. But it is what it is.
POST-FIGHT
I got my promoter and my manager, instead of being on my team, they going against me. I had fights set up where I could have fought other guys for basically the same amount of money I fought Roy for. It was like I was just fighting against myself. I accepted the fight [rematch with Jones] when I really didn't have to. He needed me; I didn't need him. The winner of our first fight was supposed to fight Tommy Hearns, which I would have loved to fight a legend, or Virgil Hill, who had the belt, but HBO didn't really even come with the money that I wanted. I was getting pressured by my promoter, so I took the fight. I went to camp for 10 weeks. I was as sharp as I had ever been in my career. I damn near knocked out every sparring partner that they brought in there. I knew I was going to go in there and destroy Roy. I ain't gotta make no excuses because it is what it is. I'm sitting in the dressing room getting ready to get my hands wrapped and my trainer, Kenny Crooms, comes back from looking at Roy get his hands wrapped and he comes back and says, "This man is dressed, warmed up and ready to fight." I said, "What?" I still had my street clothes on. HBO comes in and says I had 5 minutes to get in the ring. Like I said, if you knew then what we know now, I would have done things a lot differently. I would have gotten suspended or whatever. I would have told them to kiss my ass, but I was young, I was a fool, and I was a fighter. I didn't use my head and I went out there and fought the man cold. I got hit with a shot. Like I said, he's not close to being the hardest punching man to ever hit me and I can take a punch. I got a helluva chin. My body just wasn't prepared. I got hit with a shot cold and it is what it is. It sidetracked my career.
I spoke to Roy a few times personally and he said he would do a trilogy with me, but of course it never came around. You gotta think, if this guy was on steroids and I gave him that many problems the first time, he's gotta be thinking to himself, "This guy is someone to stay away from. Why take a chance with him again?" That's just like him hitting me when I was down on one knee. You know that's roid rage, but it is what it is.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]