Jones Retains Belt With TKO
Roy Jones Jr. knocked Richard Hall down twice in the first round, then turned him into a punching bag until the world light-heavyweight title fight was stopped midway through the 11th round Saturday night.
It was the sixth consecutive successful title defense for Jones (42-1), and his 34th knockout.
The undisputed champion landed a flurry of hard shots to Hall in the final round, including a pair of uppercuts that he unloaded from below his knees.
By then, Hall was virtually defenseless as he got worked into the champion's corner. Jones landed a half-dozen hard blows to the head before referee Wayne Kelly stepped in 1:41 into the round.
Jones, 31, showed no sign of age against the 28-year-old challenger from Jamaica. The champion, consistently ducking under his taller opponent, stunned Hall about 90 seconds into the fight and sent him to the canvas with a right-left combination.
With about 30 seconds left in the opening round, Jones landed a right hook that dropped Hall again.
Both fighters threw plenty of punches, but the champion connected with 320 of his 512, while Hall landed just 106 of 485. The statistics were more onesided for power punches, with Jones landing 273 of his 421 and Hall connecting on just 94 of his 247.
The fight was part of an eight-match program that drew 13,211 to the debut of professional boxing in Conseco Fieldhouse, which opened in November as the home of the NBA's Indiana Pacers. Capacity for the fight was announced at 17,000.
In a co-feature fight, Bernard Hopkins retained his IBF middleweight belt with a unanimous decision over Canadian Syd Vanderpool.
The left-handed challenger, 24-2 with 23 knockouts, had a 4 1/2-inch height advantage over Jones.
At times, Jones appeared to be toying with Hall, dropping his fists and dancing in the ring.
Hall's 77 1/2-inch reach was not a factor against Jones (74-inch reach), who was encouraged frequently by chants of "Roy, Roy, Roy" from the partisan fans.
Hall disagreed with the decision to stop the fight, although it was the obvious move at the time the way Jones was pounding him.
"He shouldn't have stopped the fight. I was fine. We were in a fight," Hall said. "I got thumbed in the eye, but it didn't affect me. Jones is a good fighter, but I did more than he expected me to do in this fight."
It was the 16th victory in 17 championship fights for Jones, selected Fighter of the Decade for the 1990s by the Boxing Writers Association of America,
"I wanted to put on a beautiful performance," he said. "The fans gave me that opportunity and I'm happy not to disappoint them. Hall is a strong guy. He took a lot of my punches, but I'm a fighting machine."
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