K.O.W. - The Legend of Roy

I was watching this show over the weekend called "The Light Heavyweights," hosted by Curt Gowdy with the all-time No Mas Hall-of-Famer Don Dunphy as his guest. It was just a half-hour of the two of them shooting the shit and watching footage of those they deemed to be the greatest 175's in history. In the end, they arrived at a conclusion one would be be hard-pressed to argue with then or now - that Archie Moore was the greatest light heavyweight ever to lace up the gloves. Bob Foster they named in a respectably close second place, and they showed Foster's infamous one-punch first-round knockout of Dick Tiger, which I'd never seen, and which was some straight-up Tommy Hearns-like shit.

I wanted to feature that as the No Mas Knockout of the Week, but unfortunately I couldn't find the footage anywhere on the web. But the show also got me thinking that if ole Curt and Don were to revisit such a countdown of great 175's today, they would still place the Mongoose at the top of the heap, but they might have to think about putting Roy Jones Jr. above Foster in second place (surely some Irishman in Southie is reading this right now and screaming Billy Conn at the top of his drunken lungs - sorry Mick, not in Largeland).

As all fight fans who lived through the 90's know, there is no shortage of mind-blowing Jones knockouts to choose from. I went with this first-round beheading of Montell Griffin in their rematch of 1997. Earlier in the year, Jones had suffered the first loss of his pro career to Griffin due to a disqualification after clubbing Montell on the head twice when he was down in the 9th. In the rematch, Roy sought quick and painful revenge, and oh did he get it. A minute into the ring, he knocks Griffin all the way across the ring, and soon after he knocks him into tomorrow. Personally, I rate Griffin's queer street struggle to stand up as more ridiculous than Trevor Berbick's Frankenstein walk after Tyson clobbered him. That should tell you all you need to know.