Saturday night at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi Roy Jones, Jr. (51-4, 38 KOs) stepped into the ring with previously unbeaten Anthony Hanshaw (21-1-1, 14 KOs). Hanshaw, making his first appearance as a Light Heavyweight, looked soft around the waistline, but wasted no time in coming right at Jones. Hanshaw pressured Jones into the ropes for most of the first round, throwing a multitude of body and head punches. While Jones blocked many of the shots, the few which did land clean, combined with the offensive output were enough to give the first round to Hanshaw.





Hanshaw stuck with the fight plan of applying pressure to Jones, and early on it appeared Jones was content with his back against the ropes. But into the second round, Jones began throwing uppercuts, quick right hands, and lefts to the body of Hanshaw. Jones still showed good speed with his punches, but failed to put his punches together. Jones would work his way to the center of the ring, and there would outbox Hanshaw with relative ease. Jones, behind the slick movement and fast punches, won rounds two, three and four.





In the fifth round, Hanshaw continued to press forward, and repeatedly backed Jones into the ropes. Though the tactics in the first round resulted in a few punches getting through Jones` guard, Hanshaw scored well in the fifth, mixing up to the head and body. Hanshaw continued with his success in the sixth round, breaking through Roy`s "hands up & back to the ropes defense", yet still could not hurt Jones. After six rounds, the fight was even.





The action slowed in the middle rounds, and although Jones seemed reluctant to pull the trigger, it was becoming more and more evident his speed and his body attack were beginning to wear down Hanshaw. Even though Hanshaw kept coming forward, Jones seemed to delight in the efforts of Hanshaw, winking to the crowd, speaking to his father (sitting a few rows back), and jiggling his hips.





In the 8th round, Jones hurt Hanshaw with a left hook to the ribcage. Hanshaw backed off for a few moments, gathered himself and stepped forward to press the action. Jones would eventually land a solid punch to the chin of Hanshaw, sending him wobbling backwards. Jones followed up, landing several shots, including an overhand right, which sent Hanshaw to the canvas. Beating the count, Hanshaw rose to continue the fight, but any chance of winning sans a knockout, diminished with the knockdown. Jones would pull out the decision by scores of 114-113, 118-109 and 117-110. The13thround.com scored the fight 116-111 in favor of Jones.





The most anticipated fight on the under card, a scheduled NABA welterweight championship fight pitting Oscar Diaz (25-2, 12 KOs) versus Juan Buendia (14-1-1, 8 KOs), barely got underway as an accidental clash of heads resulted in a horrific cut over the left eye of Diaz. The ringside physician stopped the action and the fight was declared a no contest.





In other under card action, Derrick Gainer (41-7-1) from Pensacola, Florida faced late substitute Carlos Navarro (27-6-1) of Las Vegas in a scheduled ten round affair. Navarro proved to be the aggressor throughout the fight, pushing Gainer into the ropes, and delivery blows to the head and body. Gainers defense proved fairly tight in the early going, but Navarro`s constant aggression was enough to win the rounds. Gainer rarely threw punches, many times waiting until the ten-second warning was heard, before unleashing two or three punches. While Gainer was waiting and deciding to throw, Navarro continued pushing Gainer into the ropes banging away at any available target. Navarro put in good work to the body, and occasionally landed an uppercut, or hooks to the head.





As the final bell rang, Navarro believing he had won the fight, jubilantly threw his hands into the air. As a lengthy delay in the gathering of the scorecards ensued, an eerie silence fell upon the crowd, and doubt raced across the face of Navarro. The cards were finally tallied, and as the scores were read, the once pro-Gainer crowd booed vehemently! Unbelievably the judges scored the fight 96-94 and 96-92 for Gainer, and 98-94 for Navarro, giving Gainer the hometown cooked split decision victory. Deservedly so, boos directed at the horrific judging continued to resound throughout the arena, and Carlos Navarro could only slump into his corner in utter disgust and disbelief. The13thround.com scored the fight in favor of Navarro, 98-94.





In Super Middleweight action Ron Johnson (9-1) pummeled Aaron Norwood (22-9-2) winning via an impressive third-round knockout.