Roy Jones Jr vs Bryant Brannon

The gate receipts from a world-title programme were pledged to charitable causes, including assistance for Gerald McClellan, when the unbeaten Roy Jones Jr. defended his IBF super-middleweight championship against Bryant Brannon at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on October 4, 1996. The promotion was billed as the “Charity Bash,” with the New York City Police Foundation, the NYPD Self Support Group and the Congress of Racial Equality also among the beneficiaries. A WBA welterweight championship match between Ike Quartey and Oba Carr supported the principal contest.

Jones and Brannon each weighed the super-middleweight limit of 168 pounds. The champion entered with 32 victories, 28 by knockout, and was making the fifth defence of the IBF title he had taken from James Toney in November 1994. Brannon, unbeaten in 16 contests with 10 stoppages, was the organisation’s leading challenger. The difference in experience was considerable. Jones had already defeated Bernard Hopkins, Toney, Vinny Pazienza and Merqui Sosa, while Brannon’s position had been earned without meeting opposition of comparable quality.

Brannon began boldly, rushing across the ring and attempting to hold Jones against the ropes. For more than a minute, he remained the aggressor, throwing freely at the champion’s head and body. Jones covered up, moved his upper body, and let the challenger spend energy without landing cleanly. Near the middle of the round, Jones found the opening he had been waiting for. A left hook checked Brannon’s advance and left him unsteady. Jones followed with quick punches to the head, finishing another attack with a left hook that put Brannon down.

Brannon rose awkwardly but convinced referee Ron Lipton that he could continue. Jones then attacked with greater freedom, landing punches from angles the challenger could not anticipate. His hand speed allowed him to deliver several blows before Brannon could organise a reply. Brannon survived to the bell, but all three judges scored the opening round 10-8 for Jones. The challenger’s aggressive plan had brought him into range without providing an answer to the champion’s counters.

Jones opened the second round more cautiously, watching to see whether Brannon would resume his charge. Brannon again tried to force the champion towards the ropes, but his attacks lacked the accuracy to penetrate Jones’s defence. Shortly after the halfway point, a right hand followed by a left hook dropped him for the second time. The knockdown was recorded at 1 minute 49 seconds. Brannon rose at the count of five, plainly shaken, and Lipton permitted the contest to proceed.

The finish came quickly. Jones drove Brannon into a corner and released a succession of unanswered punches. Brannon attempted to protect himself but could neither move away nor return fire. A final left hook sent him to the floor for the third time, and Lipton stopped the bout without completing another count. The official time was 2 minutes 23 seconds of the second round.

Jones improved his record to 33-0 with 29 victories inside the distance. Brannon had approached the contest with determination, but his forward movement merely supplied Jones with openings, and the result was never in doubt after the first knockdown. It proved to be Jones’s final appearance at the super-middleweight limit. Two months later, he moved to light-heavyweight and outpointed Mike McCallum for the vacant interim WBC championship, beginning the next stage of his career.

I still look at this period of Roy Jones Jr’s career as the lead-up to him becoming, quite comfortably, the greatest boxer on the planet. Watch the footage, and you can see everything developing: the reflexes, the hand speed, the power and, more importantly, the confidence to do things other fighters could not attempt without being punished.

Bryant Brannon was unbeaten and ranked number one by the IBF, but he was not genuinely prepared for this level. His record looked respectable, though it contained nobody remotely comparable to Jones. He tried to solve the problem by charging forward and pinning the champion against the ropes. That was brave, but technically naïve. Jones watched him, blocked most of the attack and then began timing the left hook.

Once Brannon was hurt in the opening round, the difference became uncomfortable. Jones could throw four or five punches while Brannon was still trying to reset after the first. The shots were fast, accurate and carried real weight. Three knockdowns followed before the referee stopped it in the second.

This was Jones before caution became more prominent in his work. He wanted to hurt opponents and finish them. Brannon was not an elite challenger, but very few super-middleweights would have lasted much longer against that version of Jones. What followed at light-heavyweight only confirmed what was already obvious: we were watching an exceptional fighter approaching his peak.