TalkingBoxing Interviews
Talking Boxing with ALTON MERKERSON
FRI September 30, ROGER GORDILLO - Roy Jones, one of our era's great fighters, battles light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver in what hopes to be a fight of the year, tomorrow night on HBO PPV [9PM, $49.95]. Jones, 49-3, said yesterday at the final press conference that, "My hand's fine. I got no excuses. The only reason I'm here is to kick ass", then promptly left the building. Jones for sure seems motivated for revenge on Tarver, just the way his trainer Alton Merkerson likes his fighters to be.
TalkingBoxing caught up with the man behind the man, who's been with Jones through the years of glory and the recent heart ache. Mr. Merkerson speaks about his co-training with Roy Jones Sr. before his star fighters biggest fight since Jones bested WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz in early 2003.
TalkingBoxing: Hi Alton how’s it going?
Alton Merkerson: Hi Roger.
TalkingBoxing: Who is Roy sparring with in preparation for this fight?
Alton Merkerson: We got a kid by the name of Kippy Warren in camp and we got Derrick Harmon.
TalkingBoxing: Can I get your thoughts on Antonio Tarver as a fighter, what do you think of him?
Alton Merkerson: Tarver is a very solid fighter. He’s a game fighter, has good ring generalship, a big heart and someone to be reckoned with. You know I’m personally not be being biased, I don’t think that he has the boxing qualities Roy had even though he did beat him, but he’s a good solid fighter. It’s going to be a good match and the person that wins will have his thinking cap on and do the right things in the ring and not make any mistakes. Tarver’s a great fighter.
TalkingBoxing: Where do you think Roy stands among the all time greats and what do you say to those critics who claim Roy picked and chose his opponents and they weren’t the best fighters out there?
Alton Merkerson: The fact of the matter is, those people need to mind their own business and get the facts right. It’s not that Roy fought whoever he wanted, it was the fighters that HBO, the governing bodies and that society wanted us to fight. Every time we fought those people we wanted to fight it was like, ‘well that really wasn’t the best guy’.
The people that we didn’t want to fight that they said Roy didn’t want to fight for what ever reason was [Darius] Michalczewski. The deal that he wanted was totally outrageous. You know you’re trying to fight for a man’s title and you want 50/50, you want parity. See it becomes business not just fighting when you get to that level, so people can say what they want to say, but Roy never dodged any fighter. Everybody that they put in front of him that they wanted him to fight, he fought and destroyed.
So in reference to me how I would rate Roy, I would rate Roy with some of the best fighters in the world. He should go down in history after the first of October, but you can’t satisfy and please everybody you just have to do what you think is right for yourself and your fighter. So that stuff they talked about Jesus Christ, some people talk and the things that critics say it doesn’t phase me at all, but when you look in the mirror and say that I didn’t do enough or that I’m not the best fighter in the world or categorized as one of the best fighters in the world, then you got a problem. But you know self evaluation is very important and I think that looking at Roy, he will go down as one of the great fighters out there.
TalkingBoxing: How has it been working with the Roy Jones Sr.? Is the chemistry pretty good and how do you feel about sharing the role in the corner?
Alton Merkerson: It doesn’t bother me. Let me tell you about teamwork, as long as it’s a wining team. whatever satisfies the athlete. And it’s not that I can’t. Let me tell you something, I cannot fight for Roy, his dad can’t fight for Roy, and nobody else can fight for Roy.
All those critics that speak of coach Merkerson don’t say or speak that when Jones was winning for ten years straight, consecutively, with out losing a fight, but you can do a thousand things right and when something happens wrong everybody, has to point the finger. It doesn’t bother me that they do that, but sharing a role with his dad, it doesn’t bother me at all. Roy Jr. called me when he and his dad had a conflict. I came in and did not confront or interfere with training for a total of eleven years. Roy said we’ve made history together.
It’s Roy’s prerogative to at this point to say well me and my dad are back together now, I want to bring him back on board coach Merck and that’s no problem. What ever you want Roy, if you want to bring your dad on, if you want me to leave, that’s your prerogative. But Roy doesn’t want me to leave, he wants me here so it’s no problem for me. I’m going to do what ever he wants me to do to make him be the light heavyweight champion of the world again. I don’t care who’s in charge it doesn’t matter to me.
TalkingBoxing: Has Roy said at all if this will be his last fight or not?
Alton Merkerson: No, he hasn’t.
TalkingBoxing: After Roy retires, will you continue to train other fighters?
Alton Merkerson: You know that’s something I thought about. I’ve been training fighters since 1972 at a very high echelon from post level to army level to working with the Olympic team, to the pros and it’s always that I’ve had guys that were at the top of their game. I had to fight at top level competition all those years, so I’ve been holding my breathe a long time and not being able to let it out.
I think that when Roy announces that he’s going to retire, I think that I’m going to take a break because trainers get stagnated just like boxers do. I’m a self motivator, but if a kid is not motivated, I’m not motivated at all when it comes to training them. You got to want it and you got to really put out for me to be there for you. So to be fair to any other boxer out there, I’m definitely going to have to take a break or the individual will come to me and really give it his all and really want to be a world champion.
TalkingBoxing: Well alright, Alton thank you for your time and I really appreciate it.
Alton Merkerson: OK.. Thank you, Roger.
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