How does a fighter win over Roy Jones Jr? Using the same walkout song he once did certainly helps.
Released in 2004, ‘Can’t Be Touched’ was performed by the former pound-for-pound number one himself, its lyrics reflecting the superiority Jones held over opponents throughout the 1990s.
The track arrived, however, in the same year Jones lost his light-heavyweight titles to Antonio Tarver, a defeat that signalled the beginning of the end for one of boxing’s all-time greats.
Jones’ ringwalk anthem has enjoyed a recent revival thanks to British heavyweight Fabio Wardley, who uses the song as a homage to Jones. The lyric “can’t be stopped” is particularly apt. The 31-year-old remains unbeaten after 21 professional starts and now sits as the WBO heavyweight champion.
Jones was full of praise for Wardley and his October victory over Joseph Parker during an appearance on the Clubhouse Boxing podcast.
“What a performance. What a career. What a dynamic guy. And I like it even more ’cause he always comes out to my song. How can you not cheer for this guy?”
Wardley’s earlier heroics against Justis Huni were Hollywood-esque, but the test against Parker represented a significant step up in class.
The New Zealander was enjoying a strong run of form and was widely viewed as the last remaining credible challenger to heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk. Once again, however, Wardley tore up the script, digging deep to secure an 11th-round stoppage of the former WBO champion.
Jones admitted he had doubts about whether Wardley possessed the tools to pull off such a monumental victory. Yet the Ipswich heavyweight’s raw power and relentless aggression left such an impression that Jones found himself reaching for comparisons with one of the division’s all-time greats.
“I was sort of a Joseph Parker fan because I knew Joseph Parker for so long.
“When you come out to my song how can I be against this guy? I can’t. I just didn’t think he had the ability to outbox Parker, but I knew if he could catch him he could knock him out, and sure enough he took him down the line and he caught him.
“That dude is something different and he’s fun to watch because he’s always capable of landing that knockout punch. He’s, to me, the modern-day George Foreman.”
It’s certainly high praise from Jones, with Foreman viewed as one of the best heavyweights ever. He claimed world honours on two occasions in his career, the second of those triumphs seeing ‘Big George’ become the oldest world heavyweight champion of all time.
