GL: I'm just calling you to see how you're doing. I know when someone dominates a sport for so long, you could be getting down after another setback, I just wanted to make sure my dude was all good.

Roy Jones Jr: "I'm good. You see I don't really take that as a set-back. With me being as dominant as I was, they weren't going to let me take no tune up fight no way. I took a year off and didn't take no tune-up. I came back knowing what I had to do, I know I had to come back and fight the best. And I don't mind, and I'm not mad at my performance, I know I could have been a bit more busier, but sometimes when you ain't been in there for a while it takes a little time before you're able to come back and do that."

GL: I think you could have came back against anybody you wanted to.

Roy Jones Jr: "No. They was going to give me a hard time against anybody. Plus, I'm competitive, so I wanted to come back and fight the best. I know I probably should have taken a tune-up, but HBO ain't want nobody else, you know what I'm saying? And that's the closest that I've been to right in a long time. That's what really motivating me is that I'm close to getting back to myself. I felt good with that and I feel like I've got something to build on."

GL: Brother I'm going to keep it real with you, there's no need for you to fight anymore. You're legacy is already intact and you came back against Tarver for redemption. I still think you could beat a lot of fighters out there, but for what? I'm not trying to be disrespectful Roy, but it's kind of like watching Jordan in a Wizards uniform. Did you expect to go in there and be so gun-shy?

Roy Jones Jr: "I wasn't really gunshy. My thing was, I was going to make sure I was going out again. I was going to make sure he didn't catch me with another bullshit stupid ass shit no more. My dad was like don't take no chances and I just stayed back and it made me be more laid back than I should have been, but it was my first time back in the corner with my dad and I was trying to listen to him and see how it went. I know I could have worked more, but I just wanted to do it the way he said to do it because I didn't want to run into nothing crazy or nothing foolish because that may not have been my last fight right there."

GL: In the fourth and fifth round you looked like your old-self. Had you maintained that level of intensity throughout the fight you would have been a lot more successful.

Roy Jones Jr: "Probably. In four and five, that's what made me realize that I'm getting back to form and I got myself something. I was shocked that I was able to get back like that. I ain't felt that good in the ring in a long time."

GL: When you became the heavyweight champion, do you regret not fighting Evander Holyfield instead of coming back down?

Roy Jones Jr: "I didn't want to stay in that weight division because that wasn't my weight division. I don't regret nothing and God lets things happen for a reason. I enjoyed myself, I've enjoyed everything I've been doing, I've enjoyed how my boxing career went. I didn't want money or anything else drive me to stay in that division. I just wanted to win a heavyweight title and that's all."

GL: You told Larry Merchant that you didn't want to go out off of two KO losses and you feel you did better. Obviously no great champions want to go out on a losing note. Can we expect to see you back in the ring in a send off type fight versus something with very little chance of defeating you?

Roy Jones Jr: "I ain't going to do it like that. I'm going to do it against someone that's some sort of challenge to me, I don't want to fight no bums. That's like robbing the people and I wouldn't do that to my fans. I'd fight someone that has a legitimate chance, I don't want to fight no nobody.

GL: To rule at light heavyweight, the man to beat is Tarver. Do you see a fourth fight in your future or will you go another route? "I will definitely fight him again, I ain't going to retire before I fight him again. I can tell you that now."

GL: I was surprised that you weren't throwing punches and trying to dictate the pace.

Roy Jones Jr: "Well that comes from not being in the ring for a year. But it's all good. I don't cry over spilled milk. I feel like I've made progress and I had to re-establish some things. Now that I've done that, I'm good to go."

GL: In the eleventh round he hurt you with a crisp counter right hook...

Roy Jones Jr: (cutting in) "Yep. But I wasn't going nowhere. I knew the uppercut was coming and said to myself, I'm hurt that bad and he hits me with that I should go, but wham he hit me with it and I ain't go nowhere so I started to back at his ass then. To come back and go back in there and have all that confidence like you're the man, only God can give that to you. I am human though and I had to back out there and test myself to see what I had first."

GL: Some people feel that you weren't there to win, you were there to survive. Can you explain to us why you feel that certainly was not the case?

Roy Jones Jr: "That definitely was not the case because if I was in there just to survive I would not have engaged him at all. I would have just moved around and stayed away from and not looked to take the lead for twelve full rounds, but that was not the case. People don't realize what I was up against, what I was coming of off and what I was going through. If I would looked at that fight as all or nothing, I have to win this or I'm through then I would have fought differently. This wasn't an all or nothing fight for me. This was a fight for myself to prove that I ain't through yet, I could go twelve rounds and I could go a good twelve rounds. And ain't nobody going to ever knock me out if I don't want them to touch me. He was thinking he was going to be able to hit me with one big shot quickly and it would be over with, but that wasn't going to happen. My thing was, I was going to fight smart. Of course I don't want to be the one taking all the chances. My corner told me not to take chances, but I took some because I wanted to get him out of there too. I never come to survive, I always come to win. I just didn't want to take a bunch of chances because last time I took all them chances look what happened."

GL: Coming off of two knockout losses was a new experience for you too as well.

Roy Jones Jr: "Exactly, and it's easy for a person to try to look in and talk about it. People could walk around and talk about getting shot all they want, but once you get shot, you start respecting those guns a little bit differently."

GL: Superhuman speed and cat like reflexes have always been your trademark. Do you feel that your reflexes and speed have slowed a bit and if so, is that the reason people are catching up to you now?

Roy Jones Jr: "My speed is back, but my reflexes have slowed a little."

GL: Do you feel like you have to fight more fundamentally sound as a result of that?

Roy Jones Jr: "I fight a litle more settled down now but I wasn't really having that much fun in the ring. Now I'm starting to have fun in the ring."

GL: You always give me something juicy. Last time we spoke we broke the news of your hand injury. Did you really hurt your hand or was that an attempt to get in Tarver's head?

Roy Jones Jr: "Oh no, that was serious."

GL: So when are you looking to get back in the ring?

Roy Jones Jr: "January."

GL: Have you already been in touch with HBO?

Roy Jones Jr: "No not yet."

GL: It's still good to be Jones because you know they're going to give you a date once they know you want to fight.

Roy Jones Jr: (laughs) "They may or they may not, we'll see."

GL: If you acknowledge that Tarver is a stylisitc problem, why would you want to fight him again?

Roy Jones Jr: "Because I know I can overcome that. I know I can overcome that."

GL: Do you believe that you're going to be able to maintain that level of intensity that you showed in rounds four and five against Tarver over ten or twelve rounds?

Roy Jones Jr: "To maintain it for ten or twelve rounds, that what's the whole point is. I know I got something to work with.