Tarver won the crown in May 2004 with a stunning second-round knockout of the former world champion in four weight classifications. He nearly dropped him again when he hurt Jones with a right hand in the 11th round, but couldn’t finish him off.

Tarver improved to 24-3 in a career that’s taken off in the past three years. Jones dropped to 49-3 and has lost his last three fights — two by knockout.

The fight was the third between the rivals in less than two years — fourth overall if you count an amateur meeting that Jones won in 1982 when they were 13-year-old kids growing up in Florida.

Jones entered hoping to rebound from being knocked out in his previous two fights. Tarver’s right sent him reeling into the ropes, and the champion closed in to try to end the fight but appeared to tire.

Jones escaped from the ropes when Tarver swung wildly and missed, and finished the round even though he was blinking eyes repeatedly, as if he was having difficulty seeing.

The judges scored the fight 117-111, 116-112 and 116-112 in favor of Tarver, who threw 620 punches to Jones’s 320. The champion landed 158, while Jones landed 85 — or about seven per round.

Tarver never felt he received the accolades he deserved after beating Jones in such convincing fashion in the second fight. Many felt he also won the first meeting in November 2003, adding fuel to the boxer’s argument that he wasn’t getting his just due.

The fight drew a sellout crowd of more than 20,000 to the St. Pete Times Forum, even though Jones did little to promote the bout — turning down all requests for interviews during preparation and limiting his appearance at a mandatory prefight news conference to less than 20 seconds.

With his father, Roy, Sr., working his corner for the first time in years, Jones spent most of the first three rounds staying away from Tarver, who ended the second fight with a straight left counter. He gave Jones difficulty in their first matchup by pressing the action and forcing his opponent inside.

Jones went on the offensive in the fourth and fifth rounds, scoring to the body and head. The challenger taunted the champion at times, hitting the bottom of his right shoe and wiggling his hips before launching a flurry of punches in the fifth and sticking his tongue out at Tarver in the sixth.

On the undercard, 2004 Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward remained unbeaten (6-0, 4 KOs) with a first-round knockout of middleweight Glenn LaPlante; heavyweight Brian Minto stopped Vinny Maddalone in the seventh round of their scheduled 10-round bout, and lightweight Nate Campbell beat Almazbek Raiymkulov on a 10th-round TKO.