Rapper Fat Joe was forced to apologise to former boxing champ ROY JONES JR after the fighter took offence to the heavyweight chart star poking fun at his defeats in Ja Rule's anthem NEW YORK.

Joe and Jones Jr faced off recently at a party, when the boxer demanded answers from the rapper - real name JOE CARTAGENA - after the hip-hop star referred to Jones' knock-out losses to ANTONIO TARVER and GLENCOFFE JOHNSON with the line "even Roy Jones was forced to lean back".

Fat Joe says, "I told him, 'I know you can swing on me. You're the champion of the world in boxing. But you're going to leave this club.

"I realised how much I love Roy Jones at that point. I realised like, 'Wow, you really disrespected this man and hurt his pride, and he's a real n**ga for approaching you.'

"Rappers, we use lines and think it makes a hot song, but you have to really account for the s**t you be saying sometimes. You get approached.

"The next day we spoke on the phone. I was like, 'Yo, B, I got mad respect, mad love for you.' I'm a man about this s**t. I know when I'm right, I know when I'm wrong. That was wrong to be disrespecting him like that."

06/04/2005 09:19