His slap boxing and ducking wouldn't fly here. His career was greatly boosted fighting in a region without true stars. We had Roy and Oscar during his "reign."
a true WBO legend biggest wins were against 2 former hall of famers in their 40s coming off losses go super joe!!
He really should have pushed himself more, or if he didn't want to, at least he could have been honest like Eubank was.
This seems a bit unfair Jeff, he didn't seek out the tough fights, but he did fight Kessler and Hopkins back to back, so you can't say he didn't take any tough fights How was either guy coming off a loss? atsch Do you understand what coming off a loss means?
no of course not, then he smashed jeff lacy and they changed their tune to "oh lacy was never good" typical favouritism and detraction. calzaghe was the real deal
Ok. He took a tough fight in Kessler, then cashed out. I've never discredited he quality win against Kessler. Nor do I blame him for cashing out against faded legends. It made a ton of financial sense, just didn't do anything for his legacy, IMO. (For the record, Hopkins or RJJ beating a faded Joe Cal wouldn't have meant much to me either.)
Hopkins wasn't a tough fight? Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of fair criticisms to be made at Joe, and that's his own fault, but beating Hopkins in America deserves credit. I guess we can agree to disagree on this one
ay i favour roy heavily pre-ruiz fight. joe is a warrior and will slug it out when it calls, but when roy was on, his movement and countering ability would be too much. the thing for me is would joe keep coming or would he re-sign like all the other top contenders did once they felt jones speed and power and just fight to survive? if he kept coming, he'd be stopped
Great post, thanks for the reply. That's very good reasoning. That's why I've always predicted a TKO for Roy. Styles make fights, and the mentality of the fighter makes a huge difference in the outcome. I've had so many people say to me "Why do you think Roy would stop him, when Roy went the distance with a few fighters, guys that weren't on Joe's level?" I think Joe would have been lured into a macho tear up in the middle of the ring. I could envisage both men taunting each other etc. I personally have a hard time believing that Joe would have fought a peak Roy, but if he had've done, I think Roy would have dropped him a few times. I don't think Roy would have knocked him out, but I think the ref would have intervened. I think a 2000-2002 version of Roy would have won a competitive fight on points.
agree mate. I think there is a good reason joe never tested 175 waters until it was clear Hopkins and jones were on the serious decline. joe has mentioned it a few times and he never did fight any of the good young guys at 175 sadly. not even some of the good old guys like tarver or johnson. jones never got the KO a lot of the time because his fighters were scared to fight him back. even naseem hamed had some decision wins where fighters just fight to survive
People only wanna claim bernard was shot when talking about the fight with joe lol. He got slapped around, confused an hurt with a bodyshot