[url]http://a.espncdn.com/boxing/columns/graham/1230263.html[/url] Views of fans, from an article dated back to when Roy was in his prime.
Because it takes the right combination of circumstances for a fighter to become a mega star. It happens to only a select few in boxing history.
Roy was seen by the networks as surly and difficult to deal with. Add to that he was mostly fighting in a graveyard division and he struggled to fill the smaller arena of MSG. For all his fabulous talent,he never caught the crossover public's imagination.
Boxing wasnt as popular then as it is now. Pay-Per-View wasnt available to as many people then as PPV is now.
Yep...beat me to it. He's the first boxer I'd ever seen with a Jordan Brand endorsement. He repped it well too.
I'm assuming you're young and wasn't around back then. PPV may not have been as prevalent back then and only for the big fights but PPV was still big back during Jones Jr's prime years. De La Hoya/Trinidad did 1.4 million buys in 99, Tyson/Holyfield 2 did almost 2 million buys. Fact is back during Roy's prime he was in a similar situation to GGG is now. A great talent but lacked the ability to draw at all on PPV. I think it was a number of factors that led to his lack of drawing power. Firstly being self promoted limited his options. HBO were also for a while paying him $5 million a fight which meant he was making very good money without the need to take on bigger risks and bigger names. He didn't need PPV when he was making that kind of money. It takes more than just ability and talent to be a PPV star, Roy seemed to have a lot of the qualities that could of made him a star but for some reason he never did cross over. It wasn't until he took more of a risk and moved up that he did well on PPV. I think he really lacked a big American rival to build interest in him. While he did have plenty of worthy challengers he never fought, they didn't fit the bill being usually overseas fighters who had little marque value in the US. Great rivalries usually result in greater interest from the public and the lack of a rival hurt him.
You've made some great points. The height of Roy's popularity was when when he fought Ruiz and Tarver. There's a few things that prevented him from not being a huge star: I think not tying in to a big promoter hurt him. But anyone who's knowledgeable of his career, knows why he was so determined to make it on his own. He didn't have a great relationship with the media. He felt under appreciated. He couldn't get the biggest fights out there against the likes of Benn, Liles, Dariusz and Hopkins. He never had a rival like Ali-Frazier and the Fab Four etc. The nearest thing for him was Toney and Tarver. He was too good for his own good. He beat good fighters with ease, making them look like nobodies, which meant there was no intrigue or excitement for many fans. There were lot's of other huge stars in boxing during his prime. He didn't do enough to promote himself. He wasn't as outspoken as someone like Floyd, who drew in many fans who specifically paid good money in the hope of seeing him lose. I think if he was currently in his prime in today's age of social media and internet forums, then he'd be the biggest star in the sport. I think there'd be numerous threads made about him every single day. The casuals would have loved his knockout of Glen Kelly, without even caring who Kelly was or how high he was rated. Things like that stick in people's minds, and I think he'd be on the tip of everyone's tongue. As a huge fan of his, the level of disrespect he gets sickens me. There would be nobody today from JMW-CW, who would be favoured over Roy from the early 90's to the early 00's. :good
After James Toney, Jones lacked an equal that we wanted to see him in the ring with. McClellan got injured, Benn and Calzaghe weren't ppv material, no LHW's had a name. He had ppv talent, but lacked ppv comp. Jones also loved his fans more and didn't like the media. He really was determined to do it his way.
As this forum seems to be infested with kids who weren't even born when Jones was fighting yet are "experts" on his career... I can tell you that Jones perhaps wasn't a big as he could have been because superfights were few and far between for him. And Jones was blamed for most of them not happening (rightly or wrongly). He squandered opportunities to fight certain people and then refused to take chances during fights to make them exciting. He only really opened up outclassed opponents.