https://www.quora.com/Why-isnt-Roy-Jones-Jr-among-the-top-names--Pound-for-pound-OAT

He was pinned on the ropes against Tarver because he was almost 35 years of age, and he'd dropped back down from HW.

He was absolutely exhausted at the mid way point. If that'd been an old 15 round fight, I don't know if he could have pulled out the win.

How can you ignore his circumstances?

He'd gone through 5 divisions and had fought 50 times at that point.


Who do you think he ducked? Because ducking fighters and missing fighters are 2 very different things.

 

It was a boring fight to a lot of people. But it depends on what you're looking for as a fan.

Their styles were never going to mesh for an exciting fight, where they'd have gone toe to toe.

Both fighters were a bit hesitant, especially Roy. He'd hurt his hand before the fight and his team wanted him to withdraw from the fight. But he refused as he'd waited 4 years for the opportunity.

Hopkins did improve as a fighter later in his career. And the fact that he wouldn't rematch Roy when it mattered, speaks volumes.

 

Jesus. Did he look bad in the Hopkins fight now? The only guy to ever clearly defeat Hop at MW and he looked bad? Is it possible to down vote a Quora post two times?

 

He was one month from turning 35. Can you please stop now?

 

I agree that he got exposed.

He got exposed, in the sense that he now had to face the consequences of his cherry picking!

He was suddenly held accountable, for everything that he didn't do, but might have been able to do!

Looking like a god on film, no longer cut it!

From that point on, he had to prove his pound for pound status, and he was too old to achieve that now!

 

No he didn't.

He was born in January, 1969.

He fought Tarver in November, 2003.

He was 2 months shy of his 35th birthday.

He'd had 49 fights.

He'd fought across 5 divisions, which included going up to HW and back.

He burnt muscle within a short period just to make the weight.

I give Tarver all the credit in the world. He chased the fight and he pushed him hard inside the ring. But Roy was running on fumes for the last 3 rounds.

 

Ok. So let's look at the records of p4p greats such as Greb, Langford, Armstrong, Robinson, Duran, Leonard, Pea, Chavez etc when they were around 34-35. Wonder if we can find something damaging? What do you think?

 

35.

 

Still he wasn't beat for another 12 years. And then only by a razor thin margin. And you call Roy's performance bad? Again, just stop it. And, please, don't bring up Mercado. Just stop it.