Was RJJ at 168lbs the most unbeatable fighter ever?

Yeah, but there were no negotiations then.

Roy’s team were trying to negotiate with King for fights against Benn and Liles, and Collins wanted to fight Eubank again in Ireland.

 

Look at Roy's wrists. He wasn't a big guy. He moved up to super middle knowing Gerald was out growing middle massively and that Eubank, Benn and Toney were already there. I think he went to light heavy for the **** of it. He was never a light heavy, but his speed despite aging remained as pronounced against the bigger guys

Let's not forget he was fighting at 139lb still when he turned 18 years old.

 

I don’t care how big Collins was.

He was nothing special.

You saw that in the Eubank fights.

You are the biggest Eubank fan on the forum. You know everything about the man. You know that he was never the same after the Watson tragedy. You’ve said yourself that he lost to Schommer. You’ve said yourself that he should have beaten Collins in the first fight. You also know that Eubank thinks that Collins was limited but he was beaten on heart and grit.

I like Collins. He was a warrior with a great chin. But he wasn’t easily beating even a 39 year old Mike McCallum. McCallum was far too savvy even at that stage to get beaten easily by someone as technically limited as Collins. Go and watch his fights with Roy and Toney.

What do you mean McCallum could still have made 154?

Again, Collins wasn’t a great fighter.

Eubank had him down.

He looked sloppy against Seillier until the stoppage.

His claim to fame was wins over Eubank and a shot Benn.

Hill was faded, but still better than Collins.

Griffin was also better than Collins.

I can’t envisage Collins beating even an undisciplined version of Toney at LHW.

How can it have been a cop out by Roy?

He tried to fight Liles.

Collins had got a rematch with Benn lined up.

Roy then went and fought McCallum, Griffin and Hill.

Roy didn’t fear Steve Collins.

 

Okay. But Roy didn’t weigh 168 and hadn’t officially moved up from MW, hence his title win and defence at MW in the 2 years which followed.

Roy struggled like hell to make MW and rehydrated by a big amount.

 

He went to LHW for a fresh challenge when he couldn’t get the fights he wanted at SMW.

He could have remained at SMW defending his IBF belt against whoever would fight him. He could have done what Hopkins did at MW. But he showed ambition by moving up to his 3rd weight class, where he fought good opponents.

 

Eubank took fights elsewhere didn't opt for a rematch.
Benn was still recovering from the McClellan situation.

Steve Collins called out RJJ whilst still in the ring after the Eubank fight.

 

I'd love to see the Eubank who fought Wharton in with Jones.

Henry didn't freeze like he did against Benn, yet Eubanks jab is so fast and so accurate that his eye is closed from them in less than two rounds - this is unheard of. A 19 punch combination landed at the start of the eighth round, again unheard of that late in a fight or that early in a round. A 69% success rate in a super competitive 12 round super middle world title fight at the pace of welters/light welters - unheard of.

Whenever Wharton stood off for a second, Eubank would leap in with a perfect combination, rocking his head about.

I believe a lot of that performance was down to the BBBoC monitoring his weight for weeks leading into the fight, not allowing him to cram all the weight loss into the last few days (after being horrified at his skin having turned grey at the weigh-in in Sun City) which was his usual routine.

THAT Eubank beats Calzaghe and Toney at the weight, at their best. He was that good that night.

 

Fighters call out each other all the time.

The Levin’s were trying to reach a compromise with King, and Roy ended up fighting Paz.

Collins wanted a rematch in with Eubank in Ireland again.

The Levin’s and Collin’s team never sat down face to face until 1999.

 

PS Let's not forget Collins had that amateur win over European champion Zoltan Fusezy at 178.

 

The weak chin was always there. RJJ was way too quick when he was younger
for anybody to get to it. But he avoided a few guys that might have though that
would still have been arguable at the time. Still the right punch at the right moment.
Who knows.

 

McCallum was not a light heavy, he moved there at age 38 with a fat gut because he saw Jeff Harding as a simple victory. Collins, less drained at 175 and in his prime bulls him all over the ring - it's not even fair!

 

This wasn't ****ing Tiozzo! This was a monster, a marauding warrior, a world-beater.

 

Eubank clearly lost to Schommer, yes. That was a weight-making thing, and the fact he was trying to lose his usual 11lb over two days rather than three days and SIX THOUSAND FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL - ask sparring partner Ray Webb how badly Eubank struggled, doing calisthenics and hindu squats by the poolside, putting an ice cube in his mouth and spitting it out when he could actually catch his breath with the air being so thin. Some people didn't recognise him at the weigh-in.

Yes he was robbed at Millstreet. He maintains that to this day. That was a cagey chess match.

In the Collins-Eubank II fight though at Cork Stadium in front of 30K, Collins wins 10 out of 12 rounds with a completely different style - charge at angles and never stop punching. Eubank was in the best shape of his career according to himself to this day and Ronnie Davies at the time, and was willing to take Collins' life this time!

This Collins was a mammoth. Huge. Concrete. Barbarian-like. Heck, Nigel Benn was a boy in his hands! Yet he still had that sneaky short counter overarm right hand in his arsenal. The shot he floored the guy Cummings with was the most perfect of right hands, with the one exception of a certain Chris Eubank's chilling 30sec right hand KO of Barratuebena in his warm-up for Collins II.

 

Jesus Christ, people do not like Roy Jones.

Anyone who thinks he 'ducked' someone at the time, ask yourself this: "would a man who is willing to give 30lbs away to a current Heavyweight champion, and then work off that weight, to fight another HOFer, really be scared of a Steve Collins of Michalczewski?" Yeah, I didn't think so either.

 

That's a fun watch. The arena was electric that night, it was a special treat when RJJ fought in Pensacola what a hometown advantage. All those towels waiving. We just don't see rowdy crowds like that anymore.

RJJ's fight style was really something. He would come out all cool and calculated in his stance wouldn't throw a punch, he would wait until his opponent would try to land something, then he would counter and pounce. With Byrd he waited until Byrd stepped in with that jab then with precision landed that counter left hook. Starting with that counter left hook, like lightning RJJ was all over him. Next thing you knew Byrd was down. It was crazy how quickly a RJJ fight could change in a moment. One moment you're in a chess match then boom RJJ's all over you before you even knew what hit you. I especially loved the finish to this one. After the 2nd knockdown Byrd gets up, Roy comes out then switches to southpaw and throws that big lead left hook from the southpaw stance. See 11:34 in the video they show it from another angle. Just an unbelievable punch right there from RJJ, and then the follow up left hand it was all over.