In my opinion, the most gifted boxer on film. Awkwardly charismatic but still we paid attention to what he had to say. The first thought that come to mind is the lack of a marquee opponent. That defining fight. He had some excellent wins but they weren't household names. But still, Tyson was a phenomenon way before he got to Spinx or Holmes. Second, ODLH's popularity may have took away from Jones's shine. What are some other reasons?
He was mad. Just too strange. "This is for everybody in the chicken business!" Worth remembering, he was an abused child, basically.
He wasn’t media friendly. Most of his fights weren’t competitive. He had no major rival in his prime. There were many other very good-great fighters in his era. There were more popular fighters in his era. In today’s social media era, he’d have been a superstar, irrespective of his opponents. His knockout of Glen Kelly would have been seen and celebrated around the world. The casuals would have gone crazy for him.
How do you have a career when he did and miss Benn. Eubank. Michelewsliski. McClellan. Collins. Calzage. Etc. Any heavyweight in the 90s. Any in 2000s but the bum Ruiz, who Toney beat even easier after leaving a 4 hr binge at Golden Corral
Reluctance. He wasn’t called ‘Reluctant’ Roy by his own tv network for no reason. He wasn’t interested in fighting the best he was interested in the least risk for the highest reward. People forget his ratings on HBO were abysmal for the entire 90’s and into the early 2000’s.
But he was so dominant in his prime though. Who was he scared to fight? I hear him talk recently about the past and his pursuit for the king of the hill and it sounds very believable. He's no coward.
Various circumstances like anything else. Eubank is on record stating that he was only content to defend his WBO belt in Europe, and that fighting Roy in his prime was suicide. Calzaghe wouldn’t go near him, as he followed Eubank’s path by defending a lightly regarded WBO for 10 years against mostly lower level opposition. Benn and Gerald were King’s fighters, King always wanted options, and Gerald’s last tragic fight with Benn was in 1995. Dariusz M milked his WBO belt in Germany and wouldn’t fight in the U.S. Hopkins demanded $10m or no fight for a 168 pound C-W in 2002, when his highest purse at that time had been less than $3m.
You’ve been saying the same BS for years. How convenient that you ignore HBO when they publicly supported Roy. Kerry Davis is on record stating that they did everything possible to secure a fight with Dariusz. Mark Taffet is on record stating that they did everything possible to secure the Hopkins rematch. You ridicule him for fighting Ruiz, saying that he was garbage etc, yet you’re too dumb to realise that the reason he fought Ruiz, is because he couldn’t fight the likes of Dariusz and Hopkins.
I lived through those times. The guy literally tried to get his coworkers at HBO to not mention his biggest threats by name on air.
All good shouts, and part of it too I think is simply that for the most part boxing was just back-burnered in the public consciousness. Sure, there was DLH, and he was big ( again, for many of the reasons Roy was not), but even Oscar's popularity didn't compare to superstars of other eras.
I lived through those times too. The Dariusz stuff drove him mad. He got sick of hearing about it. Dariusz made noise through the media, yet his promoter wouldn’t even set up a meeting with HBO. The reluctant tag was all BS. Hopkins and Calzaghe would not fight him until they knew he was shot. A reluctant guy wouldn’t have fought ANY HW and then dropped back for Tarver. A reluctant guy wouldn’t have rematched Tarver.
I think Roy's career after Ruiz shows he is not afraid to fight any man. I'm still trying to figure out how he dropped off so fast.
He wasn’t that exciting In the ring once he moved up to light heavy. His punch wasn’t the same. Outside the ring he was never that exciting. May weather was boring in the ring but a brilliant promoter outside of it. Tyson was a whole other animal, raw charisma ko power.
