Pffff. He fought John Ruiz. The weakest HW champion of the era and a former cruiserweight himself. Hopkins chased Jones for years and Jones consistently priced himself out of the fight. After Hopkins had his mega win against Trinidad in a huge event just after 9/11 in New York City with the eyes of the boxing world on him he asked for parity with Jones who was coming off the Roycott his competition was so bad and Jones refused. Jones went through the deepest SMW division in history and had exactly one marquee fight there. He had zero marquee fights at 160. His resume at 175 reads like a whos who of WHO? He didnt start taking any remotely threatening fights until he could claim he was past his prime when he lost them which he typically did in spectacular fashion. I wont even get into the steroids that allowed him to move up and compete with the bums he built his career on and won all of his paper championships against. Roy Jones was exactly what was wrong with the sport in the 90s and 2000s and Floyd Mayweather took that business model to the next level. Cherry pick, hide from the best, fight them past their prime under favorable conditions. These two did so much harm to the sport and people wonder why Jones never really caught on...
Roy, relax, we all think you were good. It's just........well, you could have been so much more, y'know?
Didn't Roy reach superstardom or megastardom or whatever you wanna call it? Top P4P fighter of the 90s, won a major belt at HW, has booked his seat in Canastota...
I can't agree that he wasn't exciting. He did things that most other fighters couldn't or didn't do. He had plenty of exciting moments at the weight. His knockouts of Hill and Griffin. How he toyed with Reggie and Woods. His destruction of Hall. His knockout of Kelly. His fight with Telesco where they were goading each other etc. The problem was, a lot of people couldn't get excited for the fights, because most of them were perceived as being mismatches. So yes, in that respect, they weren't exciting. But in the actual fights, he did produce many memorable moments.
The idea that he ducked Chris Eubank and Benn, Collins is laughable. Honestly, over here in the UK Eubank and Benn were pretty big stars but the boxing fans who knew a bit were under no illusions that they were on the same level as Roy Jones Jr. They were on the same level as Sugar Boy Malinga.
I'd like to know where on earth you've got this information from regarding Hopkins. Hopkins did not chase Roy for years. That is a bizarre statement to make. You cannot be serious. You've just said that you lived through the era. Hopkins picked up Roy's old MW belt and was happy to fight whoever was put in front of him. He waited 6-7 years for the opportunity to unify, which finally culminated in King's 2001 tournament. After beating Tito in 2001, the following year saw HBO air a double header, where Bernard fought Carl Daniels, and Roy fought Glen Kelly. They then had their famous argument live on air, where Bernard was demanding a 50/50 split of the purse. Roy had already beaten him, and he'd have had to have dropped back down to 168 for a proposed C-W. So he was never getting a 50/50 split. But that was all irrelevant anyway. Because what many people don't know, is that after the dust had settled, HBO met with Hopkins to try and secure the fight. Mark Taffet of HBO, met Hopkins the following month in the hope of reaching a compromise. Taffet offered him a purse of $6m with a future fight on HBO, in a deal where Roy would have made $8m. But Hopkins told Taffet that he wanted $10m or there would be no fight. He never asked for a 50% split like he did live on air. He didn't say that he wanted the same share as Roy. There was no negotiation whatsoever. It was a flat out: "$10m or no fight" at which point Taffet walked away because he knew that he wasn't in any way serious. At the time, Hopkins' biggest purses had been from the fights against Tito and Daniels, which were both under $3m, with his average purses being around $1m. After his meeting with Taffet, Hopkins then took a year out of the ring and Roy went on to sign the fight with Ruiz. Hopkins then fought again in 2003 against Morrade Hakkar, where he was criticised by Larry Merchant after the fight, for challenging out the JMW champs to come up and face him. See below: This content is protected When Hopkins fought Calzaghe in 2008, he admitted that he could have fought at LHW 6 years earlier had he have wanted to, but he didn't, as he didn't want to give up his advantages. After he'd beaten Tito in 2001, he'd accomplished everything he could at the weight. Yet he still remained there for a further 4 years. So what you have claimed his absolutely laughable. He turned down over 2 x his biggest purse, without even negotiating, before challenging out the champs from the division BELOW him. That's how much he chased Roy. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with Roy, until he knew that Roy was finished and was there for the taking. He did the exact thing that Joe Calzaghe did. Regarding SMW, after beating Toney, he couldn't reach a compromise to fight King's fighters. And Liles' manager at the time said that Liles priced himself out of a fight. When he went up to LHW, he fought everyone relevant apart from Dariusz. Regarding Ruiz, again, a reluctant fighter wouldn't fight any HW.
He split with his Dad in 1992. But it's because of his Dad that he was so independent and wouldn't tie in long term with a promoter.
Yeah. It was frustrating. Everyone wanted the fights with Dariusz and Hopkins. Negotiations were happening behind the scenes, but it became evident that neither guy wanted to fight Roy. As above, Hopkins demanded $10m or no fight, and Dariusz' promoter wouldn't meet with Roy's advisors and HBO to discuss any specifics. The fights just weren't there. If he could have gotten the fights with Dariusz, Hopkins and Calzaghe, his resume would have been great.