I agree about Chris, Darius and Joe. Weak WBO titles and fought at home. If you're gonna call out Jones for not facing the best available comp. it is hypocritical not to call out those three.
Jones was such an athletic freak in his prime. I believe Liles was offered 7 figures to fight Jones in 96 (i havent watched it in a while but HBO mentions this in the weird pre fight ring interview wIth Jones prior to his win over Brannon). I thought Collins was seriously considering a Jones fight but retired from an injury? Benn was never the same after McClellan in 95. Calzaghe was winning but his competition was rather lacking at the time and Jones was already at light heavy (or just moved there). No way Jones was going to Germany to fight Dariusz and as others have mentioned his managerial team werent eager to negotiate. I think if Trinidad got past Hopkins we probably would of seen Trinidad-Jones at 168 in 2002. But obviously that didnt happen until much later after both were past their best. Jones had another all time great nemesis in Toney who was i think 50-0-2 when they met. Jones easily beat him and everytime Toney got close to maybe getting a rematch he would drop a decision to Montell Griffin.
As far as the UK goes...its simple....he never fought on free to air (FTA) terrestrial tv (itv/bbc) in the 1990s.....hagler/hearns/srl/duran had all their fights shown on FTA tv in the 1980s.......if Jones had he would have been a big sports star here too. Ironically when he did fight on bbc2 thrice at age 35/36 in 2003- 2004.....it was on a afternoon...and he looked awful being kayoed twice....and by that time boxings s mainstream appeal was greatly reduced from the 1980s early 1990s heydey
No one below 175 would have been competitive with Jones maybe other than a more in shape James Toney than what turned up for their fight at 168. He was flat out too good to be in an entertaining fight for a solid 8 years
I find it interesting how so many write off Ruiz as terrible when he was a decent fighter .. maybe an unattractive tile style but he was a tough guy and beat a lot of tough guys .. three fights w an older but still tough Evander .. beat Rachman, Golata, Johnson, McCline .. he gets a rw deal ..
Yeah. It was his horrible, ugly style. I didn’t like watching him myself. He was a world class HW though, even if he wasn’t elite. Like I’ve said earlier in the thread, Ruiz was a threat to Roy. Any 230 pound world class HW is a threat to an ageing former MW. Roy would have gotten more credit had the fight have contained some drama.
Jones wouldn`t have been a big star on free TV in the UK because he didn`t have the right kind of opponents, the fab four had each other to fight, if Jones had fought Eubank or Benn on free TV in Britain those fights would have got huge ratings, Eubank v Benn 2 drew in an audience of 15 million when it was shown on ITV in Britain.
I think the problem could be that the fab 4 got over the I am undefeated issue. Roy had that awhile, and when guys have that they want to protect that for some reason- look at Floyd. Being undefeated is their calling card. Hearns and Duran and Hagler all had losses by the time they were superstars pretty much,, well Hearns after Ray so another loss was not too important. They wanted the legacy then. Sometimes undefeated records tend to make the fighter protective of it.
You do get annoying with these dunce posts all the time you answered youre own post If Jones had been fighting on free tv in the uk his opponents like toney would have become the right opponents because the fight wouldve been built up and mixed into the UK MW/SM era of the time..Jones and toney or hopkins would have had easy pickings demolishing the other do called fab 4. Why were for the greater part also ran 2nd rate brits a "fab four" ?? due to the local market exposure and tv conditions...and easier circuit....jones would have flourished on the easier pickings and had good paydays here.As it was he preferred to fight the best in america...by the time a benn fight could have done big things..benn went and lost...eubanks never wanted to fight jones and collins no matter how much he barks was a 2nd rate also ran not an elite
Yeah, I hear you. But Roy lost that against Griffin, and it's on record that HBO, along with Roy's advisors, tried to close out Roy's HBO contract at the time by trying to secure huge fights against Dariusz and Hopkins. They saw them as legacy fights. Career defining fights in the final chapter of his career. Now you can say that Roy should have gone to Germany for Dariusz etc, but it's a fact that Dariusz' team would not meet face to face with HBO and Roy's advisors, either in Germany or the U.S. in order to discuss a fight. That is on record. It's factual information. So that fight not happening was nothing to do with Roy being reluctant and wanting too much money etc. The fight couldn't happen, because they couldn't get them to the negotiating table to discuss anything. And to me, that is clear proof that they didn't want the fight. There were no venues, purses or dates which were ever discussed. Regarding Hopkins, again, HBO reached out, but he demanded a ridiculous a purse, before having a year out, before them coming back and issuing challenges out to all of the JMW champs. Again, I fully respect what you are saying. But Dariusz and Hopkins did not want to fight Roy back then. You are trying to look at things from Roy's perspective, but you're not looking at things from the perspective of his opponents. I always say that actions speak louder than words. If you go and look at what Hopkins and Dariusz did just after failed negotiations, and then you go and look at what Roy did, you will see who was serious and who wasn't. It paints a very clear picture. Roy went on to fight Ruiz and then Tarver twice, whereas Hopkins and Dariusz went on to fight lower level opposition. To me, fighting Ruiz and Tarver is proof that Roy was serious about fighting Dariusz and Hopkins. And if HBO hadn't have also thought that he was serious, they'd never have tried to have made the fights. It's just a complete myth that Roy trod the path of lease resistance. A guy who did that would not have fought ANY top 10 HW, or burnt muscle in order to have dropped back to LHW to fight a big, dangerous southpaw. It's illogical. There were only a handful of guys who truly wanted to fight Roy when he was prime.
I try to keep things In perspective, and at least somewhat respectful, since I never stepped into a ring, and I can’t really put myself into their (different boxers) place without knowing just how their psyche affected their outlook...that being said, it’s hard for me to have much sympathy for Roy, when I keep hearing how he was affected, deeply, by what happened to Gerald McClellan, so he sat back picking and choosing who to fight. So, Roy was afraid he’d end up like McClellan. OK. So it’d seem that Roy was just fine with whatever his inferior opponents had to deal with after Roy clubbed them into near-unconsciousness (ACTUAL unconsciousness, sometimes). so Roy didn’t want to take the chance on HIMSELF potentially dying or sustaining permanent injury - Which is really the name of the game in competitive boxing - but he didn’t care if whomever he faced in the ring shouldn’t really have been in the ring with him, ability-wise. I suppose that Roy figured, That was THEIR problem...
