George "Tire Iron" Jones vs Oleksandr Usyk

What has Tire iron done exactly to show you he can beat Usyk? A win over???

 

Let me try a different angle. Is it who he beat or how he performed?

 

George "Tire Iron" Jones

* Knocked Ali down in the amateurs, and won a decision. Forever afterward, Jones fans insisted that Ali avoided Jones in the pros. Ali later reflected in his autobiography that "Tire Iron" Jones hit him harder than anybody else, shook Ali's long-suffering African kinfolk, etc.

* Jones was arrested multiple times for assault. Convicted at least once. Rumored to have ties to organized crime, leg breaking and such. Continued boxing in prison. Turned pro upon release in 1960.

* Had a very scary looking expression. Everyone complimented his staredown.

* Amassed an enormous record a la Cleveland Williams or Young Stribling in a fringe circuit against no-hope opponents. Reached a record of 107-1-1 (90) during this period. His only loss came on a day when he'd been hit by a pool cue in a bar brawl the night before, so it doesn't count. The draw, which came in his 72nd fight against nobody in particular, was avenged by knockout, so it also doesn't count.

* Zero film from this early period survives. All we have is the bare record, plus gushing accounts from the local press about their hometown hero. By the law of averages, some of Jones's underqualified opponents suffer freak injuries (knockdowns from jabs, teeth sheared off at the gums due to a poor mouth guard, broken blood vessels in their arms) that the local newspapermen eagerly report, and/or make up out of whole cloth.

* Fast, hard left hook. Absolutely beautiful on film. See below.

* Jones reportedly trains like a fanatic. Reporters breathlessly recount implausible mileages, but to be fair, Jones actually is a fitness nut.

* Marciano said that Jones would be the next heavyweight champion after watching him ringside.

* Jones sparred with Sonny Liston in preparation for Sonny's first Ali bout, and knocked Liston down. In late 1964, Liston would reflect, "Nobody hit me like Jones. Not even Cleveland Williams. That young man is going to be heavyweight champion. His left hook felt like getting hit by a tire iron." The nickname 'Tire Iron' sticks to Jones thereafter.

* Jones is finally ranked in the Ring top 10 in 1965.

* He beats Doug Jones by split decision. But George's mom died that week, so that totally explains why he didn't do better. Only two rounds from a pirated home movie of this fight -- most likely the 7th and 12th, George's best rounds -- survive. His YouTube admirers have created intricate breakdowns of these rounds to demonstrate George's skill. On the basis of the two surviving rounds, most of George's fans agree with the reporters from George's hometown, who claim that George won by a wide margin, and that the scorecards were crooked. The SD win is reinterpreted as a dominant win over a master boxer who gave Ali fits.

* Jones KO's Brian London in two rounds. This is the only fight that gets officially filmed. It is absolutely brutal. London goes down multiple times, only to get finished off against the ropes like Machen got pummeled by Ingo. This film is in high quality color. And to be fair, the film makes Jones look like an absolute nightmare for anybody to face. He's 225 pounds of muscle, like a cross between Norton, Weaver, and Jumbo Cummings. Fast, powerful left hook. And he actually looks his billed height of 6'4", towering over London.

* Jones is slated to fight Ali by late 1966, but the fight gets delayed. Rumors from the Ali camp say that Ali is worried about the fight.

* Ali is stripped of his boxing license, and begins the long court battle to get it back.

* Jones is incarcerated for homicide in Colorado shortly thereafter, and serves a twenty year sentence.

* Ron Lyle spars with Jones when the two are in the Colorado State penitentiary. Lyle is still an amateur. Lyle later says that Jones was a better puncher than Foreman, and thought that an Ali/Jones fight would have been too close to call.

* Boxing fans wonder what might have been...

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What defines a SHW? Usyk is 6ft3 and has never been 200lbs in his pro career. Not once. reality is Jones is whopping one inch taller and about 10lbs heavier. You base his chances on that? I remember when the "Blown up cruiser" spanked the second best HW around who happened to be about 20lbs heavier then Tire Iron and just as ripped...

 

What do abs have to do with anything? You realize London, was London, what did he do to impress you enough that a thrashing by a capable fighter for you is a feat? Doug Jones, I did read what he had to say about Tire Iron. "He thumbed me bad in the third and I still nearly taught him something, That knockdown in the fourth was a slip but when you're in the other kids sand pit..."

 

Tell me what is his best win in those 100 fights?

Besides London and Jones whom Old Wlady the one AJ snapped would devour in under 3 rounds.

The honest way, nothing honest about a man who went to prison for homicide.

 

CLEAR? What ****ing film? You realize we have two? rounds, Newspaper man especially ones in his HOMETOWN have agendas they fill pages, the average fan isn't capable of scoring beyond a rudimentary capacity, yet you trust disinterested cheerleader writers? The 30 second clip of his blow out against "Mr Big Wheels" another fraud, it was reported as a bloody pasting, an axe murder spree then along came the film and it was an overprotective ref stoppage. plain as day, as Dempsey said "The writers made me great" remember all the talk of Wills "Light-weight speed" then came the film of the Firpo fight... same deal, nonsense.