He was like a human grenade against Vinny Paz. For me it’s that or Toney….I thought he was at his very best at 168.
Jones had a very long prime and the peak of that prime may well have been the eight fight run from May 1994 through November 1996 when he lost three of fifty one rounds while beating Toney, Pazienza, McCallum, Sosa and others.
TBH it's hard to pin down there's so many stand out performances vs Tate, Malinga, Hall, Griffin 2, Hill, Toney, etc. I would say though the 2nd Griffin fight was probably his best, for the simple reason is that Jones was actually mad in this fight. He came in with something to prove and it really looked like he wanted to hurt his opponent. Even Jones said in interview after he could've killed him accidentally that was his mind set. At times Jones often played to the crowd and toyed with his opponents, but in this fight he really did have the eye of the tiger.
Yeah and Tate had recently gone 12 rounds with Julian Jackson in very good fight, and no one else destroyed Tate like Jones did. It really puts that win into perspective how impressive it was.
94 to 98. After that he stopped stopping guys, about 01/02 he started getting tagged more, getting hit and staying in the corner and on the ropes more.
From Malinga through to Hill he had only one or two fights where he looked human, so I'd say during that period.
Prob like 1995-1998, and I like Griffin 2/Hill as the peak. By the Clinton Woods fight I thought he was not quite "the same RJJ" but still great.