What percentage chance would you give Tarver vs peak RJJ?

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Peak Tarver v peak Jones...? Not a great deal. I think he might lose a few stylistic problems but a clear UD for Jones.

 

Jones already won while not at his peak.

 

I'd give Tarver absolutely no chance vs. the Reggie Johnson version of Roy..................like literally no chance at all.

 

Yeah, I always felt like Tarver was a bit of an overachiever.

I believe he was a great amateur, but he was never outstanding to me as a pro.

 

RJJ never met many fighters who had genuine KO power and Tarver always had the power in that left hand to turn out RJJ's lights.

And whilst RJJ did excell vs Johnson who was a Southpaw he also showed some other vulnerabilities vs other Southpaws like Del Valle who floored RJJ and noticeably buzzed him. RJJ also didn't look that good vs Harding either.

I believe RJJ is pretty much unbeatable at Super Middleweight but at Light Heavyweight I think hes more beatable despite still being very good at the weight.

As for the thread I'd obviously make a prime RJJ a considerable favourite over Tarver. But Tarver always poses a tough stylistic match up and KO power to make him a dangerous opponent. Hes a Southpaw counter puncher so when RJJ leads with right hands or leaps in like he often did he leaves himself vulnerable to Tarver's counter punches.

Tarver vs a prime RJJ is 70/30 in RJJ's favour.

 

Agreed.

I view the RJJ-Tarver rivalry in a similar context as Pep-Saddler. The fact that the past-peak fighter was able to scrape out one win (amidst multiple decisive losses) proves that he was always capable of beating his rival, but the fact that the other fighter was able to bomb him out so easily at that time proves that he would still be a threat to him even on his best day.

 

What people often don't talk about either is that RJJ actually looked better vs Tarver in their 2nd fight until the KO happened.

That brutal KO seemed to wreck RJJ's confidence and his punch resistance was never the same again.

As I said earlier how many fighters did RJJ meet in his prime who had genuine KO power like Tarver ?

 

I was wonderin' the same lately op.
Watched RJJ-Del Valle and idk man, I think Roy might UD Tarver the first fight but the outcome of their 2nd rematch would be the same with Tarver capitalizing on the blueprint Del Valle laid out.

 

Not against prime Jones I dont

 

.791

 

I'd give the best version of Tarver roughly a 5% chance of beating the best LHW version of RJJ.

 

33% of the time, although there’s little proof that he wasn’t at peak for the rematch.