Why is Roy Jones Jr chin considered so terrible?

He was only terrible when he was shot, the move back down in weight after the Ruiz fight ruined him for some reason, before that his chin was rock solid

 

Had Roy retired at the same age which Carlos Monzon retired he would be in the GOAT conversation.

 

Everyone gets KOed if they fight on long enough .People were convinced that alverez would ko 40 year old ggg in their 3rd fight but ggg only survived cos Alverez is past his best too an like Pacquiao in his latter days of his career can’t ko anyone anymore

 

I don't think anybody questions his chin per se,

but are merely pointing out, had he had to engage in the greats of the past he would have met a good few Tarvers along the way and sooner.

that's not saying he had a bad chin at all.

 

For many years Roy Jones was not even getting HIT he was in compubox terms the most untouchable boxer that ever lived. Nobody really talks about that. Nobody could hit him. For a while no one could lay glove on this guy, much less any kind of flush meaningful punch.

For a stretch Roy's chin was ironclad, if you couldn't so much as glance it.

 

His chin is below average

 

His chin is not good. He ran off reflexes and the fear his opponents had of getting popped in the schnozz at light speed. Once people started landing on him it became apparent that he could be hurt.

 

Agreed, not a glass jaw but definitely not world class. He relied on his reflexes too much the whole no jab thing etc Relying on reflexes worked for Ali to a point but he had a great chin. Not so with Jones. I saw him get flattened in person against Glenn Johnson not a big puncher.

 

I completely agree. I don't think his chin was granite, but it was perfectly acceptable during his prime. It's become a bit of an obvious - and tiresome - argument against him, lacking in nuance in my opinion. People forget that he was a near 50 fight veteran when he was eventually stopped, and 34 ... old for a speed and reflexes based fighter. There was no evidence of a bad chin prior to that. The fact he was then KO'd multiple times BEYOND 34 shows you there is a clear difference before getting older, and a clear difference after. I read, multiple times, that he was still 'in his prime' or just past his prime when knocked out by Danny Green - this is ludicrous. It's clear he was finished as a top force after the Johnson KO in 2004.
I think it's perfectly reasonable to hold a position that his chin wasn't amazing all along, or that he might have been caught against a historic murderer's row. But to just dismiss him as 'chinny' all along IMO shows a lack of nuance and appreciation of what he was before he went on for too long ,,, as many do, of course

 

When a fighter slows down a little we learn how tough, (or not so) he is.
Jones Jr had ATG talent, and against the fighters he faced he consistently demonstrated it.
But none of them, outside of an old Mike McCallum or lazy version of James Toney could actually be considered "great" . ( Yes that does include Hopkins, who's very overrated in my opinion)
Jones Jr beat who he was supposed to beat.
But when he slowed a little he lost to some very average competition. And I mean devastating losses, losses in a manner that can't be explained by a fighter who just lost a step or two.
It suggests those weaknesses were always their.
Just hidden by Jones Jr's almost supernatural prime abilities.
It makes me wonder how he would've done against a patient and calculating Monzon, a rampaging Hagler, or a fighter that would've matched him in natural ability, but much tougher Robinson.
Or even a fighter like D.Tiger, that would always be in his grill, chopping at him him until he got him , especially over 15rds
Jones Jr. Unlike Ali proved to be very fragile without his super human prime abilities.
That must be taken into account when judging him.

 

Bingo. It's the one grey area for those that want to attack, to attack.

He would have whooped Tarver a year or two earlier. Instead Tarver is the anti Jones messiah.

 

Jones barely took any damage throughout his career. We can hardly say his chin was good or that it severely deteriorated when he almost never got hit flush by heavy punches to begin with.

 

I’ve brought this up before elsewhere, but I’ll never figure out how people connect ‘great chin’ with ‘toughness.’

If the punches aren’t hurting a fighter with a great chin (Chuvalo, Cobb, LaMotta, Laporte, whomever you’d like to put in that category), are they really tougher than others who aren’t blessed with great chins? Why would we think so? If the punches aren’t doing damage, there’s no reason to think the guy taking them is doing something exceptional by still standing and taking more of them.

I think Joe Frazier was tougher than a $2 steak. He did not have an ATG chin. But Foreman kept putting him down and couldn’t keep him down, and he kept coming hard every time he got up, knowing what kind of wrecking ball he was facing … to me, THAT is toughness.

Ali is a great example of a fighter with an ATG chin AND toughness. But not because his chin didn’t betray him — he stood up to incredible body punishment just as well, as the Frazier and Foreman fights demonstrated.

Durability =/= toughness imo.

I think Roy was plenty tough. I think he had a good set of whiskers but not an ATG set of whiskers, fwiw. I didn’t see any dog in him after his supernatural physical abilities began to diminish.

Roy Jr definitely fought on WAY too long for reasons only he understands. One would think it wasn’t money. But so did SRR. So did Ezzard Charles. I don’t judge them by the end of their careers.