Why is Roy Jones Jr chin considered so terrible?

Of course.

Anybody is going to get hurt if they're taking flush shots from world level LHW's and CW's who have power.

 

I think it's one of the boxing myths.

Roy got hit by a few good punches after which he didn't even flinch. I think Jorge Sosa hit him, he also got hit by a few from Montell Griffin, Eric Lucas, Lou Del Vale caught him at the right moment, generally if Roy had ended his career after the first fight with Tarver it would have been said that he was a complete fighter with a hard chin. Who in 15 years, including over 10 in the world's top, had only one knockdown.

What happened?

Roy wasn't used to hard punches.

Cutting weight can have a bad effect on immunity and usually it does. Wasn't Byrd knocked out when he went to LHW?

Tarver violated it. He caught him at the right moment. Later Glenn Johnson corrected. People remember Jones from those 2 fights, just like they remember Tyson with Lewis and with Holyfield.

 

Something clearly was amiss there.

He'd taken harder shots than that before.

But that was a shot where he was hit on the side of the head, where he was down for a long time.

According to reports, he was severely dehydrated.

And he took the fight way too soon.

It was right after the Tarver loss.

 

The losses can be explained.

He got hit flush, by decent punchers, when he was past his best, up at the higher weight classes.

His weakness was not retiring early, and not changing his style to compensate for his age.

He took shots from Toney, Ruiz and Del Valle. He proved that it wasn't made of glass.

There's nothing to suggest that Monzon would have iced him had he have hit him. And he'd have needed the opportunity. From what I've seen, he was too slow and methodical to have beaten Roy.

How is Hopkins not great?

 

It certainly wasn't considered bad during his prime year's, was put down briefly once.
Once he'd moved up to heavyweight then back,he was noticeably slower, reflexes slowed and age creeps in.
After Ruiz we never saw the best again of superman.

 

In his prime, Jones very rarely got hot flush. It is not possible to assess his chin. Post-prime, he got hit more, and the result was that he got knocked out several times. Unlike Toney or Hopkins who proved to have solid chins at all times.

 

I mean both of those are valid, I don’t want to discredit Roy I like Roy he was a real great and just incredible - pretty sure the plan was a rematch at 175lbs but Griffin got in the way.

 

The Del Valle knockdown happened in his prime. His legs went after the punch. We see enough evidence there to say that he couldn't take flush punches from punchers in his prime.

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He recovered quickly but the way his body goes into shutdown after the punch tells us everything. His chin wasn't good but he was so good that he wasn't getting hit.

This is why I think McClellan could possibly have beaten him. He was an offensive powerhouse and could take everything Julian Jackson had in their first fight and KO'd him (he got brain damage from that fight though). Prime Jones is probably not able to KO McClellan and will have to deal with McClellans offense. Maybe he deals with it comfortably as a pro but McClellan holds an amateur win over him.

 

Gerald had the power to have beaten pretty much anybody. But he was a lesser fighter after he'd left Manny. And of course, it goes without saying, that he'd have needed the opportunity to have landed on Roy.

His best chance would have been in a MW match up.

He'd already slipped at SMW. And if you've ever seen the documentary with him and Benn, you'd have seen that there was something definitely amiss, even before the fight. Like you've noted, it was probably the after effects of the Jackson fight.


Regarding the Del Valle punch, what a lot of people don't realise, is that although it was a great punch, Roy actually slipped on the wet canvas.

The canvas was wet. There was water dripping off of Roy's shorts, where on two separate occasions, the referee had to call for a timeout, where he had to use a towel to wipe the canvas. Roy also momentarily slipped on another occasion.

When Roy took that left hand, he was pushed back where his weight was transferred to his back foot. His right foot. And it slipped suddenly from underneath him, which caused him to fall face first, fast onto his gloves.

The best camera angle to look at, is the overhead one. Just concentrate specifically on his right foot, and you'll see it.

It was a great shot. But if Roy's back foot hadn't have slipped, there's a chance that he may not have gone down at all.

Go and see.

Let me know what you think.

 

Sure, I agree his chin was below average. This was evidenced when he got knocked out several times post prime.

 

He also slipped on the wet canvas.

No joke.

Check out the replays and watch his back foot. (right foot)

 

Was it even below average?

I'm certain that Tarver, Lebedev and Enzo, would have knocked out most other faded, former MW's, had they have landed the exact same shots that they landed on Roy.

It's not like we can look at the Tarver knockout for example, and say that it was a nothing shot, and that most guys could have brushed it off.

To me, Tarver would have knocked out most guys at LHW with that specific shot.

 

This seems like a fair and sensible assessment to me.
His chin was absolutely fine and worked well with his style when he was younger. Jones took perfectly good whacks from the likes of Toney, Hopkins, Tarver and Ruiz. And never seemed really troubled.
Once he aged he got hit more, couldn't defend as well and was taking heavy, clean shots. Where it went wrong really was not retiring earlier - or altering his style to compensate because his chin wasn't granite enough to rely on. We can criticise him for not altering his style but, really, not many do when they got older. He is certainly not alone in that respect.