What went wrong with Roy Jones Jr?

Losing 19lbs worth of muscle. Getting demolished by Tarver. Being 34 and relying on athleticsm?

Take your pick.

 

When you start avoiding the best fighters and continually fight low level guys, you become what you fight.

 

When he drained himself to get back down to 175 his skills eroded rapidly. He no longer to had the speed or reflexes to dodge punches.

 

Too many changes of category in few time.

 

He was 35 when he beat ruiz and looked better than ever...as others say the weight loss from 193.5 lbs to 175...drained him badly...his legs and reflexes seemed to leave him overnight...than when they couldnt protect his chin anymore we found out his chin wasnt great either.....whats even more mind boggling is why a guy who back in 1995 was repeatedly saying he didnt want to fight more than a few years longer and had no great love for competing....a guy so detached from boxing he competed in a basketball match on the afternoon of a title fight...a guy who had a alternative career comentating on hbo....a guy more or less de facto 49-0 ..decided to become a oft beaten ring addict for the next 15 years.........and suffer crushing knockout after knockout,punishing beating after beating from guys like green,macrinelli,johnson ,lebedev ..and a guy like tarver putting 3 defeats on him...calzaghe is a guy who avoided roy for 10 years.......

 

Jones game was his athleticism, and that super human athleticism carried him very far. But Outside of the basics he never learned the "science " of boxing
When his athleticism began to fail him we saw how basic his skills were. He didn't ride punches, his hands were out of position, he didn't block or parry punches, he couldn't adjust to his opponents distance, he couldn't compensate for his loss of his physical superiority.
It could've been his age, it could've been the rapid loss of weight after his victory over Ruiz at heavyweight or a combination of the two, but his fall from greatness to 2and or 3rd rate fighter was shocking. His inability to take a hard shot became plainly evident.
When Ali became human , we found out he truly was a tough man, he could fight through punishment and pain, his will power was off the charts, he indeed was the best combination of athleticism, skill, will, determination, and heart. Jones on the other hand, not so much. It leaves the door open to how he would've responded to fighters who could've truly "pushed him".
Before Hearns fought Leonard Hearns looked unbeatable, his destruction of the tough as nails Cuevas, was scary. Some were giving him the ultimate complement better than R.Robinson. Magazines of the time actually wrote this.

Most thought he would destroy Leonard, Leanard was seen as a media creation. But what Leonard proved was he was tough as nails, and Hearns had weaknesses no other opponent he faced came close to exposing.
All the "Better than R.Robinson " comparisons went out the window for Hearns.
That's how I see Jones's career. But unlike Hearns he never faced that fighter that could've really pushed him in his prime. An old McCallum, a undisciplined and unmotivated Toney are the top of his opponents chart. Sure he took out Hill with a single body shot , but almost 8 yrs after an ancient Hearns beat him convincingly, and a year after Michalweski beat him, how good was Hill Really?
Jones jr was the 2and most athletic boxer in history in my opinion, the much bigger 6'3" 210- 215 Ali is the best in my opnion. But Jones jr never proved what Ali proved. Jones never showed the the toughness, determination, and resolve Ali showed multiple times. So in my opinion it leaves a major question mark about him.
Jones jr, had the ability to outclass a Monzon , Hagler, or Robinson, but those fighters would've found away to test him. Based on what he showed against far inferior fighters when he slowed down, it's easy for me to infer those great fighters would've found away to truly test him. And based on what happened to him when he slowed, he would've failed those test, even in his prime.
Jones Jr. Athletic ability made him an ATG. Theirs no debating that. But too many holes in his game when he slowed showed he definitely wasn't the G.O.A.T. He never faced a prime ATG that would've pushed him, and if he never faced that, how can he receive credit for it?

 

Draining your body of muscle is seriously determinant to your health unlike losing fat which is by nature obviously a fuel.

He also was perhaps as Morlocks said as good as the opponent's he fought he became what he ate so to speak.

Avoiding the best to keep the show going only made it worse when the curtain came crashing down on Roy...

 

STILL ONE OF THE BEST FLASH!!! GREAT POST!!

 

Here is a theory, I really believe he lost interest in this great sport of boxing. He was very talented and was entertaining to watch, but in retrospect, politics in the fight game at that particular period caused boredom, and inactivity. I think he could have defeated the opponents that would later score victories over him, Antonio Tarver, Glen Johnson. etc.

 

This is something I've wondered about too.

It was probably a combination of ego, the rush of competing and the money. It's easy to think you have all these options when you're in your twenties and if you're already the best in the world at something you figure, I can be the best in the world at anything I put my mind too. But Jones found out like most do that he was uniquely gifted and special in one thing, not everything, just as Michael Jordan found out when he gave up basketball for golf.

Once they realise that it was a unique talent for one thing and one thing only, they come back to what they do best because that is what made them feel special. It's just that what they once did best they no longer do as well as they used to and they start losing.

Leonard kept coming back when he didn't previously seem that bothered about the sport and when it made no financial sense; Mayweather keeps coming back in one form or another too even when he claims to only be in it for one thing - the money. Obviously he is still getting paid huge amounts for it but it's not just the money that makes him come back.

Maybe a boxer is never truly retired - they're just not fighting anymore. But the will to fight never leaves.

 

I do not think his loss to Tarver had anything to do with the weight loss.

 

I think Roy showed a lot of heart in the first Tarver fight and pulled off a victory.

 

On top of the weight fluctuations by the time Jones rematched Tarver he'd been fighting professionally for 15 years. He's won 49 fights (with umpteen stoppages) and lost just one via DQ which he avenged in the most dramatic fashion. He won titles from middleweight to heavyweight. At that same stage Hagler and Monzon were sailing off into the sunset after great careers. Jones just hit the wall harder and quicker than most.