Who Would You Pick over Roy Jones Jr. at 160?

I’ve lost a bit of respect for Roy over the years but this post is the cold hard truth - Roy owned James. On top of that, when Toney and Hopkins careers had hit their high marks (Bernard at 160 and James after his Jirov win), neither man showed any interest in rematching Jones to avenge their defeats. IMO, and I’m sure James and Bernard’s as well, a still-peak Roy would’ve beaten them again just as convincingly as he had before.

 

Hagler and Robinson that's it

 

Hagler. even then it would be close

 

My main question regarding Jones at 160, experience aside, is how much the weight cut was affecting him by the time he was hitting his prime (post-Hopkins). He moved up essentially right after. Every non-title fight leading up to Tate was fought at Super Middle, and that was his only title defense at Middle.

He looked great in that one, yes. But that was just over 3 minutes worth of action. That’s all we saw of prime Jones at this weight. How confident are we that the weight cut wouldn’t have affected him down the stretch of a longer, much more demanding bout? I can’t say I’m confident because there’s not nearly enough to go on. I think he was probably just a bit too big for the division at his best.

 

Yeah, I guess there's a chance Canelo stalks him and mauls him enough to weaken him and wear him down, but it doesn't seem very likely imo.

 

A pressure fighter like a Dik Tiger may have had the right combination of pressure, strength and power. I don't see anyone outboxing him.

 

I think Tommy's jab and speed might be a good style to beat Jones. Ray Robinson. Leonard? I don't know. Jones' speed offsets Ray's a little, and I don't know if Ray could find that punch at middleweight. Hagler? Marvin could do it and he had a 75 inch reach, but Marvin would have to have his Hearns mode going.

 

Roy is faster than SRR but SRR is more fluid and arguably equally as explosive, much more battle tested, with the proven ability to fire off vicious barrages in the middle of his opponent's punches. I would favour him to beat Roy more than I would favour Hagler, as although fluid, Hagler, for me doesn't have the footspeed of SRR, nor the punch variety and snap that a prime MW SRR brings to the table. I fear that Hagler could taste Roy's power and speed and could be prone to following him around the ring - unlike Hearns, Roy isn't going to lose his legs as quickly and uses angles differently to give Hagler another look. However, Roy's not the fighter that's going to engage the Hagler that beat Minter and I think this Hagler right up to the Duran version was capable of pushing Roy and this is the Hagler that I can design a gameplan to beat Roy with. This Hagler, at some point you will have to engage him as his workrate was too high to try to coast through rounds - at the same time, I think if Hagler doesn't box with him and use timing rather than pure aggression, Roy could cut his face up if he catches him right.

Other than his punching power and boxing ability, I don't fancy Hearns - Roy will land, Hearns doesn't respond well when he tastes power for me - not the kind of power that Roy was capable of generating.

The way I see it, H2H Roy was capable of besting pretty much anyone from MW, arguably up to LHW on his day - there's fighters that could beat Roy at their best - would they - I'm not so convinced that as many fighters would beat him as what some people try to suggest.

 

If Hagler was bigger he may beat him, but he was coming into the ring at 160lbs Jones would've been coming in at the low 170lbs
Despite what some say, Hearns does indeed stand a chance behind that fast hard jab, I would bet that Hearn's jab is faster than Jones's and he uses it far better and it may neutralize Jones's speed and Jones could be set up for punches so Hearns could also set up the right hand, it is a very close fight

 

You give Hagler a good chance because he's too small, but you are happy giving Hearns a good chance despite being smaller and worse?

 

Jones has three wins of any note at 160lbs,Castro , Tate and of course B Hop ,is that enough to make him favourite over;
Tiger
Steele
Greb
Walker
Robinson
Hagler
Monzon
???????

 

Don't see that happening at all. This would be the most one sided lost in Canelo's career. I see Canelo getting beat up.

 

We have enough evidence.

Roy was the exact same fighter at SMW in his 90’s prime, where he showed the exact same style and attributes.

He didn’t change his style when he moved up. The only thing he did was go to the ropes more when he aged.

He didn’t need to have longevity at MW in order to be ranked highly on a H2H basis.

If you had a time machine and you put the Tate version of him up against someone like Monzon, then Monzon would be fighting the same 25 year old version of Roy who James Toney fought. The Tate and Toney fights happened in the same year in 1994.

 

Sugar Ray Robinson of the 1951 win over Jake La Motta, too much smarts and speed. 5 time champion, almost beat Randy Turpin for the light heavyweight title if the heat had not beat him first, Sugar Ray was winning at the time of the loss.

 

I do not believe that Hearns is smaller than Hagler at all, I doubt Hagler could weigh 190lbs and still be in shape, Hearns was naturally bigger than Hagler, he boiled down to make 147 and 154 and he had the metabolism and body type to fluctuate between large differences in weight, he was absolutely shredded at 175lbs against Andries then was able to come back down to 160lbs, he maintained his power at every weight he fought at, just not his chin
As for why I think Hearns gives Jones more problems than Hagler S-T-Y-L-E-S, Haglers only chance would be to take it to Jones because he has nothing to box behind against Jones, and with taking it to Jones that would be bad because he would not be able to bully Jones because Jones was over 10lbs more than Hagler in the night and when you’re smaller in height and weight, it is difficult to overcome because you can’t box from range and when you try to push them back you find that you can’t because they are too big, thing with Hearns is that he could simply get his mass up to 175lbs then cut the water from that weight to make 160lbs then get back up to 175lbs and he could be the same size as Jones in the ring, Hearns can be big at any weight from 147lbs to 160 because he is able to gain mass without putting on dead weight and even if he wasn’t as big as Jones, unlike Hagler, he can fight behind the jab at range against Jones because he has the height and reach advantage and versatile jab very sharp and fast and Jones may struggle to land significant punches on Hearns as he is kept at range by that jab and his counters would be falling short with Hearns knowing how to use his feet and long arms to simply step back out of the way