He wasn’t 193 though. He also didn’t have 8 months. It was also muscle not fat, which is a whole different ball game to just losing mostly body fat. He spent the majority of his camp running the weight off. He never thought that losing the weight would be so difficult. Mackie Shilstone told him to take at least a year out and not to go back to LHW.
The last part of your comment I totally agree on, a tall rangey Southpaw counter puncher like Tarver is always poison for Jones.
Roy should have retired after Ruiz..He had accomplished everything he set out to do. If he was in any doubt, the first Tarver fight should have made up his mind. He won a close but clear decision after returning to 175. For his 35th birthday, he should have gotten a rocking chair on the porch, slippers, a pipe and a droopy-eared cocker spaniel. He would have now been in many, maybe most, top ten lists, retiring 'undefeated' after 49 fights, with titles spanning five weight classes, including the big one. I don't put much stock in what happened after he turned 35, and have him just outside the top ten (11). I think future historians will rank him higher than where most current observers have him. Re his chin, it was never properly tested when he was at his best , as no big hitter could ever land flush on it, so it's hard to say how good it ever was.
Still, maybe his average chin was cracked but then he became Big John TAte falling to pieces … it’s still a bit hard to believe.
Agree with what has been noted earlier, Roy's decline was probably the quickest I've ever witnessed. The only other ATG that diminished almost as quickly skills-wise that I can think of at the moment is Tyson. He looked like he was head hunting & just sort of going through the motions sometime around the first Bruno fight.
Its funny how people try and bring a great fighter down. Roy ducked people? He fought Hopkins and beat him essentially with one hand and rather easily. Now people say Hopkins was too green. He gave Toney the beating of his life even dropping him and now its because Toney didn't control his weight. No matter what he did it was never good enough. He goes for what 35 years of fighting the top fighters only ever getting knocked down once and now its because his chin was always weak and people could never land a punch on him because he was so fast? Last time I checked Toney AND Hopkins landed on Jones and I don't recall Jones getting rocked.
2 parts to punch resistance---single shot and attrition. I think he was very poor at attrition. slightly below average at single shot. As mentioned before---these things were not tested until late in his career. Once tested, he sure did not fare well. And just who else did Tarver starch with one shot? He did not knock many down with a single shot in the fights of his I saw. And how long had it been with johnson getting a ko over an opponent? To go down badly against the non hitters just cannot be casually dismissed. And amazing the Calzaghe fight was not stopped due to that cut.
You're confusing your respond to me with another poster I believe ... that said, I stand by my post. What's your position ? It turned to china overnight ? Watch the second Hopkins fight .. when Bernard fought this version of Jones, much slower and more hittable, he rocked him multiple times ..
I don't know what he meant either TBH, I think people in this thread have mostly been very fair and gave praise to Jones. It's just most people agree like me that Jones's chin was never really tested in his professional career until he got KO'ed. So it's hard to evaluate how good his chin actually was before his punch resistance eroded, after the perfect shot Tarver landed on him. And finally when did anyone in this thread claim Jones ducked anyone ?
Oh did he ? I must of missed that post. I know theres always the debate on whether or not Jones avoided Michalczweski, but I think it was more to do with that Michalvzweski wouldn't travel to America. And Jones wouldn't travel to Germany so it was a stand off.
