If Roy Jones Jr. had retired after Tarver 1 where would you have ranked him?

While JC was fast he was nowhere fast as a Jones nor did he hit as hard.

 

Looking back it was pretty obvious I am ashamed I used to be a fan of Roy when I was younger.

 

Agreed Roy doesn't seem like a bad bloke but he was an obvious cheat. Yep his fans ignore this.

 

So you really think Jones could not have paid step aside money and had a couple optional defenses? This is the WBA were talking about here. Sorry, casual.

 

Stingy Roid pay step aside money at heavyweight? . His usual shenanigans were never gonna fly at heayweight - i.e. a voluntary defense vs Oldyfield after claiming Holyfield was still a "top 3 heavyweight". Holyfield himself allegedly walked away from negotiations after feeling he was being treated as "an opponent". Then there was the Jones-Sanders unification which was blocked by the WBO.

Regardless, Roid had to make a voluntary defense within 180 days after winning the title. Unfortunately his mandatory was Vitali, who went for the wbc title instead, then Tua was moved up to #1.

iirc, the wba were reluctant to strip Jones outright even after Jones-Tarver was signed. Had Roid any foresight he could've told the wba he'd be returning to heavyweight after Jones-Tarver and tried to beg the wba into making Ruiz-Rahman an interim title fight (initially Tua-Rahman until Tua dropped out) and let Roid keep the heavyweight strap if he agreed to face the winner .

Whatever happened, Roid's Glass Jaw was about to be SHATTERED.

 

That David Tua got outboxed by a massively overweight Hasim Rahman, who got denied a proper win due to terrible judges. If you think Roy Jones was gonna lose to that fat version of David Tua, you’re ridiculous.

 

John Ruiz fought like a tourist at Disneyland. Any version of David Tua would have been too dangerous. Any version of Mike Tyson, for that matter, would have crushed Jones. I saw how easily Mike was able to push Jones around in their exhibition fight. Even though I knew it was a fake fight, I still prayed that Jones wouldn’t get knocked out. Both were well past their prime, but it was still a decent gauge. Back in the day, everyone knew Jones wouldn’t stick around at heavyweight, and the discussion was whether Jones could fight Chris Byrd — most people saw Byrd as the likely winner.

Oh here is a nice quote from espn.com : "John was my roommate in the amateurs as a light heavyweight, so he was a blown-up heavyweight and always had a problem with fighters that have a high skill set," said two-time heavyweight champion Chris Byrd. "Roy is very talented, but at heavyweight, it didn't make any sense for him. Boxing is a style matchup, so when you get a taller, lengthier heavyweight who stands on his back and boxes, I don't see Roy doing too much."

 

I liked Byrd.

But that fight would have seen more feints than punches.

 

It was all a bit of a mess at that time.

He had a huge ego.

He wanted the ‘right fight’ to remain at HW.

They were in advanced talks with Evander, but both King and Murad Muhammad, wanted huge cuts from the deal, and Evander wouldn’t deal with King, after King had refused to give him money which was owed from a previous bout.

He then very briefly contemplated fighting Corrie Sanders. What a mistake that would have been.

And all of this was happening whilst Mackie Shilstone was trying to convince him to take some time out before potentially going to CW, and whilst Antonio Tarver was goading him at every opportunity, which started at the Ruiz post-fight press conference.

 

Don’t be silly.

It has to depend on who you fought and at what point.

What you’ve achieved.

The circumstances etc.

 

I think that 50 fights across 16 years wasn’t bad longevity.

 

Only because he walked away. Had he have stayed around, there’d have been more Camacho type losses. Not unless he’d have dropped several levels. Whereas Roy did the opposite. He kept stepping back up, and at even higher weights. Imagine Ray having fought world level SMW’s after the Camacho fight. It would have been horrific. But you can’t stop these guys. They pass the medicals and the fights get sanctioned.

 

I’ve never seen anybody claim this.

The only person who ever mentions it, is you.