anyone else upset Jones never fought the best?

It's not his fault the wimpy brits didn't want to fight him.

 

Yup. If I were to ask people there top 10 for the last 15 years, James Toney and Bernard Hopkins will be on it. The fact that RJJ beat them and beat them impressively is unbelieveable.

 

the reality is that the other 'top' guys around his class very likely didn't want any part of rjj at his peak. they are businesmen (as another poster ponted out) and a shut out (or knock out) loss would negatively effect their marketability. they have eyes to see that rjj was an absolute beast. sure, jones became comfortable with easy defenses and could've done more probably to push for bigger fights but i'd wager my left nut that it was more the other fighters not wanting to risk whatever they had to fight jones.

 

Benn and Collins would have fought Roy for the money. Theyre marketability wouldnt have been affected by loss, theyd both been beat and their popularity was based more on being warriors by 95-98 anyway. Eubank publicly stated he didnt want to fight Roy, but would never duck a mandatory defense, that fight was never going to happen. McClellan if he beat Benn and was fit to continue WOULD have happened, the American public can stomach their fighters not fighting good challengers abroad but an exciting young American KO artist with wins over Roy in the Amatures would not have been stood for. Benn,Collins and DM could have been made and the fact they werent is dissapointing but IMO shouldnt tarnish Roy.

 

He never unified at any wieght and never tired, and dodged DM for 7 years. Ducked his manditories Tua and Vittili at heavy. He came back down to fight Tavar three days after Tavar said he'd gladly fight DM.

Nunn and Grachininio....
And Jones was full of ****.
Hill got 2 Million his then biggest payday and Germany's highest pay day to fight DM....
Jones then said he'd fight DM for 4 Million in GErmany, at a time when Jones did not have a belt...as soon as Jones got a belt, in his HBO contract was that DM's name was not to be mentioned by HBO....so for a long time no one who did not buy Ring mag, ever heard of DM, who was the real man in the Lt. Heavy division.
DM siad he'd come to the states...but he was supposed to fight some one else first for peanuts so he'd get a name...He was getting more than Jones was in real money, per fight in Germany. Hell how can you not be a name when you were the first Three belt Lt heavy champ...."undesputed" for a day and a month. IBF stripped him the next day for not **** canning his WBO title,and the otehr WBC/A don't remmeber which, said he ahd to fight some one none had ever ehard of inside a month of his win. So he dropped that belt.
Yes, DM said he'd come to the states but he wanted ***Gasp*** 50%...so of course there was no fight.

 

Yeah and the heavyweights Greb fought weighed about 180 pounds you tit and there isn't one of them that Jones wouldn't have spanked as well.

Ruiz isn't a **** either.His style is awkward and ugly and he's as boring as **** but he's also very effective.Yet Jones handled him with a relative ease that so-called legitimate heavies like Holyfield,Rahman,Valuev,Chagaev and McCline couldn't.

You've obviously got a closed mind in regards to Jones,either that or you don't know **** about boxing.Anyone whose ever seen him fight in his prime knows he's a damn tough h2h match up for anyone from 160-175 and an all time great fighter in his own right.

 

I used to be a big fan of Jones but I found his choice of opposition to be not what it could have been and this made me turn away from watching him fight back in 98.

Fights with Otis Grant and Rick Frazier were totally meaningless and while Jones opposition at light heavy, with hindsight was actually better than we thought at the time it doesn't change the fact that there were better opponents available.

Jones should have fought Collins and Benn who both really wanted the fight and called Jones out on more than 1 occaission. As for DM, niether I believe really wanted the fight. But Jones was never linear champion and DM was regarded as the best in the division before Jones moved up so this should have been a fight he should have tried harder to make.

But having said all that Jones resume is actually very good.

 

I'd agree with all your points here. Jones does have a good resume and was a great talent in his prime. I followed him for years. But I did lose interest with the amount of meaningless fights he had. I don't really know who to blame for the fights not happening are but I wish Jones would have fought a number of fighters he never did. Jones would have been the favorite in all of them but there were some really good fights out there that never happened.

 

Fact is when Jones was at his prime Calzaghe wasnt well known enough to make the risk viable.

Calzaghe - jones is a much bigger fight now than it would have been 9years ago...

Jones also has a fantastic resume, Hopkins and Toney are two of the best boxers in the past 20 years and look through how many of these tomato cans that Roy fought and how many of them won world titles before and after he dismantles them...its a long list.

 

Calzaghe ducked a fight, claimed he wanted Jones to come to Wales, demanded more money and said he injured his hand. Jones wasn't going to wait for him to get over the nonsense he applied to anyone worth mentioning whenever he was called out.

Collins was called out after he beat Eubank, he was the man to beat and that also included Benn. McClellan was out of it after the Benn fight when RJJ was around so Benn is the one they DID call out. Collins was called out instead of Eubank as he beat him at the time. Check out this video to know better.

[yt]EjvBqSDJJoA[/yt]

Move to 5:05 and enjoy.

If the video above doesn't work here's the direct link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjvBqSDJJoA

 

Roy was one of the worst handpickers in Boxing history. The guy handpicked all of his fights and refused to fight the best. With his Glass Jaw we all know why.

 

the only fighters who have a solid case is benn and eubank, who the hell was calzaghe back then you feel:deal

 

that's why he called out the likes of Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson publicly

 

Benn was offered a fight and turned it down, Collins was picked instead of Eubank since he beat him and turned it down too. The video up there should explain it.

 

:roflatsch