Bob Foster Vs Roy Jones at LHW..Will Foster just expose RJJ and destroy?

Its a close fight. Could go either way. Foster was a great fight . A true atg.

 

Mike Quarry was 5'11". Joe Frazier was 5'11" with a 73 inch reach. Roy is 5'11" with a 74" reach. That gives you a visual of the height and reach disparity between RJJ and the 6'3" Bob Foster with his longer than Hearns 79 inch reach.

Bob was able to land bombs on a prime Ali, who mocked him, but Muhammad also mocked the power of Shavers, Foreman and Frazier. Smoke just walked through it. Stopping prime Doug Jones took Chuvalo 11 rounds. Jones was halted in six by Frazier the month Doug turned 30, then retired by Kirkman in their rematch.

Ernie Terrell only got stopped by a peak Big Cat, and in his swan song at 34 by Jeff Merritt. Folley was coming off his decking and win over Bonavena, and BF credited Zora for teaching him how to box in that one.

Yes, Bob's power fell flat against heavyweights, but one needs to look at who those heavyweights were. Eddie Vick was a powder-puff puncher, but also a durable customer who had Cleroux, Cleroux again, and Hurricane Jackson as three of his first four fights. He'd just pushed Wepner to a ten round SD when Bob took him on a second time. True, BF had to get off the deck to do it, but he did become the first guy to stop Vick.

Veteran Mauro Mina dropped and decisioned him in his 12th bout. In 58 fights, nobody stopped Mina, he only lost three times, and only Peralta managed to defeat him after 1958. Mina may well have been the best LHW of the 1960s not to get a title shot.

Defeating Bob Foster required punch resistance, and/or vastly superior skill, experience and ring generalship, like Folley's.

Four months after Bob crushed him in two, Rondon became the first man to hear the final bell against Shavers.

Not only did Bob have that jab, but also a fine body attack which was slowing Mike Quarry down when the end came. In 1972 and 1973, he also proved his championship distance endurance against Chris Finnegan and Pierre Fourie.

So, does Roy avoid getting his body hit? Does he mock BF after getting nailed on the chin?

 

Yes! He DOES get to come in roided up, just like Bob Hazelton did for the 39 year old BF's final career win. [Bob Foster KO 10 Steroids. Steroids may have won the rematch to finally retire him, but I cut BF slack for that on account of being 40 years old.]

Yes, but how many rows back would Roy's head fly?

 

Okay, but are we talking 5th or 6th row ringside, or balcony? [Just askin.']

 

Well, if you don't wanna, I will.

RJJ KO 1 BF:silly:nutcasewha::blah:spliff

 

Although I think Foster wins, I think it's a little silly to say Roy has no chance... The polarization in this thread is crazy.

I find myself saying this over and over regarding boxing/boxers: "Just because he didn't do it doesn't mean he couldn't"...

I've said it about Foster in particular regarding his lack of quality opposition in terms of head-to-head matchups.

I'm saying it now regarding Jones and this matchup.

Jones was awfully fast and hit really hard; anyone denying that discredits themselves and should be ignored. The issue of Roy's chin is a bit overblown as well.

What does matter in my opinion is that where Foster chose to take risks, even at the probability of a loss, against heavyweights (and how unlucky to be in that era he was), Jones did not; at least not past a hand-picked, made-to-order heavyweight who should have been able to "big-man" him around, but didn't/couldn't.

Jones didn't press his luck beyond Ruiz, so he obviously didn't have the confidence that Foster did.


Foster doesn't beat Jones because Jones is a bum with no chin; Foster beats Jones because stylistically, he has the tools.

 

good post. i don't agree with you on the winner of this fight but your analysis is completely reasonable. the only thing i'll point out is that foster was legit, 6'3" light heavy. size wise it was much easier for him to move up to heavy compared to jones who started his career at 154 and was most comfortable at 168. that said, foster had the bad luck of fighting in the greatest heavyweight era ever.

just a side note, and i'll get crap for this, but i don't think foster could have beat ruiz either. foster didn't have the style to beat bigger men imo. ruiz would have outweighed foster by 40-50 lbs.

 

:thumbsup

Your points are true, but its an interesting paradox: Foster, the naturally bigger man (if your definition is based on what weight they started at, not what they ended up at), was bigger than Jones, but failed miserably at heavyweight -Ali and Frazier aside- while Jones at least holds a win (and a dominant one) over an adequate and capable heavyweight- something Foster can't claim...

I may agree that Foster fails against Ruiz- for someone who was as dominant and looked so good at LHW should have done better than he did against heavies...

 

There is no doubt that Foster hit hard enough to stop Jones, no one is questioning that. However, most of the people that Jones ever fought probably hit hard enough to stop him. Predictably, people here are trying to reduce this to "Jones can't take Foster's power" when the reverse is equally true. If Foster can be dropped by nobodies like DePaula and Vick, and if Doug Jones beat the **** out of Foster, why is it such a reach to suggest that Roy Jones mops the floor with Foster?

 

Jones packs more glass than Foster, and Foster punches a lot harder. If Foster landed this fight would be over, not the other way around. Roy might be able to eek out a decision but trying to KO Foster would probably result Roy him waking up in the dressing room.

 

It is absolutely true. Look at the best fighters that Foster beat and tell me, who did these guys beat? What were their best wins? And why were none of them power punchers? Foster looked good against nobodies with no power. Where was the monster against Doug Jones? Also, I would note that Roy Jones' opponents at LHW were physically bigger than the guys Foster fought at LHW. They were typically well in excess of 180 lbs in the ring. For example, Lou Del Valle was 192 lbs in the ring against Jones. So when you talk about power, keep in mind that most of the guys Jones fought at LHW would have been heavyweights in Foster's time.