Comparing Roy jones Jr at LHW to Artur beterbiev is crazy talk

No problem

I don't buy the dropped back in down weight excuse at all it's just pure copium from the Rojo cult.

That southpaw cross Tarver dropped Roy with like a sack of potatoes didn't only knock him senseless, send his eyes into separate orbit, and have him dribbling roid spittle all over the canvas like a big baba it completely destroyed his aura of invincibility and mystique and it exposed his sickly old lady glass jaw for the embarrassment and abomination it is

No way Beterbiev hits much harder than Tarver and the fact Roy of all people lasted 12 rounds against him twice when he was supposedly ''shot'' illustrates that. There's no way in hell Roy would last the 12 distance against Beterbiev once, let alone twice if Beterbiev was even just grazing that glass jaw of his.

Here's Beterbiev's record up at HW in the amateurs with him weighing 185-187lbs vs 200lb + men. As said, stoppages are obviously rarer in the amateurs than in the pros and when you have iron-jawed HWs and teak-tough CWs sating how hard a much smaller LHW hits it tells you everything you need to know. Beterbiev was the most feared amateur in the world for a reason. His power and strength has always been different and when he was in his prime he was even more of a monster.

Q: Oleksandr, you won most everything as an amateur, including the gold at the 2012 Olympics. Who would you say gave you your hardest fight as an amateur?

Oleksandr Usyk: “Well, all those fights, they all took place within the last couple of years or so, so it’s hard to say. Maybe, if I was pushed to say, it was Artur Beterbiev of Russia who gave me my roughest fight. He is very aggressive and he does hit very hard.”

2012 Chemistry Cup (Halle, GER) 1st place 91KG Won against Wang Xuanxuan (CHN) AB 3rd round in the final; Won against Julio Castillo (ECU) 14:5 in the semi-final; Won against Elber Passos (BRA) RSC 3rd round in the quarter-final; Won against Johann Witt (GER) 14:9 in the first preliminary round
2012 International Team Tournament (Almaty, KAZ) 1st place 91KG Won against Aleksey Sevostyanov (KAZ) AB 2nd round; Won against Suliman Abdourachidov (FRA) WO; Won against Manpreet Singh (IND) RSC 3rd round
2011 AIBA World Championships (Baku, AZE) 5th place 91KG Lost to Oleksandr Usyk (UKR) 17:13 in the quarter-final; Won against Djakhon Kurbanov (TJK) AB 2nd round in the second preliminary round; Won against Mario Heredia (MEX) AB 1st round in the first preliminary round
2011 Umakhanov Memorial Tournament (Makhachkala, RUS) 1st place 91KG Won against Jose Angel Larduet (CUB) WO in the final; Won against Abdulkadir Abdullayev (AZE) 11:3 in the semi-final; Won against Reza Moradkhani (IRN) RSCI 1st round in the quarter-final
2011 Russian National Championships 1st place 91KG Won against Abdulkhamid Nurmagomedov (RUS) 15:4 in the final; Won against Arbi Madayev (RUS) WO in the semi-final; Won against Spartak Bakhtiyarov (RUS) AB 2nd round in the quarter-final
2011 Great Silk Way Tournament (Baku, AZE) 1st place 91KG Won against Teymur Mammadov (AZE) WO in the final; Won against Vasiliy Levit (KAZ) 3:0 in the semi-final; Won against Sarkhan Jabbarov (AZE) KO 1st round in the quarter-final
2010 Russian National Championships 2nd place 91KG Lost to Pavel Nikitayev (RUS) 12:3 in the final; Won against Abdulkhamid Nurmagomedov (RUS) AB 2nd round in the semifinal; Won against Pavel Shulskiy (RUS) WO in the quarterfinal

They're both difficult stylistic match ups for Roy and Beterbiev isn't your regular pressure fighter. Roy once said pressure fighter Jorge Castro gave him his toughest fight, Beterbiev is Castro x 100 but unlike Castro he actually trains like a demon not just on public holidays, is much smarter, and is way stronger and more powerful, and isn't a pudgy little blown up 154 pounder

Not really, puncher avoidance is a very real thing in boxing and the primary culprits are unsurprisingly glass-jawed fighters or fighters cursed with below average punch resistance and obviously their handlers can and often do play a big part in that.

The difference between trying to navigate your way across a minefield than a regular field with a couple of mines in it is night and day and that doesn't just apply to 36 minutes of action in a single fight it applies to careers too.

I'm not saying Roy wasn't a great fighter, but when you forge a career avoiding savage punchers and fighting plodders who are too slow to catch you and the media are gassing you up like you're Superman and are invincible to such an extent your opponents believe the hype too it's much easier to keep that glass jaw from being exposed. You're playing Russian roulette for 36 minutes everytime you step foot into a ring with a KO artist or a legit banger and you're playing with at least two guns when you do so against Beterbiev

I'm not arguing Johnson would've beaten Roy. I'm just pointing out he's a proper old school hooker and his hooks are seriously heavy

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Again, he's virtually 40 y/o, has been injury-ravaged all throughout his 30s, was coming of a serious knee injury and surgery and is well past his absolute prime and if he turned pro much earlier like so many of the greats and top pros his resume would be way deeper and he would've achieved way more than he has

I'm not arguing Bivol is a KO puncher but rather that he can punch hard and that his KO% during his title reign is very deceptive

Clenelo, Zurdo, Richards, and Samalov have never been dropped, let alone stopped

Pascal has the best chin at LHW of his generation IMO and he has only been stopped x and that was by a the savage power of a prime Kovalev and he finished on his feet both times despite taking hellacious shots

Chilemba has a great chin too and he has only been stopped twice and one was on an arm injury against Gvozdyk and the other was recently up at CW against a big punching CW contender which a KO 94% who had at least 15 pounds on him and it would've been more like 20-30lbs and Chilemba is well past his prime now too

Joe Smith had only been stopped on a jaw injury and the only time he's been dropped or stopped legitimately was by the savage punching Beterbiev

Lyndon Arthur had been stopped by the very big punching Yarde but if you watch his fight with Bivol he fought purely to survive and even though he's not world level his ability to see punches coming and catch them on his arms and gloves or take the sting out of them is actually really impressive, especially when he's only focussing on defence and not attack like he did in that fight

We have got to get out of this mindset where we ignore amateur success when talking about amateurs who have also enjoyed great success or achieved great things after turning pro late or very late. This isn't the same as amateurs who fought with a very amateur oriented style who never turned pro whose amateur style wouldn't have translated to success in the pros over 12 rounds and even then we don't know for sure many of those amateurs wouldn't have been able to modify their styles to a more pro one.

There's zero reason to doubt that Beterbiev, Usyk, Loma among others wouldn't have achieved way more than they did had they turned pro much earlier. They left a huge chunk of their best form, years and prime in the amateurs. I

f Beterbiev had turned pro in his teens or at say 20 y/o he would've been an absolute wrecking machine just like he was in the amateurs in his early 20s only difference is he'd wearing small gloves, no headgear, and he's be in his prime with way less wear and tear on his body. Usyk and Loma were incredible in the amateurs and not only looked just as they did in the pros in their prime but they looked better


Prime Beterbiev would be a wrecking machine up at CW. He would do very well up their too and his power and strength would 100% carry up there

This is true but ''MW'' Roy was coming in as high as 184 or 185 sometimes at LHW and 185-187 is what Beterbiev weighed in the amateurs up at HW and I'd say he weighs 190 max now and I wouldn't be surprised if he weighed a little less either

Thanks, you too