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

Fighters age differently. Has Beterbiev dropped off visibly from his prime? Did he ever rely on speed and reflexes like Roy did?

 

Old age, knee surgery and ring rust did seem to have had an affect on Beterbiev's performance vs Bivol, in my opinion his performance level did drop. But yes not at the same level as to what happened to Roy's performances after Ruiz.

All fighters decline in speed and reflexes as they age. But fighters like Beterbiev, Hopkins, Usyk, Mayweather, Pacquiao, Leonard, Duran are able to adjust their styles as they age while fighters like Roy and Naseem Hamed become shot as soon as their athleticism goes.

 

When would you say Beterbiev's prime was?

It was mentioned in this thread that the one against Tavoris Cloud was the best version. But that was against an opponent coming off of 2 losses and retired afterwards. Jones' win over Virgil Hill(who arguably had his career best win before losing to DM and went on to win a title at cruiser after losing to Roy) is dismissed because he was coming off of a loss, so I don't see a win over Cloud carrying much weight in a discussion about a fantasy match up against a past champion.

His best power display was the win against Joe Smith Jr. But that fight was right in between his fights against Yarde and Browne and he showed plenty weaknesses in those fights that a prime RJJ would certainly exploit.

Was it his run in the 2011 world championship and 2012 olympics? Some say he was unlucky not to get the decision against Usyk in 2011, but he was also lucky to get the decision against Michael Hunter in 2012. Besides, these were 3 round fighs in a different weight class, with different size of gloves and different scoring system.

So going by Beterbiev against Gvozdyk vs Jones during his LHW run, I feel confident in my pick of Roy by competitive decision.

 

I know this hurts a lot of Jones fans but the fact is is his two main contenders in his era were Tarver & Michalkzewski .. he lost twice to one of them and refused to fight the other one.. yes he bulked to HW & weighed in at 193 pounds when he fought Ruiz, which is only 18 pounds more than the LHW limit. He must have cut some weight to make 175 anyway, he was probably 190 entering camps... so is the weight loss being his downfall a myth? I think it is to an extent.. especially when you consider that a few months after that fight he beat Tarver .. so the idea that he was shot is bollocks.. in the second fight he would have had more time to re adjust to 175 again too. I don't think he was prime no boxer is at 34/5 but the greats are able to adjust somewhat & Jones couldn't. Beterbiev fought & beat his two main rivals & wasn't getting embarrassed by Calzaghe & Johnson in his late 30s. Jones was a special talent but he wasn't as good as some people like to make him out, freakish athlete yes but not the greatest boxer ever, not even close.

 

Don't think anyone is in their physical prime at 39 years old coming off inactivity and a knee surgery. So to say RJJ smokes Beterbiev based on the Bivol performance is unjust. Personally I think the Beterbiev that fought Bivol could still beat a prime RJJ.

When was his physical prime? Well most men experience their physical prime in their 20s to mid 30s. The Cloud fight up until Gvodzyk would be my estimate for Beterbiev and he did look more physically imposing in those years than he did against Bivol. I also suspect ring rust was a major factor vs Bivol, hence why Beterbiev started slower and finished stronger. So I imagine Beterbiev will perform better if they rematch next year, hopefully they do.

 

He obviously wasn't in his physical peak. Maybe Bivol wasn't either, aging works different for each human being. It's all subjective. Being in your physical peak doesn't always correlate to being at your best as a boxer either.

Personally, Bivol/Beterbiev went the way I expected it would for the last half a decade, except for the part AB getting the decision. It's also how I'd expect Jones/Beterbiev would go prime vs prime, with Roy having to get off the canvas once or twice but being fresher championship rounds(compared to Bivol against Artur) and grabbing the decision.

 

Bivol has a better punch output than Roy ever did. Bivol threw over 700 punches against Joe Smith Jr and Canelo, I don't recall Roy throwing that many punches in a fight even as a Middleweight. Beterbiev managed to reduced Bivol's workrate down to under 500 punches and had Bivol wilting in the championship rounds. I don't think Roy would be fresher in the championship rounds, he may receive a bigger beatdown than Bivol took.

 

What's funny about those stats is that Bivol was much more accurate yet still landed a similar number of punches, and made Beterbiev miss about 80% of his shots. Bivol also backed Beterbiev up to the ropes with fast counters

 

Ahhh the urban myth about Roy not being able to box and depending only on reflexes perpetuated by casuals or the agenda driven.
Noob.

 

"The cringe is real in this one"

 

Roy was heavily reliant upon his speed, reflexes and athleticism. Hence why when he got older and his athleticism declined he became completely shot getting sparked out left right and centre. Other boxers like Hopkins, Beterbiev, Usyk, Foreman, Mayweather, Duran made changes to their styles to overcome their aging. Roy couldn't adapt like these fighters as he was heavily reliant upon his athleticism.

 

Why do you think Bivol was able to throw 700+ punches against Joe Smith Jr, 700+ punches against Canelo but when it came to Artur Beterbiev his output was significantly less, less than 500?

 

Caution ? What other answer could there possibly be ? Many people and the majority of ringside still scored it for Bivol and he has no power. Beterbiev threw less punches per round against Yarde than he did against the much far superior Bivol and yet he got tagged more, why could this be ?

 

Especially because the Bivol "win" is highly disputed and many people have legitimate arguments for Bivol actually beating Beterbiev. Without this controversial win, his resume is simply not in the same league as Roy's.