Could Roy Jones have won a world title in his second bout as a pro?

I respect your opinion, and of course, nobody would have put Roy in with him at that stage. But Mugabi’s resume looked great on paper, but not in reality. He beat low level guys before having a war with Marvin. And afterwards, he lost decisively to Norris and Gerald and was hurt against Thomas like you’ve noted.

So which Mugabi are you putting forward?

A pre-Hagler version or a post-Hagler version?

 

He possessed the kind of skill and speed that would have troubled Mugabi.

 

Jones was already the most unbeatable fighter in the world before he made his pro debut.

 

We’re talking mid-1989, around the time Roy Jr was debuting and having his first two fights, right?

At that point Mugabi is 32-2 with 32 knockouts. He’s won eight in a row by KO since being beaten by Hagler and Thomas (in a fight stopped by a pretty fluke occurrence when his orbital bone was crushed by an accidental thumb).

He’s a month or two away from stopping Rene Jacquot in one for the junior middle title. He’s a middleweight-sized guy making 154 with upper-level middleweight power and he’s strong as an ox (ask Hagler, who rated him co-strongest he faced, saying he was like a light heavyweight, and co-hardest puncher alongside Hearns).

I don’t think his resume was that thin: Frank Fletcher and Curtis Parker and James Green were all hardened contenders who would likely have had title shots if they were in a division without a unified champ and Earl Hargrove was a one-loss guy when Mugabi fought him who turned out to be at least a gatekeeper.

Again, Roy could beat him but it’s not a given. Not a Roy with basically no pro experience.

 

We saw against Amundson what the smoke was, a far better pro than amateur.

 

I respect that.

I think his resume is very thin though. I don’t want to disrespect anybody, but they were all B and C level fighters.

Roy would have been up against it with a guy who had power, strength and will, but I think that Mugabi would have had a big shock if he hadn’t have been familiar with Roy. Because even a newly turned pro version of Roy would have been on a completely different level to the guys who he’d been facing.

 

Jones tags Mugabi at will.

 

Would, would, would. You state things as if fact in every post, when it's only (mostly ****) opinion.

 

**** highlight reels.

 

It's really hard to say.

I think Bernard Hopkins was the first fighter he fought who was currently ranked in the top 10.

But he had beaten Vaca (who everyone else was beating) and Castro (who would go on to be a MW belt holder) by 1992.

At LMW we have Mugabi, Julian Jackson, Gianfranco Rosi and John David Jackson.

At MW we have Duran, McCallum, Nunn and DeWitt.


I mean Curry blitzed Rosi with speed alone, he couldn't handle Curry's speed and he wasn't exactly a banger himself. I think Jones has to be favoured here.


John David Jackson was superb at this point. Very quick, very accurate. I doubt Jones takes him in 89.

DeWitt was never a special talent. Jones probably ices him early.

The rest are clear favourites over Jones imo.

So to answer the TS, yeah Jones could have beaten Rosi at LMW or DeWitt at MW, probably in his debut fight.