Criticizing Jones' resume

Well said.:good

 

It's not looking good for KillSomething.

He's had to take a break from the pounding he's had.

Maybe he'll return tomorrow?

 

The statement he made about being too young to witness Roy fans says it all.

He wasn't even watching boxing back then.

So many talk of beating Toney like it was nothing... I was only 11 years old, but remember it like it was yesterday, and how big of a risk that was for Roy.

 

:smoke In his prime may well have been the GREATEST AT ANY WEIGHT ? His style and physical attributes simply didn't allow longevity :deal

 

:good

 

Roy tried to secure better fights.

How did he have the power to make the Dariusz fight? He didn't want to get robbed in Germany. It wasn't Roy's fault that Dariusz got stripped of two titles. Roy already had the WBC, and then he fought Del Valle and Reggie to unify. Roy wasn't going to go to Germany, because Dariusz had been hard done to. Look at things from Roy's perspective. Rightly or wrongly, he had the three main belts around his waist during negotiations. He was the best fighter in the world with all of the belts. Dariusz had the lightly regarded WBO belt. So he didn't have to travel. He held all the cards. But Kerry Davis of HBO did try his best to bring Dariusz to the U.S. But it wasn't to be.

Roy didn't choose the path of least resistance.

 

He did not seem content to avoid challenges.

Read the thread in it's entirety, with the links and videos that have been uploaded.

 

I dont get all the hate RJJ gets. yes in his later years he got f()cked up a lot. But in his prime he was great to watch for anyone to aspire to be able to fight like that. Alas the same can be said for many other fighters through other generations..it just so happened to be my generation that we saw the best from RJJ and many more around his weight division at his peak.

 

Life is defined by circumstances and opportunities.


Hagler and Hearns had the opportunities, and the opponents.


One of the biggest disappointments of Roy's career, was his early MW days.

Big Roy wrapped him in cotton wool, and he wouldn't let him fight anyone relevant, despite the brutal regime that he'd put him through on a daily basis, when he was younger. It was bizarre. He literally beat him with lengths of pipe, and turned him into a fighting machine. Yet he wouldn't let him of the leash. He hid title shots from Roy, that Fred Levin had offered. Julian Jackson is on record as saying that big Roy wouldn't let Roy fight him. In the end, Roy couldn't take it anymore. But by the time he'd broken free, he'd missed all of the great potential fights at MW. When Nunn, McCallum, Toney, McClellan, Jackson and Johnson were all fighting each other, Roy was being made to fight the Lester Yardbrough's of the world.


Here's the Beyond the Glory documentary, where Fred Levin states that Big Roy hid title shots from him.

Go to 17 mins, 30.

http://youtu.be/NNBcCkPbKDY


Here's a brief interview with Julian Jackson, where he states that Roy's team wouldn't let him fight him. When he says 'they' he's referring to Roy's father. In another interview similar to this one, he does specifically mention Roy's father. But I can't find it at the moment.

http://www.boxinginsider.com/headlines/keeping-up-with-julian-jackson/


Just prior to the Hopkins fight, King tried to get his claws into Roy by offering the Jackson fight after Roy had split from his father. But he was wanting future options, that Roy wouldn't give him.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/13/s...ks-king-s-delivery-and-lands-his-punches.html


After Hopkins, Malinga and Tate, he fought Toney.

After Toney, he fought a few mandatories, but couldn't unify the division.

In 95, The Levin brothers who handled Roy, stated after the Vinny Paz fight that they didn't want to turn Roy over to King, because he again wanted future options.

Unfortunately that link is no longer available online.


But in 1996, just prior to the Bryant Brannon fight, he did an in the ring interview live on HBO. Now if you've followed Roy over the years like I have, then you'll know that HBO and Ron Borges, were Roy's biggest critics.

Watch this short video.

http://youtu.be/4TPjvtASn0c


Read this link with Frankie Liles's former trainer Jack O'Halloran.

http://ringsidereport.com/?p=2112


In 97, after the rematch with Griffin, Roy was serious about fighting Evander Holyfield. But Holyfield said he had no interest in fighting 5'10, LHW's.

Roy then signed to fight James Douglas, but his father pulled the plug at the last minute.


Here is a recent interview with Chris Eubank.

http://www.boxingforum24.com/showthread.php?t=502072


There's also various links on the DM saga, that's been uploaded many times on here. Unfortunately I don't have any to hand. But HBO did their best to try and make the fight for him.


Here is an article from 2002, detailing problems with the Hopkins rematch.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/boxing/stories/2002-07-10-jones-hopkins.htm


So you can see that Roy didn't choose the path of least resistance.


The reason he went up to HW to fight Ruiz, is because of the criticism he received because fights like DM and Hopkins II had failed to materialise, and the fight fans were extremely frustrated.

The reason Roy didn't fight Byrd, was because he was a near 35 year old LHW, who at that point, was looking to cash out on a mega fight against the likes of Tyson.

A Byrd fight wouldn't have made big money, and Roy didn't want to fight him, because he said both of them would have been waiting on each other, and it would have been a boring fight for the fans.

A Holyfield fight was almost made, until King pi$$ed of Evander, which resulted in Evander fighting Toney for less money, with no title at stake.


When a big mega money HW fight didn't materialise, he took on a huge challenge by burning muscle, to drop back to fight Tarver at LHW.


Even after he was finished as a top level fighter, he tried his best against Joe Calzaghe and Bernard Hopkins.


Today, he's trying to secure a CW title at 46.


So you can see that Roy wasn't just content to fight easy mandatories.


It's a common misconception that he took the easy path and dodged and ducked.


He had a bit of bad luck, but there's always things happening behind the scenes, that the average fan isn't aware of.

When fights don't get made, people are quick to jump to conclusions, and they shout 'duck!'

But boxing is a business. A business with rival networks, rival promoters, and with demands of future options and who's getting the higher percentage of the upside of the PPV, etc. Things that aren't common knowledge.


That's why I come on to these threads to fight Roy's corner. He's my favourite fighter (if you hadn't already noticed ) and he doesn't get a fair shake.


I'm as disappointed as anyone else that certain fights didn't get made. And he's made a few mistakes in his career.


But this was not a guy who tried to con the public.


He was a truly remarkable fighter, and he deserves a lot of respect.


:good

 

Yes, I think it's a shame things didn't work out differently.

The lineal champ isn't that important to me. Because it all depends on the circumstances. Of course I'd have loved to have seen the Dariusz fight. But you'd got two huge egos who wouldn't back down. But Zolt Erdei became the lineal champ. The lineal champ isn't always the best fighter.

I'd have loved Roy to have unified at SMW. But it just wasn't possible. So he moved up to LHW. Again, he fought everyone relevant, with the exception of Dariusz.

As per my previous post, he'd missed the boat at MW.

A rematch with Hopkins would have been great, but he wanted an equal split, even though Roy had beaten him, and he'd have had to have dropped weight. So unless Roy got the bigger split, there was nothing to gain. He didn't really want to lose weight at that point, because he'd already got one eye on the HW division.

By the time he went to HW at 34, he had zero interest in the CW division. Because his goal was to make history and to make huge money. IMHO, he went to HW two years too late.

Also, IMHO, he's now using the CW division just as an excuse to prolong his career.