I saw those fights years ago. And bias has nothing to do with it. There are many who felt Jones was on the decline. Get over it
You're uncomfortable with having your thoughts challenged. Tarver at that time was the best h2h fighter Jones had fought since Hopkins, and Hopkins didn't have that one punch power. Leading up to that fight, Tarver ended the career of Chris Johnson with the left hand and ended the prime of Harding with the left. Reggie and Griffin turned irrelevant after fights with Tarver, and a 22-0 fighter named Lincoln Carter also retired. Jones had already been tagged with that punch by Del Valle. And ironically enough, Tarver rebounded his career after a big weight cut at a much more advanced age than Jones and didn't require any passes. People would rather cover there ears and jump under a quilt than give Tarver credit.
Interesting fight but I'm going with Tarver by UD but I could also see DM out working Tarver. I like Tarver's defense and counterpunching a little more than DM's pressure and aggression.
Lol. I’m the one who’s uncomfortable with having my thoughts challenged? You’re the one whos going on and on. Tarver’s career was fine. But I favor DM. Have a great night
I think Tarver was always going to give Roy some amount of trouble - tall southpaw who had a good punch. But Roy wasn't at his best when they met. I've watched Darius alot. At the start of his career he was a rugged boxer with a good left-hand. But somewhere during his career he became alot more refined. Does anyone know why? Virgil Hill like him or not had a master jab and Darius beat Hills jab with his jab despite having a shorter reach. It was very impressive.
He was beaten by Rochigiani where he basically quit. He only fought in home turf with favourable referee. The Hill and Griffin look better on paper, they were not at their best and Griffin stoppage was too early. Griffin took the fight on relatively short notice, that is someting German liked to do. Short notices and home referees, it was like that in Germany. Against Hall, Dariusz eye was totally closed, that fight would have been stopped anywhere else. Do not get me wrong Dariusz is a good fight with a good record. But his record suggests that he was better than he really was. I followed boxing closely at the time. It takes a lot more than just having a look at boxrec
I'm sure you picked Tarver to knock Jones out and thought Jones looked fantastic against Eric Harding a few years earlier.
No... I didn’t pick Tarver to knock out Jones as Roy fell off a very steep cliff fast. After losing to Tarver he also lost to glen johnson and his career kept spiraling down from there, never really reaching world beater status again. Roy’s primary strength was his natural speed and athleticism which deteriorated rapidly by the time he hit 34-35 ( around the time he fought Tarver). Meanwhile Antonio was one of these guys who bloomed late and actually performed well in old age. It also helps that Tarver didn’t have anywhere near as many fights or wear and tear and didn’t fight through as many weight classes or had to drop a shlt ton of weight as Roy did after fighting Ruiz...... Now see people who actually lived and paid attention during the era know these things but for those who simply look at “ results “ will just say “ Tarver beat The GREAT Roy Jones. “ P.S. I doubt very many people will agree that Tarver was a better fighter than the Jones of 4-5 years earlier
Funny thing is Rock did beat him up the first time and DM was looking for a way out. The second time that nobody ever mentions is DM beat Rock pretty good.
