Did Roy Jones Jr had quick reflexes or was it more instinct?

He had a lot of things including intensive training from a very young age and a willingness to learn how and when to move.

 

Which in essence is great reflexes .. which is probably the answer here .. Instinct being something not learned ,, His reflexes come to mind for me ,, Top 3 all time

 

You need to have very good reflexes to consistently dodge punches at the last second; even if the majority of those shots were anticipated. He would sometimes dodge entire combinations, not just one big hit.

 

He had an absolute abundance of both.

 

This.

In combat sports, training intensively to dodge sequences of punches and then countering successfully is development of reflex until it becomes instinctive. Where you see people like Roy, Ali, Floyd, SRL, Duran, Toney be really good is not only do they dodge the punches they've trained to dodge, they improvise with their counters and react instantly to non-orthodox combinations too.

 

For Roy, imo, it came down to just sheer reaction time and speed/agility to carry it through.

I would interpret instinct as anticipation, conscious or unconscious, reading precursive, signalling movements - more perhaps in the realm of El Radar but not so much Roy.

 

Skill and practicing from an early age.

 

Quite a bit of it is actually trap setting and constantly setting and breaking expectations. Jones is one the best trap setters I've seen in a Boxing ring and was brilliant at wrecking rhythms. This is an ability not related as much to pure technique. Jones could dodge because the opponent threw the punches he wanted them to. This eventually becomes an intuitive process so you could say 'instinct' in a sense. He was also extremely focused and aware of his position and surroundings.

His reactions were incredible, however. That is undeniable. But if it was just pure reaction he would've slipped and got sparked earlier than he eventually did.

 

It was his crazy dad.

 

more reflexes. Pernell Whitaker had the instincts as well as Floyd.

 

All I know is that RJJ sparks any 1940s light heavyweight

 

They are one in the same