Head 2 Head, how good was Roy Jones Jr?

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Perfect combination of boxing talent, athletic genetic propensity and the area of great performance enhancing drugs with terrible PED testing

Likely the H2H goat at 160-168 all time, though he was huge at 160-168 so its a little bit unfair to those in the same day weighin era (one of the billion reasons why cross-era comparisons dont work or make sense). Could be argued for 175 as well. Wouldn't go that far tho.

 

I think he was a maverick.. but i also think he's overrated. Especially at LHW. Great reflex fighter, maybe the greatest .. but boxing can test u in so many other ways.

 

Hard to beat at 160 or 168 lbs. Not impossible but his speed, reflexes and power were so off the charts. I only give Hagler, Monzon, SRR and maybe one or two others a chance vs him at these weights.

At 175, he still beats most of the greats but he isn't quite as unbeatable. Tall punchers like Foster and Spinks would be favoured over him. Moore and Langford had the kind of skill and power to perhaps break through his defense. Maybe. Charles has the combination of skill, speed and power to maybe favoured over RJJ.

Outside of those 5, its hard to give anyone a significant chance over RJJ even at 175.

 

The prime Jones who was around for more than a decade? I would pick him over most ATG's in the respective divisions. He was as much an outlier physically as we have ever seen. The discussion of him being better than SRR was being actively had by a lot of prominent boxing voices before he hit the age of 34 when the physical attributes he relied on, reflexes, speed and balance, began to betray him. His best career move would have been a fiery car crash at 33.

 

At 160 he would rank very highly but we didn't see him enough vs notable opposition.

At 168 I think he's unbeatable.

At 175 he's still very good but there's a few Light Heavyweights I'd pick to KO him Foster, Spinks, come to mind instantly.

 

What I can say is that I've never seen a fighter so superior to everyone he stepped in the ring with for 10+ years, and he was in there with some very good ones. He made top contenders look like club fighters.

Would there be a Tarver out there for prime Jones? Possibly. Maybe even Tarver was that person. And you can never rule out someone landing a single homerun like Tarver did. That can always happen, it did to Lewis twice and many still rank him among the absolute best h2h. But I've never seen someone look as untouchable as RJJ did over a decade.

 

Wladimir Kiltschko

 

At 160 and 168 he's in the mix for H2H GOAT about as much as anyone.

 

Thgought about him, but there was the Peter fight.which was a rough one, so he doesn't get 10+ years I think.

 

Even if he never fought Peter, he still always looked much easier to beat than Roy imo.

 

He was amazing. He could beat anyone.

 

Roid was a physical specimen. Not only that, he was an underrated ring general and a great trap setter at his best. To beat him, you would have to be cognizant of said trap setting and either be able to catch up and spark him or be fast / skilled enough to box with him.

At 160, Roid really wasn't really that tested in an all time sense. I would pick Hagler to spark him, and find it hard to mentally match him with other greats. Given Roid's propensity to get stuck on the ropes and his subpar infighting skills, I would even give a guy like LaMotta a good chance.

At 168 he is likely the H2H GOAT, due to his showings and the divisions weaker historicity. I can't think of any career fighters here who beat him or match up well style wise.

175 is one of the deepest divisions in boxing H2H. I would pick Roid to lose or get sparked here against a number of greats and even near greats. Qawi in particular is a nightmare style for him imo - like Griffin x100. Roid always struggled with a strong jab at his chest and was awful off the ropes.