How do you guys feel Jones Jr. would of done against Tarver in his first two fights (there may not have been a third in some people's opinion if he hadn't gone up and down the weight divisions) had he not opted to fight Ruiz and step up to Heavyweight? Personally, I think the same thing would of happened, but Jones Jr. may have outpointed Tarver a little better in the first thus not needing to participate in a rematch, but had he done that and even if he'd beaten Tarver without being dropped like a sack of spuds, I think he would of eventually been knocked out. You can't go that long and not be caught eventually, plus with him dropping weight, it was a year plus before he actually got KO'd, in the first fight back his chin wasn't any worse. So I think it wouldn't of made any difference, but I definitely think that KO loss impacted on his defeat of Johnson. Not truly sure about his third fight with Tarver though, I have no opinion on that fight.
TARVER is never ever in the class of Roy Jones junior. Not on his best day against a fit and prime Roy Jones.
That Roy Jones was forever gone.....not even close to his best. He threw a couple of punches in round 5 that get talked about as "flashes of vintage Roy". He was dead and buried. He looks OK aginst B level guys now. He is done
you realise how bad Jones has become when a lumbering oaf like Tarver can beat him. His legs have gone, what made Jones such an axceptional fighter was his ring generalship and movement, hes lost that ....He lays on the ropes no lateral movement etc....thats not his fault he was 35 when he lost to those guys + he lost alot of Quality mass.....no one in History would be able to perform to their optimum losing 25 lbs of Quality mass.... Many have tried many have failed ....Oscar, Byrd etc Dio you think Bernard Hopkins would go back down to Middleweight even? ROFL Listen...Tarver wouldnt hold Jones' jock in his prime, Glen Johnson....he couldn teven hold Omar SHeikas!!!
Jones got old overnight. He put on 18lbs to fight Ruiz at 193 not 25. And I bet he didn't rehydrate after weighing in at 193 like he would have done at 175. So it was probably closer to 10 pounds in reality. Then fought Tarver 8 months later. It's not like he lost the weight overnight. And he would have been at his weakest in the first fight, not the second, which happened over a YEAR (14 months) after fighting Ruiz. So the weight is mostly bull****. However, Jones was a speedy fighter who relied on reflexes and athleticism. They're youth traits and no one stays young forever. Except Bhop but he cannot be killed with conventional weapons. Back to the point. Without the time it took to go up and down in weight Jones would have been at the same 'youth' fighting Tarver as he had against Ruiz. Therefore he would have owned Tarver but gone on to be knocked out by someone else.
What people have to realize is that Tarver was the first true test for Roy for years, I mean guys like Woods or Gonzalez weren't bad, but Tarver had the size, the strength, the skills, the confidence to win and the right game plan to take away Jones's speed and abuse him at the ropes like no one before, not letting Roy fight off as usual. No doubt Roy was affected by quick weigh-gain and weight-loss, which was absolutely ridiculous for a top athlete in just a few months (my suspicion is that Roy took something, not necessarily illegal, but something to help gaining and getting rid of the amount of muscle a normal adult athlete just normally and naturally couldn't). But IMO Tarver would've given all kinds of problems in the past anyway given his physical abilities, style, confidence and game plan. Who would've won? Well, I scored the first fight for Roy by a point anyway, so a top, healthy Roy would've made it a bit wider, but still struggling against Tarver. You don't get that old overnight. Tarver is simply not Clinton Woods or a handpicked slow hugger like John Ruiz, and that's a big difference. The real struggle came after Roy got KTFO, and that was their 2nd fight, people forget that.
There never would've been a rematch. Roy would've KO'd Tarver in the 1st fight. The only time Tarver did anything was when Roy put his back to the ropes. Tarver wouldn't even throw a punch in the middle of the ring. The best performance I ever saw from Tarver was the 1st Glen Johnson fight. He earned a TON of respect from me that night.
