If Roy Jones Never Moved Up To Heavyweight How Different Would His Career Be?

Beats him on cuts

 

After he beat Ruiz, people thought that he walked on water.

The popular press proclaimed him as the first middleweight to win a heavyweight title since Bob Fitzsimmons.

He was getting mentioned in discussions of the p4p GOAT.

He was being discussed as a potential challenger for Lenox Lewis.

A lot of people assumed that he had an iron chin.

He would have done very well to get out at the right time.

He basically blew his legacy over a fight with Tarver, that would have done little to enhance it if he had won.

 

He was one of the P4P best fighters of all time, so I don't think his reputation after Ruiz was unjustified or unearned.

 

Agreed. Either retiring after Ruiz or even the FIRST Tarver fight would have been fine. Either way. But fighting on for many years and picking up a swath of losses did him no justice

 

I don't see how a case for him could be made based on his resume.

The p4p greats of the gloved era, is an incredibly deep argument.

It is a shark tank!

 

The rise of weight ruined him

 

Would have been epic to see Roy deal with that kind of pressure.

 

I can attest to this.

I’ve been declining rapidly for more than 20 years now.

 

Tarver KO's him in the rematch.

 

And Tarver is older than Jones.

 

I don’t even know for sure who belongs in the top ten anymore to be honest. Robinson, Armstrong, Moore, Charles and Duran are the more likely candidates I can think of.

 

Jones said the reason he didn’t Is because he didn’t want to fight some of those bigger men and I don’t blame him

 

Yes but Tarver did not drop have two weight classes. Which aged Roy a lot more than it should have.

 

Great post. I do think his chin/durability dropped off as well particularly after fighting again too soon after being stopped. The things is he was at a career point not far off where Hagler and Monzon were when they retired - he should have been waning and dropping off. Unfortunately for him the drop off was a fast one. Some drop off gracefully like a Holmes, a Lewis, a Frazier where as others really hit te wall like Chandler or Curry for instance.