Irrefutable proof Jones and Hopkins ducked Calzaghe in their prime

can you guys do the irrefutable big foot evidence search this one is going no where

 

:good

 

I think it was more in general, and on that issue I think Jones could have done more to fight Nunn, and Steve Collins would have jumped at the opportunity to fight him.

 

Def. There's a long list of great fights RJJ never had any intention of making. It's a real shame as he would have been in with a great shout of winning all of them and making a case for himself being the GOAT.

What he ended up doing was wasting his talent until it was significantly diminished and then undermining his own legacy by taking a series of what should have been career ending losses.

 

Roy could have fought Nunn when he was his mandatory at LHW. There's no doubt about that. He relinquished the title. But in my opinion, he genuinely wanted a mega money HW fight at the time. After his father had blocked the James Douglas fight, he then pursued a fight with Evander. Evander's former attorney, Jim Thomas, has confirmed that. But there's a lot of people who think that Roy gave up the title because he feared losing to Nunn, as Nunn was a dangerous southpaw with great skills. And I can see why people think that. But in my opinion, I have to look at who Roy fought and who he tried to fight. I know that he tried to fight Frankie Liles the previous year. Both HBO and Frankie's manager have confirmed that. Then as we all know, Roy went on to fight Johnson, Harding, Tarver x3 and Calzaghe. So if I look at things logically, I find it puzzling that a guy who feared a past his best Nunn, would pursue Liles and then fight those other southpaws. That doesn't make sense to me. So I have to rule out that theory.

A Collins fight would have been great. But Roy left SMW after only 2 years, when he didn't have the opportunity to unify the division. When Collins came back in 1999, Roy was at LHW. But HBO weren't interested in a Collins fight, because he'd been inactive for 2 years and they wanted Roy to unify the division against Reggie Johnson instead. I think Roy admired his courage and respected him. But I don't believe that Roy feared him in any way.

 

I've seen more than enough evidence over the years that proves that Roy wanted the best fights out there.

It's a myth that he was content to just feast on easy opposition.

 

Hahaha!

 

Nunn and DM are the two fights that Roy could have made that stand out IMO. Though, I don't think he would have got a ton of credit for beating Nunn at the time, and was a risky fight for him. I think he would have out pointed that version of Nunn but might not have looked great doing it.

DM and Roy not coming to an agreement was a huge black eye for boxing though, and I think they are both to blame at times.

 

The blame Roy gets for not trying to clear out HW is ridiculous IMO, the guy wasn't even a big LHW.

 

I dont believe Jones feared either of them but they were perfectly doable matches for him if he'd wanted them but, for whatever reason, those fights didn't happen and I think he's more to blame than Nunn or Collins for that failure.

I dont place all the fault for fights not happening on Jones's shoulders but it will always be a dissapointment that he missed out on so many people - Jackson, McClellan, Nunn, Liles, Little, Eubank, Benn, Collins, Michalczewski, you could even throw in Rocchigiani

 

The problem with Jones's heavyweight spell is that he only fought one person and did not establish himself in the division. I dont think he could have cleared the heavyweight division - honestly I think it heavyweight was a step too far for him - but there are fighters he could have beaten to give more legitimacy to his heavyweight run - I think he could have beat Byrd, and I know he could have beat Sanders, I'd favour him over Rahman too - but because he didn't he left the impression that he singled out the one champion he knew he could beat easy just to pick up the belt - which did him no favours and ruined whatever positive reputation Ruiz might have had.

 

It was a travesty that Roy and Dariusz didn't fight. I think they could possibly have tried harder for a fight on neutral ground. But I can't criticise Roy at all for not wanting to take all of the belts to Germany.

I always wonder how things would have turned out if Dariusz hadn't been stripped and Roy hadn't had his belt handed back to him.

 

I agree 100%. Those fights would have been great. It's a real shame they were never made, and I can certainly understand the frustration of the fans. But there's so many things that people need to take into account, such as: There were rival networks, rival promoters, and rival organisations etc. Then there were things happening behind the scenes that your average fan wasn't aware of, such as: Fighters wanting huge purses, promoters wanting future options, and attorney's disputing the splits of the PPV revenue etc. It's a complex business. Then there's the timelines to consider and the comments and chosen career paths of some of those guys you've listed. We've discussed this before, but just a few examples are: Liles turning down a career high pay day, and Eubank admitting that he was content just to defend his WBO belt against his mandatories. Regarding the timelines, another quick example would be: Tim Littles. Littles was knocked out in just 3 rounds by Toney, whilst Roy was still a MW. Then Roy obviously moved up to fight Toney afterwards. Again, there's an awful lot to consider. People have to realise (not yourself) that most of those opponents that you have listed just weren't viable.

 

I agree, but Roy was almost 35, and he'd fought 49 times at that point. Only a mega money fight would have kept him in the division for longer. But there weren't any that were viable. Regarding Sanders, I think that would have been a horrible match up for Roy stylistically.

 

Exactly..

We have to remember at the time Roy wasn't looking to establish himself as a HW. He was eyeing retirement and wanted a big payday fight.