Joe Calzaghe calling out Roy Jones multiple times in 2000 and 2001

It's hard to reconcile Roy being still in his prime with losses to guys like Johnson and Green who for all appearances are no better than numerous guys he beat previously. If he could handle fighters like that with ease a few years prior it doesn't make a lot of sense that he would start getting beaten by them with ease unless he was in decline.

It would be like Usyk losing by kayo to Kevin Lerena in his next fight. With all respect to Lerena he doesn't appear to bring anything Usyk hasn't dealt with before.

 

Some very odd arguments being made here.
The evidence clearly shows that Jones was finished as a top level fighter after Glen Johnson. And why wouldn't be have been in decline earlier? He was a speed and reflexes fighters who peaked IMO around '94 - '98 and lost cleanly to Tarver aged 34. This is a perfectly logical position to take ... UNLIKE arguing that was still prime at this point - and even beyond.
Yes, Joe was older when they fought (though not as old as Roy who, let's remember, hadnt beaten an elite boxer for 5 years) but every fighter is different - and ages differently. We all know this. I'm quite happy to have a debate, but to argue otherwise makes very little sense to me.
Calzaghe wanted no part of Jones until he was older and less of a threat, after spending most of his career happily feasting on low level mandatories. One of his great strengths was timing - not just in the ring per se, but when he decided to take those big fight risks.

 

Great post.

And Roy was 35 when he lost to Tarver.

 

Bob he was 34 when he lost to Tarver in the first fight

 

Except that he didn’t lose the first fight.

 

It wasn't a one sided schooling? What did you watch?

 

A schooling?

Really?

Light flurries against a high guard, from a shot fighter?

It was hardly peak Nunn/Pea.

 

Jelly Jaw Glass Jaw Roy had a very carefully crafted career the way he managed to maneuver through divisions and somehow miraculously avoided the hardest punchers. Roy never beat an undisputed, lineal, or unified champion despite having multiple opportunities to do so at various weight classes. He wasn’t called Reluctant Roy for no reason.

 

The divisions didn't have any standout punchers for him to duck to begin with. Sure doesn't look like a carefully crafted career to me. He fought most everyone relevant at light heavyweight

 

Dariusz Michalczewski?

 

The careful management of facing an (effectively) undefeated Bernard Hopkins and an undefeated James Toney. So risk averse, I'm amazed. Eddie Hearn is studying this management as he plans fights for Joshua 3.0.

 

What about him? I don't rate him a huge puncher.

 

Joe utterly clowned Roy. It was embarrassing.

 

Get real.

 

Such nonsense. Learn to score a fight.