Muhammud Ali vs. Roy Jones

Bull****. Total bull****.

 

In height and reach Jones is Joe Frazier; he would have to come to the much taller Ali, who is notoriously hard to hit, no matter how fast Jones may be.

Ali, in on-his-toes prowl mode, would seek the opening and find it quickly; he then of course clobbers the smaller man.

We are talking the sharpshooting prime Ali, not the old man floundering against Young.

 

Love your avatar MrBassie, I have got into TPB a lot recently

As for Ali-Jones, I think this is a mismatch in Ali's favour.

While I agree Jones represents a difficult style matchup for Ali, the reverse is also true. What happens to Jones when he faces someone who is quick enough to annul his own athletic prowess, but who is also stronger, more robust, more confident and has all the physical advantages.

This is a complete nightmare for Jones...

 

Ali isn't as fast as Jones.

 

Ali looked fast compared to slow-footed slow-handed big guys, indeed.

 

Ali wasn't as fast as prime light-heavy weight Jones.

But he was faster than the Jones who fought Ruiz, quite a bit faster.

(I'm a big fan of both. Along with SRR, SRL, Floyd and Sweetpea, they make , IMO, the six most naturally talented boxers of alltime.)

However, as a heavywt, Roy would not crack my top ten, probably not even my top 20.

In a match-up between the best ever heavywt, and the best ever light heavywt, Roy gets stopped.

 

That is simply not true. Did you watch him or just assume that since he put on muscle he slowed down? Yes, he was not as fast as in his days from MW-LHW, not quite, but still unbelievably fast, especially for a HW. Ali was never that fast, having watched a lot of footage of him in his younger days as well. Jones in the Ruiz fight was faster/more explosive.

 

I watched the Ruiz fight live (and was quite entertained by Stoney) and I've watched parts of it again since.

I' ve also watched Ali-Liston 1 (actually all but the first few of Ali's fights and IMO, the 1964-67 Ali was much faster, both on his feet and with his combinationa than the heavywt version of Roy.

Other factors that would also favour Ali include mental strength (heart) and chin. (He's superior to Roy in both areas).

And of course, the 'psych' aspect where Ali was a master of getting into his opponent's head.

 

Either re-watch the Jones/Ruiz fight or get your eyes fixed. Ali was not faster on his feet, he just had to use them a lot more than Jones. As far as handspeed, you must be joking. Ali had quick, smooth shots with quick flurries. Jones had explosive, blink of an eye shots. Jones has a comfortable edge in terms of quickness/explosiveness.

 

To borrow from another thread, you need to eat more carrots, lots more.

Ali's footspeed was better than heavywt Roy's.

 

Nice.

As far as footspeed, again, Jones didn't need to use the kind of movement Ali did. But as far as handspeed, Jones had him outdone handily.

 

You can only judge the guy on what he actually did.

Ali had better, faster foot movement in the 60's than Roy did against Ruiz.

I'm wondering if I'm dreaming or actually debating with a serious poster (as opposed to some of the ****wits we get on here), the outcome of a prime Ali-Jones bout.

 

It was especially evident after which, 5th round of that fight?

 

I presume you're referring to the 22 year-old Ali getting rattled after linament was deliberately introduced into his eyes ?

And what was the outcome ?

He fought through the danger and , almost blind, kept Liston off him. (The same Liston who had twice demolished the much more experienced Patterson in one round)

In the sixth round he completely dominated and frustrated Liston to the point where he wanted no more (no mas ?) and quit on his stool rather than be further humiliated by a young fighter in his first big fight, one he had seriously underestimated, at the cost of his title.

 

Jones was never in a position to be considered as competition for any of the great Heavys...Ali TKO but Louis,Marciano and Dempsey ETC. would brutally Smash Jones