One thing about Roy's legacy...

He wanted to get back to what he was...fighting like he use to. The problem is that he can't take a good hit at this stage. Ali got hit a lot more during the latter stages of his career but was never KO'd because he had a solid chin...Roy doesn't.

Time will tell how he will be perceived in terms of greatness. Hopefully people aren't too critical of this latter stage of his career because as you say, he was phenomonal in his prime.

 

Ali was 38 when Holmes beat him up, Sugar Ray Leonard was 35 when Terry Norris beat him pillar to post. Are you taking points from their legacies, too?

 

Exactly. Roy's legacy is not affected by these recent fights.

 

Roy has done more then enough in his prime to be ranked clearly over Hopkins...including beating him.

What a man does once he is past prime should be put into context...If its big wins then he should be given a hell of a lot of credit...if they are bad loses then they should be just about disregarded.

 

janeschicken is correct. Jones's legacy is based on his fights up until his world title win over Ruiz.- the only middleweight to ever win a heavyweight world title. What happened after than was his decline, and you dont take that into account.

 

And what about Ali-Berbick? Ali was the same age as Roy tonight.

Does that take him a few spots down the all time heavyweight list?

 

Definitely Jones didnt become wily like Hopkins and others he continued to really on his athleticism which was increasingly deteriorating and refused to learn any knew tricks. Doesnt take much away from him though hes still ATG.

 

Jones career is still better than Hopkins now.

But Hopkins still has a chance to rank ahead of Jones, he is still fighting and still looks good. (we'll see tonight)

 

RJJ was never able to come back and win in any fight in which he faced real adversity.

 

True enough but Roys career lacks the Frazier, Patterson , Liston , Foreman etc that Alis has , same can be said for SRL .

its easier to forgive what happened to those guys when they went on too long than it is for Jones who spent ( the majority ) of his career showbaoting and taking the **** out of guys way below his level.

It is a fair point tho to say losses at this age should be put into context , but that context also depends on the fighter

 

Man I never get post fight blues this bad when a boxer I like gets knocked out.

I'm so glad I wasn't around for the Tarver/Johnson fiasco, I would of had a nervous breakdown.

 

True , its easy to sit and discuss legacies and **** , but that was another bad KO , we should all hope Roy is ok !

 

Fair enough.

So tell me why you believe Roy should be judged for his recent losses in his career?

BTW, I never compared Jones to Ali or Ray. Just used them as examples (Ali, actually) to show how a fighter who loses when clearly past their best should not be judged for that. Perhaps the example was a bit extreme, but not outrageous.