Prime for prime - Roy Jones v. Joe Calzaghe

No offense to you, but in my opinion, you never watched their careers in their entirety. Not with what you've written.

Roy hadn't just lost a step when they fought.

Roy was completely finished as a top level fighter at that stage.

Going into their 2008 fight, Roy hadn't had a top level win in 5 years.

He'd been knocked out by Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson over 4 years earlier in 2004, and he was knocked out in a round by Danny Green just 12 months after he'd fought Joe, in 2009. And that was the start of another streak of 3 consecutive losses.

Again, Joe himself repeatedly said that Roy was a shot fighter, even before they fought. The version of Roy who Joe fought didn't even resemble the versions of Roy who'd embarrassed Toney and destroyed Griffin and Hill etc. It would be like comparing the versions of Mike Tyson who beat Michael Spinks and Larry Holmes, to the versions who fought Lennox Lewis and Danny Williams etc.

Joe easily beating Roy in 2008 means absolutely nothing when discussing a prime for prime fight. It is completely irrelevant. Glen Johnson bullied Roy for 9 rounds and then knocked him cold. And Johnson was a guy who split 3 fights with Clinton Woods. The version of Roy who Joe fought was gun shy with severely diminished reflexes and punch resistance. His legs had gone. It was literally like watching a completely different fighter.

Nobody is splitting hairs when looking at their ability.

Roy in his prime was a clear level above any version of Joe.

I saw both of their careers.

I saw Joe sometimes struggle, even with low level guys. I saw him look poor against Ricky Thornberry and David Starie. I saw him struggle with Robin Reid, barely scraping by him on a split decision. And that was sandwiched in-between Reid's 2 losses to Thulani Malinga and Silvio Branco. I saw Joe get dropped by Byron Mitchell, where he looked extremely vulnerable until he scored a stoppage. I saw him get dropped by a European level fighter called Kabary Salem. I saw him get hit by right hands all throughout his career, as he was always susceptible to them. Yes, he was a great fighter. But he wasn't unbeatable just because he was unbeaten.

The only advantages that Joe held over Roy was that he had a great chin and great stamina. But Roy trumped him in every other department. Roy was faster than him. He had faster hands, faster feet and faster reflexes. He was also more powerful, with one shot knockout power in either hand. He was much harder to hit. He was far more accurate with better timing. He also had a bigger arsenal of shots and possessed supreme confidence and arrogance.

Whilst Joe looked vulnerable in some of his fights, even in his 20's, Roy barely lost rounds in the majority of his fights.

Go and watch Roy destroy Montel Griffin in a round with a lead uppercut. Go and watch him destroy Virgil Hill with a 4th round body shot which left him completely debilitated. Go and watch him toy with a version of Reggie Johnson who was still a very good fighter.

Go and watch those fights and then come back and tell me that there was only a hair between them. There wasn't.

The versions of Roy in his mid 90's prime was just superior.

 

Jones takes this by clear UD. As has been said ,Joe was very good but Roy was one of the all time greats.

 

He was always susceptible to right hands.

He was obviously past his physical prime, but nobody who watched him fight Kessler and Hopkins would say that he was badly faded and looking really old.

He was still an elite level fighter and in the top 10 P4P lists.

 

You’ve either misunderstood my post, or you’ve replied to the wrong person.

 

Thread is bull. Jones was in different class. At 168, he was at his best. Joe would struggle to make this even remotely competitive. Jones by UD.

 

Wow...

 

Spot on, great post.

 

You make excellent points about psychology when predicting fantasy fights, a factor that gets overlooked a lot on here. Wladimir Klitschko is a very good example, I mean the guy fought scared against Samuel Peter and Sultan Ibragimov of all people but you get the usual suspects confidently predicting he'd beat prime Holyfield, Foreman and Joe Louis !! Wlad would have been frozen with fear and too scared to let the right hand go for fear of being countered against any ATG HW with a punch.

As for RJJ - Calzaghe I can't think of too many if any advantages Joe had over Roy, maybe chin ?? It would be competitive perhaps in the latter rounds when JC's elite stamina would be a factor. I'll say Roy wins this 8-4.

 

I like both fighters but in their primes I’d have to make Jones a heavy favorite.

 

No worries.

In my honest opinion, unless Joe had’ve really gone at Roy hard, I think a lot of people would have been disappointed. I envisage a fight which would have been quite dull, where they’d have both gone feint for feint with each other.

I’d have had Roy winning a pretty lacklustre decision.