Prime RJJ vs Tonight's Kovalev

There's many fighters who haven't fought or beaten opponents in their prime, while they too are prime.

The main reason being because of circumstances.

Roy at 24, fought Hopkins who was 28.

He also fought Toney at 25, who was 26.

 

60/40

 

Yeah, he has a few options, and I don't think he'll bow out on a loss.

 

'I kick yo ass!'

 

As amazing as Kovalev did, I have a hard time seeing anyone beating RJJ on his best night.

 

Went with Kovalev.

160-168 RJJ(prime) vs 175lbs Kovalev, RJJ would get knocked out cold the first time Kovalev hit. And with his accuracy and counter-punching he would connect.
RJJ speed
Kovalev, reach, strength + imo better fundamental boxing.
Against old Hopkins Kovalev had over 33% hit rate.
I'd say that version of Hopkins has a better defense then RJJ ever had.
RJJ could run and counter all night sure, but the moment he gets hits its over.


175lbs Roy is getting knocked out also, any version.
Like if Roy did what he did to Griffin vs Kovalev in the 2nd fight?
You honestly think Kovalev won't fire back one of his own and have Jones out of there brutally?

Jones has a chance of a KO of himself, but looking at the styles. I think Kovelev knocks him out brutally.
During his prime 160-168 and during his 1st tenure at LHW and his return to LHW

 

Could Kovalev have landed clean though?

If Roy had gained his respect early, with his power and his speed, would it have made Kov hesitant?

Nobody knows.

But Bernard caught him a few times.

Roy would have had no problem finding him.

The difference is, Kov had no respect for Bernard's power.

But he would had to have respected Roy's power.

We don't how good Kov's chin is, and Roy knocked out two 180 plus LHW's with single shots.

I could envisage Roy having success to the body.

There's no way that Bernard on Saturday night, had a better defence than Roy. That's absurd. I've no doubt that Bernard could take a better shot, but Kov was hitting him at will. Roy was extremely hard to hit clean in his 20's.

With regards to the Griffin fight, we don't know if Kov could have taken that punch, so we can't assume that he'd have just thrown back and brutally knocked out Roy.

We know he had the power to do it, but having the power, and actually being able to land, are two very different things.

I'm not saying that Ruiz is better than Kov, but Ruiz was a 226 pound HW who had the power to crush Roy.

But Roy's speed and power made him hesitant to keep walking forward.

Kov would be hit more against Roy, than any guy he's ever faced, and we just don't know how he'd react.

Psychology plays a huge part in the outcome of a fight, and if he was getting repeatedly counted, which would have been very likely IMHO, he may have backed off.

As it stands, he's a punching machine that looks cool and calm. He really does look impressive. He looks the real deal. But until we see the rest of his career unfold, we don't know if he'd have walked down Roy, like he walked down Bernard.

A quick head to head.

Footwork - Roy
Hand speed - Roy
Power - Kov
Shot variation - Roy
Defence - Roy
Timing - Roy
Accuracy - Roy
Reflexes - Roy
Chin - Kov
Reach - Kov
Strength - Kov
Overall skills - Roy


It would have been an intriguing clash of styles.

 

A coward with no heart?

atsch

 

Peak Roy's own power, speed and accuracy also combined with all the punches in his arsenal make him a better puncher than Kovalev in my opinion.

Roy was very content to cruise to decisions some of the time, and didn't even try to knock guys out, sometimes it came easy though.

49 year old Hopkins would have been on the ground more than once against the best LHW version of Roy.

It is my honest opinion that Hopkins knew he couldn't beat Roy at LHW, which is why he stayed at MW for so long, even though he was probably a better LHW.

 

Great post!

:good

 

According to what I've read, he did.

It was a possibility at one stage, and Roy and his representatives, met with Lewis and his representatives. They did have brief talks. It wasn't a fantasy.

I've seen numerous links and read excerpts from Jim Thomas's book, who was Evander Holyfield's attorney back then.

Thomas met Murad Muhammad and Don King to discuss a potential fight with Evander, and they told Thomas that they were going to put the same deal to the Lewis camp, that they'd presented to him.

They were shopping around for the best deal, with millions at stake. But they got too greedy and pissed off Evander, which resulted in him fighting Toney instead of Roy, for less money, with no title at stake.

Lennox then fought Vitali, and afterwards couldn't make his mind up whether or not he was fighting again. At one stage Manny Steward thought it had a chance of happening. According to Roy, he met Lewis, and Lewis told him that he still hadn't made a definite decision on his future, but he was thinking of retiring.

I think Roy would have fought him for crazy money.

It's not as crazy as it seems, because Lennox was way past his best then.

You can read the links.

The Vitali fight changed everything.

Before he fought Vitali, Lennox praised Roy, but said fighting him would be a bridge too far. He also spoke of fighting another two to three times.

Then after the Vitali fight, he changed his mind.

But if Roy had've had no intentions whatsoever of fighting Lennox, King wouldn't have laid out a proposal for them to consider.

That's my honest opinion.

Everyone knows how greedy Don was, and he didn't waste time when it came to money.

So there had to have been something in it.

 

After watching the way Kovalev was able to move in and out of range, I think his footwork and boxing would give Roy problems before I feel he scores a big KO.
I felt that this fight could go for a few rounds, but on further review, think Kovalev would end it in around 4 rounds

 

He was very impressive last week wasn't he?

Do you think Joe could have beaten him at LHW?

 

You seem a bit obsessed with Calzaghe. You have to accept that he beat Jones when Jones was a top 10 LHW on a good run