Prior to Tarver, was anyone even remotely competitive vs RJJ?

Montell Griffin did well in their first fight. I had him behind but he was giving Jones some problems before the DQ. Montell was a very good fighter. Smart and slick.

 

Well, there was this guy called Montell Griffin. He was so competitive with Roy that he beat him.
Hopkins was competitive as well.
Lou Del Valle dropped Roy if that counts as competitive. Roy pretty soundly won the rest of the fight mind you.

 

Eric Harding was doing well before hurting his arm.

(If Jones was shot for Tarver, why did Griffin and Harding cause problems? And why did Del Valle drop him?)

 

Harding won some rounds and RJJ had to rally late targeting his arm.

Griffin may of been up on points in the 1st fight.

Del Valle knocked him down.

And old McCallum won a few rounds but I think RJJ carried him in the late rounds honestly.

 

The 1st fight I think RJJ was effected by the dramatic weight loss and he was under par for that fight.

The 2nd fight he looked considerably better IMO he just got caught with a perfectly timed shot, and that just seemed to ruin his confidence and his punch resistance never seemed to quite be the same.

 

I don’t think Hopkins was particularly competitive, & Jones did it with one hand. Granted that was a pre-prime Hopkins, but I’d rather be green than one-handed for a fight.

Griffin was doing relatively okay prior to the DQ…that’s about as well as anyone did. McCallum would have had he been in his pomp.

 

Same view.

Tarver himself cut a bunch of weight at an older age than Jones for the Hopkins fight. His form was less than perfect on that night, but he didn’t use it as excuse for repeatedly getting knocked out in subsequent fights. He never even touched the canvas after that.

 

Montell Griffith won the most rounds out of anyone against RJJ in their first fight. I recall having RJJ slightly ahead prior to the "DQ".

 

Roy got hit on the way up to HW. The way he came down back to LHW was all wrong. Losing that much muscle, that quickly and at that age when you're an elite athlete will have huge impact and as we saw, Roy was impacted.

This doesn't excuse his losses but certainly, in my mind, the first fight was the last ounce of true grit that he had left. After that, whilst still clearly a great talent, that superhuman element that he once possessed had left him.

As has previously been said, Griffin probably did the best to stifle him up to that point.

 

I thought Griffin outboxed/outworked Jones for lengthy stretches of their 1st fight, but Jones stayed even w/ him largely on the basis of isolated moments where he staggered or dropped Griffin.

 

I rewatched the Toney fight pretty recently and was surprised at how many big shots James was able to put out there. As previously mentioned Griffin in their first fight.

 

I don't think his mind was on the fight first time around.

In their second fight, Jones was clearly pissed off...his perfect record lost to a questionable DQ.

From the opening bell, he was intent on delivering brutal revenge, and it didn't take long to get dealt.

I believe with that kind of motivation, he would have stopped Toney or BHop just as brutally, or any body else he faced at or below 175.

 

No.

He claimed that he’d been drugged instead.

Ha!

 

Roy hurt his arm.

What sort of a stupid question is that?