Retrospective: Toney vs Jones

Toney really didn't turn up for what should have been the best prime p4p fight of all time

Only mayweather pacquiao 2009 would have been a better fight for two guys at their peaks at the same time

Duran was already past prime in Montreal which makes his win that much more special

Although a post prime Duran beating Prime srl and beating prime Hagler over 12 rounds is freaking special

 

I don't know if Roy jones can ever be criticised for not using fundamentals

He did vs bhop and won easily

It's almost as though Roy was bored in the ring because he was so much better than everyone that he started to clowns round

The crowd love that kind of thing

I don't see anyone beating jones at 160-175 in history anyway, not even close

His chin is much much better than given credit for

His jab was great when he bothered using it

He got backed up easily because he decided he liked fighting off the ropes
Of he needed to move around, he could easily

His power in both hands was extrordinary

His reflexes was so on point, he slipped jabs with ease and his speed meant he could punish you with a ko lunch for missing a jab


His leaping left hook is one of the best shots in boxing history

The fight vs griffin where jones was roundly criticised is fair, jones used a weird short jab almost as a feeling out process, griffin had studied jones well and was actually excellent at this point
It doesn't matter because jones was behind on the score cards when he was disqualified but had turned the fight around to such a point that he would have won if it had gone to a decision, (it wouldn't have because griffin would have been stopped)

I just don't see a weakness in jones in his prime

against any other HOFer he had perfect performances

He never lost

He's bigger faster and hits harder than Robinson Hagler Leonard
Has both hands and if he really needed to he could box with them

 

Had to be RJJ"s best perfomancw against one of the beat boxers in the world at that time.

 

Jones movement gave Toney more trouble then anything. He couldn't deal with the lead left hook and then Jones moving to his left (Jones right). At one point leading to Toney spinning to his right after and trying to hit Jones.

 

He was much more difficult to catch when he had legs and could set up,traps much easier

 

This fight should have gone down in boxing history with fights like Leonard/Hearns. Everything in the build up suggested a great fight was inevitable, but what we got was a surprising mismatch.

Toney threw away his career with this fight and what happened afterwards. He literally ate himself out of contention and for all his arrogance and bravado he was mentally destroyed by the schooling he was given by Jones Jr, it took him years to recover.

As for Jones Jr this fight took him to a level that only the very best achieve. He was duly rewarded for this with a contract from HBO which guaranteed him an unprecedented minimum of $5 million per fight and this made Roy a diva. A superstar in his own head for many years who only ever became a box office success when he beat Ruiz. He was a financial disaster for HBO as they were forced to pay millions for Jones Jr fighting policemen and teaching assistants for many years. We'll never see HBO offer a deal close to this ever again because of what Roy did.

Jones Jr never reached his full potential, it's a scary thought but we may have only seen the best of him once because nobody he fought really challenged him. His loss to Griffin showed he wasn't invincible but what he did in the rematch was a brief glimpse of what a hungry and motivated Jones Jr could do.

This fight was the pinnacle of both their careers. Toney never reached the heights he did before this fight and Jones Jr never shone as brightly again even his performance over Ruiz was proven to be a lesser achievement when Toney repeated what Roy did.

 

Here is the FNF crew talking about Toney and his weight issues seems though he started to get a little on track when he went to cruiser



https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W7AKZipJEi8

 

Toney was the man, but I feel his best days we between '91-'93.

Still, RJJ made him look like a rank novice when they met. And I bet no fighter in history could do that to James except Roy. Roy was that gifted.

 

Yes he resurrected his career at cruiser, seemed to have finally begun managing his weight, though that ended soon after he moved up to heavyweight.

Had it not been for his success at cruiser and to some extent heavyweight we would probably see Toney in a very different light.

 

Agreed dam shame he lacked discipline he could have been greater than he was ..

 

Just a few points:


HBO weren't forced into doing anything.

Every time his contract expired, they gave him another one.

Roy fought on HBO over 30 times.

He didn't just fight easy mandatory defences.

HBO knew when they offered him his contracts, that he had mandatory obligations.

When he became the unified champ, he was obligated to fight mandatories from three different organisations.

 

Its funny how Jones Eastside Detractors have avoided this thread. Jones defeat of Toney is one of the greatest single victory by a boxer of the past 25 years.

 

Expect 4 hundred and 75 thousand pages of garbage from Jones Jr apologists telling you there was NOTHING wrong with his fundamentals, it was down to him adding muscle, then losing it which caused his downfall.

Good luck with trying to explain otherwise to them. They are like fundamentalist Muslims, too stupid to understand, so they simply " believe "