Rjj appreciation thread!

thats a pretty lame excuse if you ask me, whether he was green, raw, blue whatever, he was still young and fresh. and was considered a top talent and dangerous fighter back then. it was expected to be a barn burner, but it turned out to be lop-sided.

 

Who had hopkins fought of significance when he faced jones? you tell me?......hopkins didnt even win a title till 2 years after that fight....he was green when he fought jones, and the evidence shows it

 

but he is better everyone with a decent mind knows that and rates him higher than all of those.

 

It was the "green" Toney part that had me rolling. I could've sworn Toney was in contention for best P4P fighter in the world right behind Pernell Whitaker at that time. You know, the same time Jones shut him out and embarassed him. Hopkins may have been green in terms of experience, but he was clearly already a very good fighter with excellent fundamentals, and would go on to win the title soon after losing to Roy. He was in his physical peak at that time, he just didn't have the experience built up that he'd later gain.

He missed out on a fight with Tiger Michalczewski at LHW, which was the fault of both parties, not just Roy's. Aside from that, Calzaghe had no interest in fighting that version of Roy at that time, and he didn't miss out on much else unless you take the claims of him ducking an ancient Nunn seriously. We all know how the Jones/Hopkins II negotiations went down when both were in their primes, that wasn't Roy's fault there.

Aside from that his opposition gets a bit underrated IMO. Maybe not much his opposition as the way he beat them. He completely and utterly outclassed everyone he ever fought outside of the first Montell Griffin fight (which he avenged via first round knockout) and maybe the fight with Hopkins, where Roy himself was green and still managed to win an easy 9 rounds.

His prime was at MW and SMW. He was an excellent LHW for a time but I too feel he was a tad overrated there. He was still dominating the class with ease, but his opposition past a certain point was very suspect and he didn't show the full range of abilities there (especially in terms of punching power) as he did at the lower weights. There he was brilliant, one of the most amazing fighters there's ever been. The evidence was in person. Watching the guy fight was enough proof of his skills, and he never faltered in his prime.

He'd already been fighting 15 years by the time of the Tarver rematch. For a fighter who relies on his speed and reflexes and is continuously moving up in weight, that's a long ass time. Especially considering how he drained back down from Heavyweight for the first fight in what should've been his last hurrah. He was clearly nowhere near the fighter he once was by the time of the Tarver and Johnson fights. IMHO, neither of those guys were much better, if at all than some of Jones's earlier LHW challengers like Hill, Griffin, etc. Hell, even an old McCallum was just as good.

The only thing these last few years have proved is that Jones is a rusted up shell of his former self.

 

I never said green toney, maybe you misread but i said a green hopkins...I agree with most of what you said....I just take issue with people that rank jones' so highly on talent alone....his resume is solid....but is it top 20 ATG like some claim on here? I don't think so...

 

Whoever says Jones is top 20 material are definitely overrating his resume. I think top 35 is a solid place for him.

 

It is now clear to me why he is "reluctant" Roy all these time.

That is why he wouldn't go for the kill when Reggie Johnson, Richard Hall and a bunch of handy mannies were obviously hurt and ready to go.

He is and always been a punch away from a KO loss and there is no other man who knows it better than himself.

 

so he doesn't rank high because he doesn't always go for the KO?? thats a stupid reason, maybe its because he's more of a boxer and not a puncher.

 

Roy was great. What hurts his career is that he would not fight the Calzaghes and the Maske guys when they were good. Very much like Floyd Mayweather. He did dominate many guys, but his fight footage is not varied. The same stuff over and over of outboxing mediocre challenges-even Ruiz was a handpicking of the easiest heavyweight he could fight. He was great, and the Green fight will not hurt his legacy much. What will hurt it is he didn't fight all the best and try to establish a legacy when he was prime. Even when he was out of his prime he tried to handpick fighters , and he thought Green would be easier than it was apparently.

 

Top 20 is too high for me as well. I'd have him in the 30-40 range myself, the main reason being his undeniable talents and dominance rather than his opposition.

 

Tua would not have been a great fight either for Jones. That might have been similar to the Green fight today. Ruiz is quicker and slicker than most heavy out of shape heavyweights, but against a fast smaller guy like Roy Jones Jr., Ruiz is then the lumbering guy himself, and then he does not have much power anyway- it takes away his whole winning style.

 

Ya i'm not saying Jones would have won, but that shows you Roy Jones wasn't the "ducker" that a lot of people think he was. Tua has some amazing power.

Oh yeah Tua's legal battles are still happening today....

 

LOL...THE JAMES TONY THAT FOUGHT RJJ IS BETTER THAN THE ANTONIO TARVER THAT KNOCKED ROY OUT...AGAIN...ROY RELIED ON REFLEXES AND IT ENDED UP COSTING HIM AFTER 16 YEARS...VASTLY OVERRATED..NAME 10 OTHER FIGHTERS WHO TOOK TITLES AT 160, 168, 175, AND HEAVYWEIGHT??:huh NOT TO MENTION BEING UNDEFEATED FOR 16 YEARS (1 DQ LOSS)