Roy Jones chin was fine!!

Excellent. Being the Classic Forum there can be a fair bit of bias against Jones and the usual cop out is that anyone that could hit him would knock him out and he had a glass jaw. The guy had 15 freaking years and 50 fights behind him before he became susceptible. Hagler was retired by this time as was Monzon. Jones also scaled the weights both up and down from middleweight to heavyweight and back to light heavyweight.

 

Over 168...and pre-Ruiz...his chin was fine because NO ONE COULD TOUCH HIM THERE.
Going up to HW then down to LHW he became suspect in all aspects of his game.

 

He had not recovered from the Tarver KO. He had no legs in that fight. When he took a year off before tarver 3, he got his mobility back but his chin was gone.
As Emanuel steward said.2 KOs in close succession=punch resistance wiped out for good.

 

Roy was so elusive in his prime. He was like Willie Pep with power. Toney caught him a couple of times with solid shots. Roy showed a good chin in the first Tarver fight. I think moving up and then back down had a negative effect on his ability

 

Foreman was unique. He took 10 years off and lived a clean life. He didn't have the mileage that most 39 year old fighters do. There are a Lot of variables.

 

In his prime IMO his chin was good enough,
But after he dropped weight from hw a combination of things happened, draining, age and then after his first ko loss he was shot.
The older he got the less mobility n reflexes he had left which made him more hittable with solid leverage shots that previously would of got no where near him.

 

35 isn't really that old in real life. Lewis was 36 when he poleaxed Rahman. I think it s more of the accumulation of punishment a fighter has taken

 

Some guys just seem to lose that punch resistance and some don't. Holmes took plenty of punches over many many years and fought well into old age yet still took a great punch all the way. Others suddenly lose it like O'Grady for example.

 

Are you calling Derrick Smoke Gainer a woman?

 

That's true. Randy Turpin comes to mind. Fernando Vargas..once their chin gets cracked it's never the same.

 

The OP is correct. Its much ado about nothing. His chin was solid.

 

Merqi Sosa landed a HUGE overhand right on Roys temple and Roy took it like a champ

 

There isn't a huge highlight reel of flush punches taken by Roy during his prime, but there wasn't any real indication prior to Tarver II that his chin was a liability. He got dropped by Del Valle, but otherwise had barely a scare throughout the first 15 years of his career.

Post Tarver II, Roy had virtually no punch resistance, and was liable to get knocked out cold by any decent puncher who landed.

It is possible that he was such a ninja that he could keep a glass jaw hidden through 200 fights at amateur and pro, beating world class opposition across multiple weight divisions along the way. It really doesn't seem the most likely scenario though. There are far more instances throughout boxing history of jaws being cracked and punch resistance suddenly falling off a cliff, than there are glass-chinned frauds pulling the wool over everyone's eyes for years.

The logical conclusion is that either sometime before or directly after Tarver II, Roy's punch resistance deteriorated, and prior to that his chin was decent at least.

 

RJJ was a super rare talent. It's not only about him not getting hit, because all fighters get hit,but more about him not being hit cleanly until he started to slow down. And that's were the truth lie. He was like prime Ali. Prime Ali was barely getting touched when at the top of his game. And basing on the H.Cooper knock down most would've thought his great reflexes and speed hid a weak chin. But unlike Ali when he started to slow we began to realize Ali had a top 3 chin esp when considering who he fought past prime. But RJJ, began to get knocked out by relatively weak punchers when he got past prime. So yes I totally understand the weak chin argument. Because his reflexes were so great, even when it appeared he got hit, but in actuality he rode the punch, so their was no damage done. But when he began to slow, and actually get hit cleanly. We found out his chin wasn't great. Also exposed in away the level of competition. So yes the weak chin argument is valid in my opnion.