yes but youre looking at 1 round of 73 rounds fighting against tarver 1, tarver 2, johnson, tarver 3, prince abuwatshisname, henshaw and trinidad, all 73 rounds of it. can't see him all of a sudden having 12 rounds like that
I agree with you entirely, although I understand why the thread-starter has grabbed at this particular straw. It's the kind of thing i'm looking for too. I haven't started a proper analysis of the fight yet because I know what I am going to see.
Even given the loss of reflexes and legs, it's Roy's diminished stamina that has hurt him more than anything. He's still a very good fighter when he's throwing, but so much of the time now he has to conserve energy. Calzaghe is declined as well, but he has much more left in the tank than Jones.
If he chose to fight like that against Tarver, Tarver wouldn't have had a reply, either. Unfortunately, after that fantastic round, Jones reverted to safety-first/survival mode. He never even ****ing TRIED to win! :-(
The big question here is if Jones will be able to keep that up. The third fight with Tarver happened three years ago and Jones didn't have the stamina to stay active. This is three years later so do the math, Jones Jr. doesn't have the stamina to keep serious punches up and will be on the ropes most of the fight. If RJJ was 1% of what he once was Calzaghe wasn't going to sign this fight, they know he's below 0 so they finally took it.
I'm trying to schedule a trip out of town for that weekend so that I won't be tempted to watch it. I promised myself after Tarver III that I'd never watch Jones fight live again, because it's too painful and it doesn't interest me at all to see him get KTFO again. My fear here is that Calzaghe will outwork him for a lackluster and wide decision, and that he may actually lay off the gas out of respect. Calzaghe's earlier quotes from a few years ago indicate a great deal of admiration for Jones.
Here is a link to the round for anyone who needs their memory refreshed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPP9ffqGYHk I just watched it. It made me a bit nostalgic, a bit sad really. This was not peak Jones, not by a helluva long way, but he did look good. He reacted really well to getting caught by a couple of shots in a corner at one point, his reflexes and his combinations were sharp, yes the Jones of this round probably would beat Calzaghe over 3 minutes. Unfortunately, this fight is going to be over a maximum of 36 minutes. If you notice how Jones stands off Tarver when he seems to have Tarver rocking with a series of bodyshots and uppercuts in this clip, then how much he is panting at the end of the round, and how Jones failed to maintain this tempo and approach throughout that fight, AND how long has passed since that fight, it should be obvious that there is no way Jones is going to be able compete with a whirlwind like Calzaghe for 12 rounds. I hate the thought of Calzaghe-Jones just now, I'm dreading it.
Not to stray too far off topic, but this round also illustrates how Chad Dawson may be able to hurt Tarver. He throws wonderful body combinations followed by uppercuts, which is how Jones managed to hurt Tarver here. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that even this shot version of Jones is better than the one who will fight Calzaghe.
