Roy Jones Jr. Replaces Ketchel In His Fight...

Jack takes Roy on a beat down.

 

Jack will have never seen anyone with such skill, precision, and conditioning. Jones gets the tko much easier than most victor's would. The public'c (mostly white) hatred for Johnson would have made for a quick, but fair by today's standard's, stoppage.

Now, if both fighters had access to the same techniques and training knowledge, it would be different. Johnson by ko.

 

I'm not even as sure of that honestly. Johnson wasn't much bigger than the HW Jones, and certainly wasn't the athlete, although a very good one still.

 

Some people called him the Galveston Giant.

Just replace Ketchel's jaw with Jone's jaw after Jack gets up off the floor and pile-drives a right hand off Roy's head.

I think Jack picked a few of ol' Stan's teeth out of his glove after the fight.

 

Johnson smiles and goads Jones on, "applauding" the smaller man's very effort. In clinches, Johnson squeezes Jone's biceps and pushes his smaller opponents head against the turnbuckle ala MAB vs. Hamed (12th round) Jones lands a shoeshine combo in the 7th and draws blood from Lil' Artha'a lower lip, then in a flash, a sneering Johnson lands a murderous left uppercut, and Jones is hanging on the botton rope, unconscious.

 

To my eyes Johnson hits Ketchell with a right, and is then seen wiping his left glove. It's more likely he's wiping off dirt because the ref didn't wipe his gloves after his knockdown.

Cheers.

 

I think Roy and Jack have a lot in common as fighters. They were both defensively minded, and also somewhat lazy in the ring - neither one fought balls out for more than a few seconds of every fight, preferring to coast to easy decisions, but each was capable of visiting brilliant flashes of devastation on their opponent and finishing fights quickly when they wanted to. Each had very fast feet although neither is given much credit for it due to both's preference to stand and stare at the other guy rather than punch him. Roy spent most of his career fighting bigger men, Johnson preferred to fight smaller men.

To me the key to beating either is to crowd them to the ropes, then create space and split the guard with a cross. This is how Johnson and Tarver did it to Jones, (yes, I know everyone tried that with Jones for 10 years and it only worked twice, but then they'd smother their own punches) and that's how Willard did it with Jack - except in each case, rather than smothering their own punches each fighter was crowded and then caught at range by crosses once the opponent stepped back.

So how does the fight look? Johnson leaps in repeatedly, trying to grab Jones rather than hit him, so he can use his height and weight and infighting/wrestling skills to wear down Jones' legs. Jones leaps away, maybe trying a counter right, maybe landing it maybe not. Jones will not try the leaping left hook, because Johnson, like a spider with a fly will just grab him and start the wrestling match.

I can't see Jones KOing Johnson with a counter-right, but hey, it's boxing, and anything can happen.

Johnson may from time to time open up with his own two-fisted offense as he did vs Burns or Ketchell, and Jones will go to the ropes, but will Johnson fight effectively here? Will he take the step back and split the guard, or will he say "Here's my chance to wrestle Roy and wear him down?" He had Frank Moran against the ropes several times in their fight and he let him off the hook every time.

I think this fight features Johnson leaping in, Roy leaping out and a whole lot of staring and jawing in between, with Jones winning a UD if it goes the distance.

Cheers.

 

Jack Johnson would win.
He was one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.

I've studied the film of him against Ketchel loads of times. Johnson was a masterful boxer, and no amount of revisionism will change that.

Also, for those who think it matters, Johnson was pretty big, in the 1908-1910 fights on film he is superbly ripped condition and bulging muscles. At 6'1 1/2 and around 205-210 solid pounds he's in the same ballpark as Louis, Ali, Holmes, Holyfield and Liston.

 

I would pick Johnson, but only because I don't think Roy was tough enough to fight in the out door era of marathon fights, no mouth pieces, cuts, heavy water loaded gloves, and excessive wrestling / in-fighting.

Johnson is simply too strong for Jones. However, if their was an indoor 12 rounder under modern rules, Jones has a real chance to win a UD as he is the better boxer, and quicker fighter...and Johnson is mostly passive.

 

Touche' McGrain...
very interesting posts though...

 

I think it's pretty obvious what would happen if Roy Jones Junior were mysteriously transported back in time to face Jack Johnson.

Forced to cycle off his steroid cocktail cold-turkey, Jones enters the ring in poor condition but puts up a gallant effort for 5 rounds before being dispatched.

For goodness sake, the hypodermic needle hadn't even been invented yet in Johnson's day - how would Jones prepare for such a fight without his pharmaceutical advantages?