Again. He travels around the country for years sparring basically everybody and NOBODY ever touches or lands a good shot on him ? That's impossible. His chin was fine. Age and weight were what caught up to Jones.
The Tarver punch was a legit KO against a still relatively dangerous Jones, for some reason after that his punch resistance eroded dramatically. But up until the KO in the 2nd fight, Jones was looking relatively good until he got caught. I think Tarver does deserve some credit for that win. Well sparring is completely different to an actual professional fight, I'm not sure how much you can gauge someone's chin from sparring. All I know is that Jones's chin in actual professional fights was largely untested, due to how good he was. Again I agree the weight and age eventually did catch up to him, but the Tarver shot was a perfect punch.
I don't know what happened to Roy but the speed was frightening ... I have never seen a drop like it ... I believe he never had a great chin but was so incredibly fast he rarely got hit hard and flush .. that said , for sure the drugs and the weight fluctuations did not help ..
You can tell a lot about a fighter by their opponent selection. If they are like "whoever is willing", then they are very confident in their abilities. If they choose their fights very carefully, then often they know something that we don't. In Jones's case, I think that he always knew something that we didn't. If Jones had a good chin, then what did he have to fear from anybody?
If you can't take a good punch in sparring you cannot take one in a fight. If you have a bad chin it will eventually get exposed in sparring especially sparring high caliber fighters all the time. Tarver does of course deserve credit. It was a good punch and in boxing it only takes one. Tarver would have always been a problem for Roy - tall sharp punching southpaw.
Good post. He didn’t have 8 months to take the Ruiz weight off. He only had a few months to take it off.
Glen Johnson detonated the very next fight after whaling on a finished Jones for 6 rounds. Jones’s decline was probably the most dramatic I’ve seen. He was toying with the Clinton Woods of the worlds then he couldn’t even compete with Glen Johnson who was about Woods level. It was shocking to witness.
We was 193 vs ruiz and 175 vs Tarver 8 months later. 18 pounds isn't a huge weight drop, it depends on how soon he dropped the weight and what technique he took to lose it.
Mackie Shilstone is on record stating that losing muscle quickly, and especially at an advanced age, can cause huge issues with the body. He said that it can affect the body’s immune system. Mackie has worked with athletes from all different sports, including many fighters. He built Michael Spinks up for Holmes, Roy up for John Ruiz, and Hopkins up for Tarver. Roy was exhausted in the first Tarver fight. The rematch was a perfect punch, but the Johnson one was a side of the head shot which didn’t look particularly bad. Chad Dawson also had diminished punch resistance against Andre Ward. Tarver did against Hopkins. Chris Byrd did against Shawn Porter. That’s four examples, plus the opinion of a well respected sports scientist who worked with world champions.
The whole situation had an affect. Tarver didn’t respect him as much and wasn’t as cautious as in the first fight, because he’d nearly beaten him in the first fight. But the reason why he had so much success in the first fight, is because Roy was exhausted and there to be hit. And that was due to the weight loss. You could visibly see it. He was exhausted in a fight which hadn’t been fought at a high pace. Yes, the knockout affected him both physically and mentally. The worst decision of his career was signing to fight Johnson just a few weeks afterwards. But he did it because he’d been embarrassed. But he should have taken on a lesser opponent.