Roy Jones: The Beginning of The End

Perfect punch...then a complete loss of confidence. Also age exposed technical flaws that had always been there.

 

Loss of confidence? Watch His fight with Jeff Lacy. He's no less confident than he ever was, but your spot on about technical flaws being exposed by his reflexes and speed deteriorating. I think the 20 pound gain and drop played a big part in this because it wasn't like Roy had taken a lot of damage throughout his career up to that point. If you ask me over confidence was his real downfall. The guy must of felt like superman having won a version of the heavyweight title.

 

It's just the legs. His legs gradually gave way, starting with the weight-loss after the Ruiz win. He was just so much more vulnerable, had to take more risks to land.

 

I think going to heavyweight and then coming back down was the start of the end. Even Alton Merkeson said he felt Jones was starting to slow down a bit before he got clocked. Jones was never a physically big or even strong LH. His style was unconventional and based mostly on speed over technique, although Jones was quite good with getting himself in good punching range without the use of a jab, and as I said, that was based more on his speed and reflexes. It didnt take a big strong guy to expose Jones, because Tarver was never a big strong puncher, you just needed to land cleanly on Jones and it was going to be over.
It was very surprising to see Jones get up against Del Valle because Lou landed clean and hard on him, but Jones showed some stuff getting back up and getting up. I trained with Del Valle for the Jones fight and we worked on timing Jones coming in. It was his only shot at beating Jones.

 

Great shot from a big light heavyweight against a physically deteriorated Jones = nighty.

 

Going up to heavyweight and then dropping back down pushed Roy Jones over the hill.
Maybe if he'd done the same when he was 28 he would have been fine, but at 35 years of age it accelerated a natural decline in his reflexes and the rest is history.

 

Can someone explain how the weight loss affected his punch resistance?

 

He lost his legs, and the lower legs act like a spring for absorbing punches. If you think about it, it makes sense -- you are impacted, and if your lower legs are strong, they will soften the blow. If they are not, you're like a car with bad shock-absorbers that just went over a bump -- the impact is completely different.

 

Added muscle, then lost it all. He really didn't plan on going back to light heavy until the tyson/holyfield fights fell through

 

What about the Lebdev fight then?

 

He got caught with his chin up in the sky in an exchange, which is a recipe for disaster but a few things

1. He was 35, he had slowed for years if you want to compare him to his best, against Ruiz and Woods he was nowhere near the same combination of speed, reactions and workrate that he presented at his best

2. Going up and down to HW and he lost allot of muscle which aged him, but also he was dissilussioned with Tarver as an opponent. It wasn't a fight he was up for in either case and that was part of his downfall.

3. Tarver was up for Jones like nothing else and a huge LHW with a massive straight right left hand that happened to find it's target.

 

He did win the first bout though, but yeah, Jones should never have signed the rematch. Should've retired right then.

 

It was a very clear decision and a fight he actually showed heart and chin in that his detractors ignored. Not sure why it was even controversial, probably just haters doing what they do

 

Absolutely spot on.