i've just watched every Jones fight in the last few days until calzaghe. I've observed some interesting things. Part I Jones' ring smarts Jones was a true professional exposing himself to as little risk as possible, while winning. Unlike fighters like Gatti, Holyfield, Micky ward and other fighters coined "warriors"(which is respectable in its own right) he was smart enough to know that there are more important things in life than impressing a bunch of fans by standing infront of an opponent and trading haymakers and other ways of winning a fight than taking a punch to land one, risking permanent injury like his colleague Gerard McClellan. You would think someone with Jones' speed power and reflexes would just walk his opponents down and knock them out, since he had all the advantages in a firefight. There is a saying by george foreman "you're in a boxing match you're gonna get hit" But jones knew that his abilities allowed him to win fights with minimal risk of getting hurt. Jones was a student of psychology(takes one to know one) He would break opponents psychologically to the point the risk of someone beating him was almost zero. His taunting was as much playing to the crowd as it was meant to make his opponents feel powerless and discouraged, and if they got angry they would make mistakes he would capitalize on. once he humiliated opponents enough, they would start believing that there was no way they could win and just tried to make it to the final bell. He made you think that his mistakes and weaknesses were his strengths. Jones was most vulnerable in the corner and the ropes, but he would often go there on purpose, inviting the opponent in. And the opponent, all of a sudden starts questioning if he should go in and pound him or if hes playing right into Jones' hands. Jones laid traps. Perfect example is Griffin I. That idiot larry merchant and even Gil Clancy were perplexed why his jab was so short and why he was stepping back after it. I as a boxer and someone who ****yzes fights for fun, immediately realized he was setting him up for the big right. the short jab was lulling griffin into thinking he was out of roys range, giving him a false sense of security because the jab kept falling short as he slowly moved right into range of roys power. If that was not enough, Jones even stepped back so Griffin would step into the right hand Jones had been setting up, if he followed him. Griffin was not troubling roy early, Roy was fighting a very smart fight setting up the finish, like an assassin plans a kill. He was so good at this that, if he actually did make mistake, his opponents would be hesitant to capitalize, not knowing if he was setting them up. Jones used positive punishment, a principle of operant conditioning. t turn opponents into harmless punching bags Jones whacked them with punches they could not avoid, after a while(how long it took depending on the fighters determination and experience) they were subconsciously afraid of coming forward and throwing punches in fear of leaving themselves open. Ruiz could have knocked out Jones in one round if he could have overcome his tentative nature and the gunshyness roy had induced. If you had told Ruiz before the fight you were gonna kill his family if he did not knock out Jones in 2 rounds, he could have done it. Force a man of ruiz's size throw 150 punches a round with bad intentions, and as fast as elusive as Jones was, he would have gotten caught with atleast one punch, gotten stunned or hurt enough for ruiz to unload on him and force a stoppage. But jones had beaten Ruiz in his head. Part 2 is about his athletic talent and questions about his chin.
Additon to Part 1: Jones seemed to have some kind of obsession with having water squirted on his head by his trainer. LOL PART 2 JONES CHIN Contrary to popular belief Jones chin was just fine untilit got cracked by Tarver. After that he never again was able to take a good shot to the head. Emanuel stewart called this "concussed fighter syndrome" Jones fought 50 times without being hurt once. Only time he even went down was a slip against lou de valle in a fight where both fighters slipped every 10 seconds because the ring was so wet. Jones was very elusive until his decline, but he still took 5-10 real shots to the head every round from light middleweights all the way to a heavyweight. Even if only a single good, clean punch was landed on his face every fight, which is a complete exagerration, that is 50 times his supposed glass chin should have gotten him KO'd. He was never KO'd until 2004 and he harter hitting fighters than the one who got him outta there. He went down ONCE on a slip. He was never hurt. someone explain to me how a glass jawed fighter goes 50 fights, spending time on the ropes or in a corner in dozens of fights while the opponent was unloading on him, without getting hurt once. You're not gonna convince me he blocked every single punch to the head his entire career. Del valle nailed him, griffin nailed him, toney nailed him, tarver nailed him in the first fight and ruiz all nailed him right on the jaw. Its clear as day on instant replay and all he did was seem annoyed at himself for making a mistake. What really happened was he took a massive haymaker during an exchange that permanently affected the way his brain reacted to shocks to the head. JONES IS THE BEST CONDITIONED FIGHTER I HAVE SEEN In terms of handling body shots. Never seen him hurt, bothered or slowed down by bpdy shots. Even when taking incredible amounts of body shots in the corner and on the ropes from big punchers. Ruiz as horrible as he was in the fight rushed him many times and unloaded volleys of body punches with full leverage and jones didnt even seem to care. JONES WAS THE MOST ATHLETICALLY GIFTED BOXER I HAVE EVER SEEN. fastest boxer ever compared to his opposition. Supperbly conditioned. One punch power when he actually tried to get leverage on his punches. Superbly conditioned core and abs. 12 round fighter, despite being incredibly explosive. That is very rare because speed and power depends on the fast to slow twitch muscle fiber ratio. From his speed and power you would think he was all fast twitch, but he was somehow able to keep his peed and power for 12 rounds. He could have been an amerian football player, sprinter, soccer player, bodybuilder, wrestler i mean you name it. Incredible athletic specimen, closest fighters i could compare him to in terms of atletic talent are leonard( close in speed but roy had more power) pacquiao(not quite as fast or as hard hitting) and tyson(fast and powerful but jones was just as dangerous in the 12th round as in the 1st)
Yes but with jones it was on another level. ali's opponents for example would keep coming although discouraged and hurt, so did toney's and mayweathers and they all made their opponents pay when they missed. But jones hypnotized their opponents. Guys who would throw 70-80 punches a round against other guys, would go into the fight knowing they had to overwhelm jones, and were turned into scared and tentative punching bags who were just hoping to see the final bell, within 1-3 rounds.
