Was Jones in his best condition against Calzaghe since Ruiz?

If he was in the best condition since Ruiz then he would have beat the pants off of Joe. He would have pulled the trigger, and HE would have been the one dominating and clowning.

So no, he wasn't in the best shape.

 

Nearly every fighter or their trainer says they are in the best condition of their life or something similar before a big fight.

 

Calzaghe could have stopped Jones as early as the 7th round. Roy may have looked good for the first few minutes, but Calzaghe shattered his confidence and was inflicting harmful damage by the 3rd round. It was a joke, Calzaghe was constantly putting his head directly in front of Jones to be hit and Roy STILL couldn't pull the trigger. Roy Jones was extremely vulnerable both mentally and physically in that fight constantly, throughout... The outcome in alot of ways was an even bigger joke than any of us might have anticipated. Calzaghe fought a guy who should be have been in a boxing retirement home for sure. No question.

 

The knockdown and recupiration of Joe ,then Joe going on the attack mentally killed Roy to, he never had that happen before .Even at the end of Round 1 he stood and stared at Joe while he walked away for a couple of seconds( almost like what did i get into).:rasta

 

Nah, the unrelenting combinations upstairs in round 3 killed Roy.

 

Err Jone's speed was always range based it was never inside fighting so you can't use that as a basis for comparison. Joe did some thing no man has ever done before, use his head to MAKE a boxer open his guard to see. give credit where credit's due; it was a stunning strategy that only the most mentally gifted could concoct.

Secondly, yes this Jones was far far faster than vs Tarver, Johnson etc and even Ruiz but then prime Jones was long before Ruiz. People forget Ruiz & Woods are jokes anyway - lets not delude ourselves fellas they're hardly greased lightening

 

I think it was more mental than physical... Jones seems very safety first now and I think physically he was capable of making it a bit more competitive.

To the OP I think Jones trained really hard for this fight, but not his best ever condition by a long shot. He's not the same fighter he used to be, although dangerous for the first several rounds... especially as Calzaghe leaves himself exposed early on in fights

 

I agree. Even with the expectations I had, Jones still managed to shock me with his overwhelming lack of mental structural integrity. He was weak, weak, weak..

 

This was not a pre-Ruiz Jones. No.

 

Where are the fights that proves that he was?

 

There is zero evidence he has improved. The Tito fight was hard to gauge as it was a freak show (he wasn't impressive in that though), and he looked hopeless against Hanshaw.

He lost to Tarver over 2 and a half years after fighting at heavy weight. That is the worst excuse ever! He was shot back then, and can only have got worse in the last 4 years as he reaches 40 - that is fact.

He also wasn't just knocked out by Tarver, and Johnson they both outpointed him as well.

To suggest Jones is better then a shot version of himself of over 4 years ago is pure folly. :deal

 

pretty good analysis. give credit to calzaghe's style, chin, and pressure. jones looked ok (don't know about 'far faster' than vs tarver), but calzaghe was a nightmare for him. RJJ 'range based' speed/strategy as you say just couldn't work at this stage against calzaghe's speed and gameplan. even RJJ of 1998 would have problems. Jones should've given up trying to time and outbox joe c by the mid rounds and tried harder to rough up and land any shots he could even if he was taking shots.
anybody else think that jones wasn't hardly sitting down on his punches at all against calzaghe which is probably jones' reaction to calzaghe's relentless attack

 

It is sad to even read this, let alone actually watching it happen.
Before the fight, I thought that Roy could win maybe 3-4 rounds, but he couldn't do even that. That's how shot he was.
Hopefully, now he will retire for good, no way I could watch him getting beat up by lets say B-Hop too.

Pretty good description of the fight, Rafa.