Was Roy a great boxer or just one of the fastest reflex to step in the ring?

Supremely physically gifted athlete who was a natural who never had to work as hard as anyone else to be as good as he was, when the natural gifts waned, he didn't have the fall back routine.

This is why you've got to give credit to fights who extend past their mid thirties and can still work at a good rate, because they've gone from a physical prime to a mental one - ala Hopkins or Calzaghe who fought into their late thirties, early forties.

I think with Roy, it's a number of things - he had tools that required not only the speed and reflexes he had, but the confidence to use them.

He's an ATG - without doubt, but after his mid thirties, when he lost his physical abilities, he was never the same.

 

he had amazing speed, power great movement, great reflexes.....these aren't boxing skills? If it isn't I don't know what is.

Roy never had to work as hard as anyone else? You just lost all credibility with that. Roy has been training in boxing since he was little kid.

 

Roy didn't do the boxing work that Floyd Mayweather Jr did - while Floyd Mayweather Jr was busy learning the craft and building his defensive technique into the best of all time, Roy was working on the flash that his athletic gifts gave him.

Roy never worked the basics in training camps, used to do things like play semi-pro basketball during training camps and even before fights, he wasn't a hard worker, regardless of the overall time he spent training.

 

He is blessed with speed and good power. Unfortunately the chin is grade A china and I don't think he ever faced any puncher in his prime years to expose it. Green is a monster with pop to put any fighter on ***** st. This is why? I was kinda amazed how Jones was arrogant coming into the fight, he was talking like he already won the fight.Was like Geez he dunno what he is getting into.

 

These are natural skillset not exclusive to boxing, like spped of Bolt. These are things that people are born wtih, that can never be learned.

What the skills they are referring to are those thant are fundamental to boxing, like counterpunching of JMM or Mayweather, Defense, combination punching etc that are learned.

However, since Jones is so physically gifted that his handspeed and footspeed alone would probably win him fights, he did not develop much defense. When he lost those attributes, then he became very vulnerable to good fighters.

And that is why Hopkins has longer career at the top level because of that.

 

The thing that always impressed me most with Roy was his ability to close the gap. One moment he would be standing out of range, and a millisecond later he would land a right hand on you. Unbelievable. He could have been a NFL star with his amazing footwork.

 

So Roy wasn't a good counterpuncher? He wasn't good at throwing combinations?

 

Certain fighters have great athleticism, speed and coordination and reflexes and all that, but you've got to know how to box regardless to succeed in the sport.

Jones was no Ricardo Lopez in technique, but it doesn't mean he didn't have boxing skills. Not just any athlete can throw triple left hooks, fluid accurate combinations, avoid a punch and then right away counter with his own hard punch to the face (or body), position his footwork and body at the right angle to increase the chances of him landing (and decrease the chances of his opponent landing).

You put a lot of good b-ball, football, track stars, etc...in the ring and it doesn't mean they will do well. Wasn't Michael Grant a great all-around athlete in high school? Kermit Cintron was a good athlete in track, football, and especially wrestling. You watch some former NFL players in the ring and they look awkward and clumsy.

 

I was saying this in forums like this when Jones was in his prime.......and was getting ridiculed over it.

My contention all along was that when Jones speed edge narrows from unhuman to just great, he'd be just be an average champion.

Not to the same degree, but I felt the same about DLH who in comparison to Jones is technically more sound fundamentallly.......but he too relied on the physical advantages he so often times carried into the ring with him.......

Thats why the technically skilled fighters who keep themselves in great shape, like Hopkins and JMM can keep on fighting at very high levels despite losing some of there speed and quickness........
......and those fundamentals are the very reason why I believe Mayweather Jr., even if he's lost some speed and quickness from his prime years will embarrass Manny Pacquiao when they meet in the ring.

 

what the **** a person on here i actually agree with and dont feel the need to ridicule them to help with my own internal painz

WOOT

yeah i remember watching jones soon after he became champ and i had followed him alot since the olympicz and i remember be pissed off thinkin how ****IN INCREDABLE he would be if he had the brainz to listen to great trainerz such as floyd has done to perfection with his boxing style

jonez alwayz waz convinced that their waz no power in the JAB and for that alone he should be horse whipped as one of the first and best thingz my boxing coach taught me waz to have a great jab so as you could pretend to use it for distraction and range finding only but when you have a clear opening you can REALLY ram the dudez face with your jab

getting hit with a few good power jabz of course does **** all to a opponent over the course of one round my coach would tell me

but latin he would say as he drew me near like he waz tellin me a big freakin boxin secret, he said latineg, "you check that mother ****erz face out after 12 and itz a different freakin story"

and then he would kick me in the balls

why he kicked me in the balls after every boxin wisdom tidbit he told me i have no idea

but i do know that i created a freakin jab that waz so god dam powerful it caused the first guy i fought to become so focused on NOT having my weak jab all the sudden become a HARD jab that jolts him unexpectedly i had the time to hammer him with a right cross and the fight waz over

unfortunately i got my head bashed in my next fight but the only reason i scored any points whatsoever was because of my jab

anywayz back to jonez, the guy really had a attitude that he didnt need to do all the little things that are so important when combined

the little things that the boring coaches teach you over and over

yeah jones never did alot of those because quite frankly he didnt freakin have to do those thingz because the guy had the reflexez of a cat and the speed of one too

that dont change the truth that if he woulda trained his jab to be more of a powerful point scoring tool instead of showboating his blinding speed he would have been even BETTER im sure

i remember when i started boxing i practiced my jab really ****in hard for a few good weekz because my coach had told me how freakin important it waz

i remember thinkin after the few good weekz that my jab waz still basically useless as **** if i really wanted to wind up and hit a guy with it i probably couldnt knock him out if he stood there not moving letting me pot shot him while laughing at my JAB bouncin meakly into hiz grining face

so i remember thinking that i should stop training so ****ing hard on my jab as i had been slappin the bag by hitting it with my pussyish jab for hourz on end

anywayz i let up on it a bit but my coach told me that he had never seen a guy that had such a pussyish jab the first time he threw it get it some much less pussyish in only two weekz

so i kept on training it with less expectationz and after forgeting about it for a few months i waz sparrin with a guy and we were not going to hard at each other as we were rookiez and i noticed i waz smashing up the fookerz nose with my jab

well after that my jab got so good i could impale cowz and take home itz ripz before it even hit the ground

yep good old jabby jab jab

jones is a decent guy and a good soul but he waz a twat by refusin to at least listen to his trainerz a lil bit more then he did

still i mean this post as a compliment to jones because holy freakin shyte in his prime this guy waz QUICK

like REALLY ****ING QUICK

maybe faster then even some of them lil guyz that they say were so fast

not in comboz above 4 or 5 punchez

but definately in combos of less then 4 or 5 including 1

that lead left hook waz SICK

he is such a idiot he threw it so often and got away with it so often because with that speed if he woulda jabbed with more conviction and energy i swear he woulda been able to take alot more headz off with the huge left hookz that they didnt even have the time to become aware were already on their way

those punchez that hit you out of nowhere really **** you up as you dont even know what just happened so your mind goes blank and trust me the first reaction is to PANIC because your trying so hard to figure out something that you dont even know where it came from

yeah well if roy woulda used his jab to really wack guyz with hiz blazing speed with more force attached to it he woulda got alot of hiz oppponentz off guard and been in the position to wack a guy with his left hook before the guy even knew it waz on itz way

oh well the few timez i saw jonez challenged into throwing his jab more and harder it waz of course pretty dam good

i personally think he waz proud of the truth that he didnt throw his jab so much as the jab also expends lots of energy and therefore i think he waz focusing on how much energy he saved by not throwin it very hard

the only STUPID thing i think he may have forgot is that you only need to train your jab HARD in TRAINING you dont have to throw it extra in a fight if you want to save energy

the point is that when you train your jab really hard in training over a period of a long time itz ****ing shocking how decent your wimpy old jab can become

i had a jab that came out of my shoulder socket like a piston on a jack hammer

unfortunately i had tourettez syndrome whereby i would blink for long periodz of time and thus when enough of my oppenentz figured out the time lengthz of my blinkz my career waz basically over in 10 fightz with me losing my next 9 in a row by vicious brutal knockoutz the kindz where therez some ladiez in the audience in tearz as well as your moma at ring side punking into my own cornerz pale

anywayz my jab waz ****ing awesome and broke a few nosez and i became the guy that waz "easy to knock out but he could break your nose in the first 30 seconds if you cant time hiz eye blinks before then guy"

plus i used to break alot of guyz noses in sparring

so dont **** with me or i will jab you in your face and break your nose and then you will be forced to beat the **** out of me

 

Éric Lucas, who is a friend and a past opponent of Jones said that Jones worked harder than anyone else. Do you think that he got as fast and as powerful just like that without training like crazy. He had all the tools and he developped his style to use them.