Was Roy Jones a great defensive fighter?

Jones was excellent defensively in his prime, as far as sheer effectiveness is concerned, though i think a lot of it also had to do with the fact his offense and speed were so good.

Not many fighters were able to try and lay a lot of leather on Jones, and he often fought with a cautious pure boxer\cutie mindset despite being a viscious puncher, which i think was key to him being such a tough puzzle to solve.Jnes was a much more intelligent ring-general than he often gets credit for imo.

 

I dont know about that. I saw Ali take some tremendous punishment from Foreman languishing on the ropes.

 

What say you of Jones' footwork? How technically adept was or wasn't it in your opinion?

 

His footwork was excellent. Thats one of the biggest parts of being able to avoid punches with a style like Jones. Getting in and out, side to side keeping the fight at range.

 

Sure, anyone staying stationary against the ropes like that in front of a fighter who doesn't seem to care about getting hit himself is going to ship some punches.

But there weren't that many clean ones. I'd say that Ali outscored him with clean punches in just about every round. Of course, the ones he landed on Ali's arms, kidneys and back of the head couldn't have been very nice either, but he did a very good job of protecting the most vulnerable areas. In rd 3 Foreman landed one flush on the chin, but Ali manged to survive that one largely because he saw it coming and rode with it.

When it comes to Ali's technique I think his balance is to often overlooked. Due to very good footwork he was just about always in balance, even when old, and that meant he was in a good position to ride punches through.

Look at what happened when he got caught against Cooper with his feet poorly placed. He almost got KO'd. But that's the only time I can remember that he was caught napping like that.

 

Maybe because of their chinny chin chins. I think Lewis always wanted to be banger but learned early on his chin wouldnt stand for it.
Jones on the other hand was the smaller guy looking up.

 

These kind of fighters just become easier to find once they slow down. I think Ali obviously morphed into a much better stationary fighter than Jones ever did once he slowed thats for sure, but I cant imagine the young quick of feet Ali ever fighting Foreman like he did.

 

Agreed. Groove actually posted an interview with Ali today, where Ali says that the '64 version never would have let himself be found by Foreman.

 

Even in his early days?? He loved to load up with that big telegraphing righthand and put it on guys.
I think thats where Emanuel Steward made the change and showed Lewis, see you can set it up from the outside off your jab stay on balance and keep yourself out of harms way.

 

Excellent. His feet didn't move as much as you would think based on how quickly he closed and opened up the distance. He just always had them planted in the correct position, a bit of a wider stance that attributed to his godly handspeed and reflexes.