What is the right style to beat a prime Roy Jones?

I've always thought you needed an intelligent, pressure-boxing approach. The fighter obviously needs a good beard because he's gonna get tagged.

The guy would need to punch when Jones punched (or lunged in) and in combination, and know how to step with his punches. Overcommitting and jumping in yourself is gonna get you smacked up.

Watch how measured Barrera is against Hamed; pay particular attention to his footwork. He steps every ime, especially while jabbing, so he's always on balance and always set to fire.

Playing the countering game will probably get you chopped up, but walking Jones down behind a consistent, busy jab and inciting a shootout when he comes in, I think gets it done.

 

Eddie Futch laid down a great gameplan for Griffin. Unfortunately he was too small, weak and simply not good enough to maintain it. Jones fought a lot of handpicked opponents who were there to make him look great. Toney was completely out of shape. I think Hearns' style would cause fits for Jones, Tommy never struggled against counter punchers who fought on the backfoot. But Jones is too big for Hearns at 168-175

 

Tarver was bigger,had decent hand speed, good power and was a southpaw which is generally enough to trouble anybody but Jones had slipped a staggering amount from even the Clinton Woods version of Roy when he first met Tarver.

The thing that nobody much mentions when discussing the fall of Jones is how completely his power deserted him when he dropped down from heavy. Admittedly his power at Lt Heavy was less than at 160 and 168 but it was still formidable but after the Ruiz fight he showed bugger all power at 175. He's not scored a one punch KO and barely a one punch KD since and that combination of speed and power is what caused many opponents to retreat into a defensive shell and allowed Jones to dominate fights on his terms. He simply didn't have the pop to keep guys like Tarver and Johnson honest anymore and they therefore could keep up a punch output and fight at a range that Jones no longer was comfortable with, especially with his faded reflexes and stuffed punch resistence.

A big guy like Spinks with an awkward style and big punch is one guy I've always thought would give prime Jones some unusual problems and would throw his game plan completely out. Another guy not to be discounted is Michael Nunn. Very fast,tall,mobile and awkward. Jones is a much better fighter but Nunn at his best is a physicall conundrum for anyone.

 

Not the easiest thing to do considering Jones' combination of speed, power and a careful approach unlike guys like Hamed.

I'll go with Calzaghe though.
He had the workrate, perfect record and "there's no blueprint" thing.
He obviously could do it.

 

i was thinking about joe but the lack of true power and possibility of kd's makes it an uphill battle for him i think

 

This is gonna sound crazy but I think a guy as naturally big as jones with the style of jmm could do it.

It has to be someone who can jab, who isn't scared of taking a shot when necessary, someone who can time with the best of them and crucially someone who can counter with combinations.

Enough power to keep a man honest but not enough you're reliant on hurting to encourage victory.

I think other than a ko punch this is the only way to beat jones and even then it'd be closely nicked if at all.

Just trying to picture jones darting in and lhw marquez landing a 3 punch combination in return.

The massive downside is that if jones is quick enough to potshot, my guy wouldn't be great on the front foot and could succumb to a wide defeat.

Straight up isn't that always the fear with jones in fantasy fights? A guy that quick and athletic could probably potshot anyone to victory.

 

Out of fighters of Jones' time Gerald McClellan and Michael Nunn would have been Jones' worst nightmares , 3rd comes Frankie Liles , 4th comes Julian Jackson .
Yes I've seen d Jones vs Liles that's on utube , but 12 rds may b a different story .
All things being equal Jones vs Johnson/McCallum/Toney would not have gone in Jones' favor eventually .
He had a small chance at getting away with his style but a bigger chance at getting caught . But 1 who fights much older/drainer/smaller men and is well enough juiced and seriously trained is deemed 2 look like superman against them .
Ezzard Charles was naturally a bigger man and 2 much 4 Jones , d difference between them is much more than d 1 inch that's listed on boxrec and Jones' reach is shorter , not longer .
Jones was not as big nor as strong as Arnie "Pie" Cream and if somehow he lands "big" (4 Jones) Charles gets up if he gets down at all if Jones lands "big" (4 him) at all .
However if Charles connects i think something's a given .
Muhammad Qawi might get hit more often by Jones than he was by Holyfield , but Jones does not hit nearly as hard even as young Holyfield , and if (when) Qawi connects it's over . And while Jones was more elusive than Holyfield , he couldn't take as much of a punch and would have been much more reachable in terms of effective reach . Jones' head resides far lower than Holyfield's and is much more fragile .
Spinks vs Jones would b bad 4 Jones , as **** as Spinks looks on film (he does) he was just 2 big and strong 4 Jones , and would have eventually caught him . There r more really .

 

Style isn't everything : Liles was big , left handed and had some experience with Jones from d amateurs .

Jackson post McCallum was n underrated boxer and could obviously punch , and Jones was never 1 of d durable .

Jackson was naturally much smaller than Jones so Jones stood a good chance at stopping him as well .

But none of them stood as good of a chance as McClellan and Nunn had , which i tried 2 make clear in my post by sorting them according 2 how i c their chances vs Jones .

 

What do you think of Ward and Sakio Bika vs Jones at 168? I favor
jones heavily, and he may embarass bika, but I cant see Jones
humuliating Ward like he did Toney.