What were your thoughts going into Jones-Tarver 1

I had never heard of Tarver and assumed Roy would destroy him

 

I watched tarver win Jones belts and became a fan

I didn't think much about the weight cut

it was kind of like vitali vs Lewis. going in I wasnt sure how they would do but I was hoping big time that they could do it

 

Tarver was a big mouth and I thought Jones would clown him

 

Roy kind of had problems with Harding, who was similar to Tarver. I figured it would be a tactical fight and Tarver would lose. Tarver did better than I expected.

 

Tarver might be the best Amercian amature boxer ever.

 

Roy never should had taken the rematch lol had he just retired he would be considered in the top ten all time. Staying on to long hurt him.

 

I didn't think so. Hearns always moved up and down from weight class to weight class and went from 175 to 160 to fight Roldan within months.

 

Didn't think a whole lot of Tarver & not many did. But it was the first time Jones was taking on a guy that had wanted to get in the ring with him & had chased him forever. So I thought his southpaw style and motivation for the bout was not going to make for another no-hoper mismatch kind of bout.

Early on in the bout, you could certainly see Jones was in for a tough night's work. I thought Tarver should have won via close decision also.

 

Jones won the first fight.

 

Obviously i thouht Jones was going to win.

But i knew he was declining due to age they had mentioned and showed him getting hit more and spending more time on the ropes on ESPn friday night fights as early as 2001.

Jones fought Glen Kelly who was not good at all and woods who while stylistically easy to solve busted roys eye up in 2002.
And obviously he looked good against ruiz who was because of his size and style much easier to beat to the punch than tarver.

Regardless of the weight cut i dont think jones was this untouchable virtuoso anymore in late 2003 at almost 35. Leonard was looking a shell of himself at that age so was ali and those two guys were also athletically gifted boxers with similarily unorthodox styles, i just dont think that particular set of abilities ages well.

 

I do think the punches he took in that fight shortly after having to drain himself caused his chin issues later on. He took alot of shots there and i dont think any later version of jones would have managed to win that fight vs tarver while spending that much time on the ropes without ending up asleep.

 

I thought Jones would win and move back up to heavyweight for a fight with Lennox Lewis James Toney or Vitali Klitschko.

 

I thought Jones would win it on points, and he did take the decision. However during the fight I noticed Jones was getting hit more than usual.

The re-match one punch KO was a bit of a surprise. A one punch KO early in the fight. Jones never had a good chin, his skills, speed and defense covered that up.

 

yea obviously

what's your point