When was Roy Jones Jr not a top level boxer any more?

tough to say...true prime MAY have ended with reggie johnson era but it's tough to say. he looked absolutely brilliant later on against woods and kelly but, it was woods and kelly. his pre-ruiz years were filled with less than stellar opposition and that's a tough gauge of his abilities.

i'll say woods to be honest. it's a cop out because it's his last opponent before the move up in weight but plan and simply, he never looked bad. ever, before ruiz, and there was no indication of slipping.

good question

 

it had to be the heavy weight move. these types of body changes had to impact him.

 

The Johnson fight was the first time he didn't show nothing. The Tarver KO had a lot to do with it. In terms of prime...we could say after his move down from heavy. He didn't look too good against Tarver but still pulled out a win in the 1st fight.

 

It wasn't even a decline, it's like he fell off a cliff. One day he was superman, the next he's been KO'd twice and the calls for his retirement.

 

yup, but not the same roy? that was definitely the tarver fight. you're right though, he was still top level and CLEARLY beat the second best lhw in the world

 

i say since tarver 1 and 2. he just didnt have the reflexes

 

Before the Woods fight I think.

Woods pounded on Jones for the first few rounds at ease. You can argue Jones toyed with him but the prime Jones of the MW days would have simply counter punched woods with a 1 shot KO while he did that. The deterioration was there to see.

Jones is my hero but that weight ****ed his reflexes I am sorry.

 

tarver. rewatch the fight and you'll see roy's decline compared to his previous fights.

 

yeah, the woods fight is tricky for me. just like his fight with hall it's hard to tell when he's clowning and when he actually may have trouble putting a guy away

 

Jones was slipping back in 01, but it was not noticeable to many.

 

Not just the weight but age had something to do with Jones' deterioration too he was getting older. Going into the Tarver fight he was 33/34? I can't remember and can't be bothered looking it up but to make matters short the guy was in his 30's. Once you get there your reflexes start declining drastically and you can't move exactly how you used to in your 20's and Jones wasn't the kind of fighter to rely on technique so his style never suited aging in the first place. He looked fine in the Woods fight but he looked like he couldn't be bothered and I think he was just bored more than anything. After beating Ruiz I'd say whatever hunger he had evaporised. I hope to get RJJ's career set because I'm a big Roy fan and I also want to truly see if he was declining in 01-02.

 

reggie johnson probably...he was still elite but i think he started declining from there. woods was able to trap him along the ropes a few times in their fight and that showed to me his movement was starting to fade. he made kelly look stupid...but it was kelly lol. i remember steward saying kelly's trainer would have been a bigger problem for jones than kelly was haha.

his move up to heavy was his last hurrah...had he not moved back down, i don't think his downfall would have been as quick...but losing muscle weight took a toll on him. i think tarver 1 was still a good jones, dood was just weight drained, lethargic, dehydrated, whatever. you never saw roy jones tired and he looked faded in that fight by the middle rounds. tarver 2, i think jones was still capable of fighting at the elite level but he just got caught by that left hand from satan. then it was a sudden and quick demise from there.

@techks...i have his career set all the way to the 1st johnson fight...it's a good set. who else had that combination of power and speed? dude had 1 shot KO power at super middle and was faster than most people at the lower weights

 

Oh I didn't answer the question lol. I'd say after the third Tarver fight or Johnson fight he no longer was a top light heavyweight anymore. It's hard for me to pick but I'd say between eithor those two.