IYO? Looking back, I think he was slightly on the slide, when struggling against Montell Griffin, course in the rematch he blasts him Ko 1. Jones was that good tho, even then he was still a lot better than those around him. But maybe if there had being, say a Hagler around in 1997 onward, then Jones gets beaten sooner.
Hard one that one mate, because he was so much better than his opposition for so long it makes it hard to determine exactly when his peak was. The fight against Griffin was close but we have to remember anyone can have any off night, his tactics of going again the ropes from what I can remember wasn’t / isn’t a smart move 95% of the time, he did well to pull it off so often in his career. But there were flashes of his best work during that fight, I think it was a combination of bad tactics and an off night. Jones adjusted in the second fight and went straight at him from centre ring. Thought he looked very decent against Virgil Hill afterwards as well.
Brannon, last fight at 168. Would of been around 28ish here. He was still dominant at light heavy, but at 168 and below he was incredible IMO. I also don't think he was on the slide at 175 when he fought Griffin just a tricky opponent.
Giving it a rough guess, I’d say probably from the time he beat James Toney at SMW to around the time he beat Eric Harding in 2000 at LHW. I disagree that he was sliding by the first Montell fight. Jones had an off night and might even have won had he not hit Griffin while he was down. Roy still had some prime left after that match
Definitely had prime left but I do think that he was looking, let's say less superman?, going in to the mid 90 s. But he still had so much more skill than those around him. If he'd been around maybe in another era? Who knows, he may have struggled more at that age. Still an amazing fighter.
Moving to LHW is what slowed down Jones just a bit. He was still a great fighter there but his body was more suited towards 160/168, he had no reason to bulk up and increase his muscle that much. But 168 was still a historically new division at the time which mostly consisted of Europeans, there was no money to be made there. He wanted to be the first MW champion to earn a HW belt in 100 years though which is why he felt he needed to bulk up that much muscle. That's what ultimately caused Roy's career crashing down, especially after that weight cut from HW, that muscle memory was gone forever and he aged overnight. Like Hopkins, Jones should of focused and boil down to 160 until he couldn't no more, beating all the smaller fighters from 147-160 then progressively move up and unify all the belts, with LHW being his ceiling. He could of literally been the GOAT.
