Why did Roy Jones ruin his career the way he did?

Hindsight is a great thing. RJJ was very carefull how he managed his career and did it himself (props for that, fukc paying promoters). Staying at HW was probably seen as a risk because RJJ is really a natural MW - not even a LHW.

Also the come down from that HW win probably drew him down a bit. And then the KO from Tarver in 2nd fight (which shocked me I remember, shattered) just took it right out of him. Boxing is in our DNA but its bloody tough, you gotta feel like superman. After that first KO he lost that. And then he got older and it snowballed.

He still managed his career well from there, even though he lost. He built up a few wins before having some big fights (Tito, Calzaghe and even Green), and even some other good fights in there.

People suggest he has money problems now. I highly doubt that. Thing is fighters fight. They don'y know when to give up.

 

He turned it down because Jones's demands were terrible.

 

And who else, even if you count the Rock? how many years how many fights we talking here?

1 guy and if the biggest hitter you fight is Hasim Rahman, I say you are hardly walking a mindfield when it comes to hitters. As for Rahman, lets look closely at the punches you have to be concerned with---make that punch. It certainly is not a left hook, is it? Right uppercut? Left uppercut and Rahman's balance would see him fall on the mat. So it was a solitary right hand punch.

How many top 10 guys did Rahman take out with it? Lennox and lets see, Sanders. Anyone else? Lots of decisions and more ko by results than ko's once he stepped up the competition. Just how big of a scrapheap did Hasim Rahman leave anyway?

 

He fought the best guy at 168 who was better than the the fighters he missed at 168 like Benn, Eubank, Collins etc, and then moved upto 175. He cleaned out the division apart from fighting DM. He wanted the fight, but he wasn't stupid. He didn't want to risk going to Germany, when some of the judging was disgraceful. Roy had the WBC, WBA and IBF belts, DM had the WBO. He was offered money to go to the U.S. twice and he declined, so the fight couldn't get made. The onus was on DM. So apart from fighting DM, he did everything that he could have done at that weight.

Are you saying he should have fought fighters the calibre of Green, Calzaghe, and Hopkins or are you saying he should have fought those actual fighters before he did? His 175 resume is pretty good. Griffin, Reggie Johnson, Hill, Gonzalez, Woods, Tarver and Harding are very good wins, especially in the manner in which he beat most of them.

The Hopkins rematch was never viable, because Hopkins originally wanted more money, despite the fact that Roy had already beaten him. In the end Roy wanted 60/40 and Hopkins refused. Roy wasn't bothered. Around that time he was looking to go up to heavy. He wasn't prepared to lose weight, to fight a guy who he hated, and who he'd already beaten, for less than 60%

Calzaghe wasn't at all viable. He was fighting in Britain at 168, and was relatively unknown outside of europe at the time. He never made any effort to fight at Roy's weight class or in the U.S. til 2008. He's also on record as saying that he'd have wanted the crown jewels to have fought Roy. But no Network or promoter would have paid him a huge amount, because again, he wasn't well known outside of europe. So those fights couldn't get made.

He didn't want to stay at heavy and fight lower top ten guys. His intentions were Holyfield then Tyson. He'd got a verbal agreement to fight Evander before Evander's third fight with Ruiz. After Ruiz beat Evander, Roy was again offered the fight, but he turned the opportunity down late 2001, and then stayed at 175 for another year. He didn't think he'd get any credit for beating Evander at that point, so he turned his attentions to Ruiz. After Ruiz, his dream fight was against Tyson. Tyson was washed up by then, but it would have been a huge fight. Roy spoke to Mike at length and they spoke about the possibility of having two fights. Everybody wanted it, but Shelly Finkle had a contractual dispute with Showtime and Don King was also in the way.

Roy's sole purpose for going to heavy was for Mike. After that fight fell through he wasn't up for fighting any of the other heavies. He could have fought Byrd for his titles, but he wasn't interested. All the way through 2003, Tarver was constantly in his ear. They'd been trading insults through the media and face to face since they were both 14 years old. Tarver really got under his skin, so he went back to 175 to fight him, and the rest is history.

He could have won a title at Cruiser and been a 5 weight champ, but at the time he never gave it a seconds thought. You're right Roy could have had some easy fights at heavy, but after Tyson, he just wasn't interested.

If you think he's tarnished his legacy, then I respect your opinion. But in my opinion, his legacy can't be tarnished no matter what he does. You can't undo what's already been done. Nobody remembers Ali losing to Berbick, they remember the Thrilla and the Jungle. Same with SRL and Duran. Duran fought til he was 50, and only a car crash stopped him from continuing. Nobody remembers Duran losing to nobodies at 49, they remember him destroying people at 135 in the 70's.

You've made some good points and again I respect your opinions, but the title of your thread is ridiculous. He didn't ruin his career.

Regards, Loudon.

 

Roy got old. Look at Ezzard Charles' record near the end, and he's a top 5 p4p'er. They just hang around too long.

 

Pride

 

Haha! Just noticed your avatar. Ha! Brilliant!

 

Video's are the only real evidence on boxing forums..

 

:good
Lord Bailey has has deemed all printed evidence illegal :rasta

 

By the way, hows the weather in Leeds?:rofl:rofl:smoke

 

very weathery:!:

 

interesting point Banger,

My thoughts are, Roy Jones' hands P4P are not as fast as they were, but are still P4P some of the fastest, especially if you allow him to stand there and throw, without making him use his legs, which is what Lacy and Sheika did, that were shot themselves and never really that good..

If Roy is matched very carefully against other declined fighters, he can still show flashes of his old self.. I think Roy's fights with Sheika, Trinidad, and Lacy would have all ended in the same sort of fashion had they all met a prime Roy, when they were also prime...

Hanshaw, Ajamu, Green, Johnson, were all prime... Roy was shot.. Those fights would have ended much different.. Calzaghe, was not peak, but he was still close to his best.. Hanshaw, Johnson and Calzaghe, used tactics that would have not have gone well with prime Roy

Tarver I make an exception for, because I think his style would always have given Roy fits, but I do think Roy would have beaten him.

I would have loved to see Prime Roy vs. Calzaghe at 168... that would have been an epic entertaining fight, that would end in dramatic fashion IMO:good

 

Krik Johnson, Rahman, and Golota all had good power. Holyfield has decent power too.

How many devastating punchers were in the heavy division at the time who had a KO ratio over at least 70 who were a big name? He fought guys with good power, the only devastating powers at the time were Tua, Klits, and Lewis... he tried to get a fight with Lewis and the Klits, but none wanted to fight him. They didn't duck him, but they didn't have anything to do with him, I'm not sure if it was him fighting under Don Kings or his ugly ass style he had which made for boring fights.

 

Ruiz did the best with what he had. He is admirable. He was once seen as a good boxer puncher, before his fight with Tua he was seen as a skilled boxer who fought in the Lewis stable and was a real threat to defeating Tua at the time. But tua ran right throw him like a knife through butter. That is a devastating loss. It takes a lot of heart to come back after something like that. He was a very determined fighter who found a ugly style that was effective. While people like to bash him now, he was a legit top ten fighter at the time, and no one outside of the Klits, RJJ, and Lewis wouldve blew him away at heavy once he got his style together. But that jab and grab style was really ugly, but he had a good sneaky right hand.