Why do we berate RJJs competition?

He fought everyone he shoud have fought at 175 except for Dariusz Michalczewski. That's the big one tho. Lineal champion with stronger claim to two belts that Roy held. Maybe that's why?

 

We do?

 

And I think he dropped a belt instead of facing Nunn. Collins was dying to face him, but he wasn't interested.

The one fight I'd really liked, though, is McClellan. Eubank and Benn also, of course. Eubank could be a tricky stylistic match-up, something Roy himself has acknowledged. I don't think those two wanted any part of Jones, though.

 

He did miss out on some of the big names, as mentioned in my previous post. He doesn't get enough credit for some, though, as Malinga.

 

I think his Olympic experience made Roy Jr gunshy about fighting out of the U.S. in someone else’s backyard.

I don’t think he was anxious to go to Germany for Micalczewski nor to the UK to face the middle/super middle threesome of Benn/Eubank/Collins … nor were any of the above keen to come to the U.S. Just kind of a stalemate on where those fights could have taken place.

Roy was making really good money and a major attraction fighting in his home country, and they were all making good money fighting in their home countries. There wasn’t enough of a $$$ reason to leave to fight the others all around.

 

Why do you think Collins wouldn't come to the US? Has he said anything to that effect? He wasn't shy about fighting there otherwise. And he really wanted the Jones fight, so it would really surprise me if he refused to travel.

Eubank and Benn were a lot more "thanks, but I'm good".

 

i don't think it is.

i think people see how great he looked and then expect a bit more from his resume.

 

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Ah, thanks! Shouldn't have doubted Benn. He was a beast.

 

Perhaps so. I only know he didn’t fight in the U.S. after a single bout in 1992 after fighting the earlier part of his career there. Perhaps he was willing but for whatever reason it didn’t work out.

Seems like from what I’ve read that it came down in some part to a few factors:

1) Roy Jr moved up to light heavyweight in 1996. Collins had only had a single fight at that weight vs. a journeyman. HBO wanted a unification at light heavy for Jones, which happened.

2) HBO also signaled that if Collins would fight Calzaghe or a third match with Eubank, it would be interested in putting the winner in with Roy. Then Collins had some kind of training incident where he got KO’d and .. retired, I think?

But you’re probably right. The Collins fight not happening for Jones was more likely not to do with him coming to the U.S. as it was other factors out of his control. I spoke out of turn on that one. My bad.

 

He copped it big time during his actual career. I remember flame wars over it but it seemed one-sided with people decrying him avoiding hard fights.

 

Cheers mate.

Incidentally, Calzaghe is still incensed because Collins retired and never faced him. So Collins is pissed with Jones and Calzaghe with Collins.

I think it's pretty just much that Collins didn't register much on Jones's radar, as you suggest, and Calzaghe not on Collins's.

 

As a slight aside, there's a retrospective interview where Eubank describes going to America to fight Prime Roy Jones as 'a suicide mission.' And for balance, Jones claimed in an interview that he rang Benn to talk about a possible fight. Benn said he was going through a divorce and he would get back to him - but never did. I'm not saying anything other than that's why Jones said it never happened.
To answer the question ... Jones could have done more to fight better talents. But did not seem to want to push himself sometimes. However ... he did still fight and beat ATG s and very good fighters - and did it pretty easily. I also think he made some decent fighters look bad. So I do think he is, to an extent, held to a higher standard of what more he could have done, rightly or wrongly.

 

LHW is the only division where he routinely faced ranked opposition funnily enough. I have berated Roy A LOT but I do think he did a better job at facing top 10 opponents at 175 compared to his campaigns in other divisions. I still don't like the fact that he was able to avoid Dariusz while grabbing the belts Dariusz was wrongfully stripped of though. The fact that his biggest win (Toney) came into the fight in possibly the worst condition of his career, fought horribly, and scarcely even tried does dampen the win imo. Roy also had a habit of cherrypicking unranked and unremarkable opponents for title defences.