Why was did Roy Jones Jr. decline dramatically after the Tarver rematch fight?

For the first Tarver fight I agree.But not for the 2nd or fights thereafter, Roy had no weight issues for them.

 

His competition was not awful. Besides missing out on Dariusz at light heavy (though HBO tried and the Michalczewski camp didnt want to negotiate ). Nunn was a shell at that point and i seriously have a hard time believing Rochigianni would of done anything but lose a decision.

Back to Roy, I think a combo of things hit all at once. The going down in weight (losing muscle), the age and his natural gifts deteriorating, the miles from 50ish fights, training camps, amateur fights etc, and that shot from Tarver cracked Jones' chin. You see it in boxing and MMA, sometimes when a guy is brutally knocked out it becomes much easier to KO that guy (the seal being broken essentially).

 

Nice post !

 

He started to decline after the win with Ruiz.. When he returned to fight in his own category his body made him pay the rise of weight in the HWs.

 

Tarver ruined his chin and confidence, and his legs were gone for the Johnson match likely due to not taking the fight seriously.

He came in prepared for the third Tarver fight, but his confidence level was too low to take command.

After that, he was just too old.

 

Myth. He never lost 25 pounds of muscle.

 

Several reasons imo, a really uneducated and damaging weight cut, his age, and I think most importantly, he never bothered to learn the basic fundamentals of how to box, and when his reflexes started to slip he never bothered to adapt his style. You can only get away with fighting with your hands down and chin up for so long..you can only get away with looking at the audience as you land a punch for so long ...ect, Roy never evolved, and if history tells us anything...if you don’t adapt or evolve you die

 

As others have already noted, It was a culmination of things. But other fighters were also never the same after burning muscle.

Tarver, Dawson and Byrd all suffered the same fate. I don’t think it was a coincidence. It must take something out of the body. Mackie Shilstone says it has a detrimental affect on the immune system, and that he told Roy not to drop back to fight Tarver.

 

He weighed in at 193 for Ruiz without reason to drain. In other words, he entered the ring marginally heavier than the 185-190 he entered the ring at in 175 fights, and the theory falls apart.

Tarver was like 38 for Hopkins and would win a major title after that.

Dawson was not a 168 fighter. 175 was natural for Tarver and Jones. Dawson also had major issues with focus after Ward that had nothing to do with slimming doen for one fight. The guy who ko'd him was also a standout 175 champ with big power.

 

He is an ATG talent and accomplished ATG fights hus 1 punch stop of Virgil Hill comes to mind his dominance of Toney etc.....come to mind but he is a fighter as others stated was so gifted with fast twitch that he never had to learn fundamentals to carry into his later career. He had an ATG skill and his career is top notch but when he slowed down and started getting hit clean the divide between the Archie Moores, SRR, Duran, Pep, Greb etc.....was his ability to take those shots and comeback and win.....his reflexes were non comparable but the ATG gladiators of the ring had the chin and heart to dig in

 

I really do not see it that way.For the fighters you mentioned, you could clearly see that they were weight drained.Not the case for Roy so to me this is an excuse

 

truth b tolled is that traver one of the heaviest 175 punchers in the world for years and a day but nobody was paying close attention to the damage he do with his fists until they tried to explain away rjj suppozed prime as a relic from da passed.

 

Can’t think of many that suffered that kind of massive setback at age 35 and bounced back. Not that I rate him on par with them. At least not all.

 

Antonio “Mason Dixon” Tarver hurt his hand against Balboa and the commentators completely downplayed it and downright ignored it because they were biased toward the old warhorse. He wins a rematch in a whitewash before beaching the great white whale.

 

Jones looked the same against Tarver (2nd fight) as he did against all those vastly subpar guys (this Harmon, this Telesco, Woods, Hall or whoever they are?), just as sharp and the same guy. He was fighting a bit of a better opponent and got timed.