Would Joe Calzaghe Have Made It Past The First, Against Prime RJJ?

Throughout his career Calzaghe showed that he could take a shot and recover quickly from hurtful shots.... he was also superb at being able to constantly adapt during fights and therefore sub due opponents.

Both were special talents and it's a shame they only shared a ring when they were both at the end of the road.

 

Great post.

 

I think WAY more often then not he does- We never really saw the limit of Joes chin so it’s hard to say but it looks like quality Iron to me. But onto RJJ vs Joe in general at his best I believe Jones would always win against the Welsh Slapper.

 

Back in the 90s, nobody could really hang with Roy Jones, he was that good. He had amazing reflexes and physical gifts. Once he began to lose that, he became an ordinary fighter forced to fight like a mere mortal. There was a time I rooted against him, but later on, it was actually sad to see a fighter like him as a shell of himself.

Calzaghe fought him in 2008. That was a world away from Roy's prime. You can't expect a fighter to last forever. Had it been 1994, things may have been a whole different story. I think a prime Roy beats him, but I would not count Calzaghe totally out. He had a good chin, was very persistent and threw a lot of punches, so it would have been an interesting matchup even in Roy's prime.

To the poster who says he saw no difference had they fought in any other time, I don't get it.

 

Or to put it another way would RJJ have made it past the first round with Joe?

OK I am joking but we are comparing a fighter who always got up after a KD to a fighter who once his chin was tested collapsed like a house of cards...again and again. Yes it was when Roy was past his best and of course he went the distance with Joe when they actually fought but keep in mind Joe was also past his prime when they fought IMO.

Peak JC could have been the guy who was fast enough to expose Jones' chin. I am not sure RJJ faced anyone with as quick hand as Joe in his prime? Joe is also a notch or two above Johnson and Tarver as a fighter and feel could have given Roy a good tussle.

HOWEVER to totally contradict myself there is also a vague possibility of a Nunn vs Kalambay style KO victory for Roy. At his peak he was sooo quick this could have been a competitive fight on paper that turns into a stunning mismatch. After all Roy knocked Joe down when they fought so who knows!

 

Yes but he would have lost the fight

 

this old man is so stupid

 

I don't think Roy would've stopped Calzaghe. I do think he would've won, but not stopped him. Calzaghe is a tough, tough guy

 

Oh I promise you a prime Jones stops JC and I dont care what anyone says. JC went life and death with Eubank and Eubank would NEVER face a Jones.
All this Joe is just as fast as Roy is utter nonsense he wasnt as fast as Jones and Jones hit harder.
Hell I dont think any supermiddle went the distance with Roy except for Toney who got spanked every round and somehow Joe is going to beat Roy in his prime? Based off what?

 

What was Roy’s style exactly anyway?

The more you rely purely on acute speed, reflex and natural abilities overall, I would think the less so called style (conventional) you have.

Whatever “style” you want to assign to Roy - it was literally comprised by his natural speed and reflexes and informed how he reactively fought in the moment and how he fought somewhat ad hoc over the course of a whole fight.

When those peak qualities became eroded - I would say that for all intents and purposes - you would naturally see a very different, degraded version of Roy as compared to the one you witnessed when he was in his prime.

 

Interesting points and I am not disagreeing with you but apart from Toney (which was a brilliant win to be sure), Roy's remaining fights at SM were against Pazienza, Thornton, Lucas, Byrd, Brannon, Sosa. And while Roy swept them away they are all significantly weaker fighters, ranging from the outright mediocre to solid contenders, than Calzaghe. So I find it hard to see Roy walking through JC as he did with these other guys. If he had stopped Toney then yes but he didn't, nor did he KO McCallum in his first fight at LHW.

Also let's be clear Eubank was an extremely tough fighter, yes probably on the slide but Joe was in his first title fight against a long running, very experienced unbeaten champ who knew every trick in the book and had a steel chin.

As I mentioned in a previous post I admit a Griffin 2 style KO could happen, it is not out of the question with an ATG like Roy. But I think JC is a much better fighter than Griffin so the likelihood is diminished. Whatever we may think of JC's competition he was a long time unbeaten partially unified champ, he was certainly no Ottke.

 

Good post. Wasnt Thomas Tate as well a victory at super middle for Roy? I liked Eubank alot and he was indeed tough.
Roy would have been too fast for JC.

 

Good post.

Eubank was past prime vs Calzaghe & took the fight on short notice, having instead been preparing for a fight at LHW, so whilst I've never heard him say so, he could have been a little weight drained too.

That said, Calzaghe was pre-prime too. It was his first world title fight & first fight against a world class boxer. In his auto biography Joe said he typically weighed 178-180lbs on fight night at SWM, but burnt so much nervous energy on the day of the Eubank fight, he said he was 172lbs going into the ring. He mentioned his exceptional stamina meant that he usually felt fresh going late into fights, but he was exhausted after 3 rounds vs Eubank. So, yeah, it wasn't the best version of Eubank, but it wasn't of Calzaghe either.

I'd pick a prime RJJ to beat prime JC by 10-2/9-3 type comfortable decision, btw.

 

Prime RJJ's style was unique to him. My, admittedly somewhat inadequate, succinct description of his style would be "long-range potshotter".

Prime Jones usually stood at a sufficient distance from his opponent that using his relfexes he could evade their punches, whilst he was so "video game" fast he could launch in, typically with a single shot (i.e. no need to set up power shots off of jabs or use feints) & land.

i.e. he fought with a style that pretty much no one else in history had the physical attributes to successfully replicate. Which is why, as you allude to, his physical deteriation post age 34/35 & post moving back down in weight after Ruiz, was so exactly correlated with the deteriation in his performances & results.

 

Thanks! Tate was actually Roy's last defence of his middleweight title before he moved up. I am going to rewatch a bunch of Jones fights now, you have inspired me.