Why did 'Prime' Roy Jones Jr avoid the 6 biggest punchers of his divisions?

[SCtrojansbaby]

Stupid thread.

Jackson, Eubank and McClellan were never realistic fights for Roy. Nunn was past prime and not a very big puncher at 175 when he could of fought Roy.

[Earl-Hickey]

He fought Toney who was better than all these guys. Power doesn't mean **** if that's pretty much all you got.

Styles make fights, and with Jones glass chin I think Benn or mclellan would have been more of a danger than the flabby unmotivated toney that Jones beat

[Jam Jars]

Oh ffs it's not about if you think he would have beat them, it's about that he didn't fight them and fought nobodies instead.

[forget]

No at middleweight he fought the best middleweight in B-Hop, at supermiddle he fought the best, James Toney and at light heavy he unified the titles.

[Jam Jars]

No at middleweight he fought the best middleweight in B-Hop, at supermiddle he fought the best, James Toney and at light heavy he unified the titles.

Oh so fighting 1 good opponent lets him avoid every other one and fight garbage men. Stop being so stupid, he never cleared out a division avoiding the top rated for easy pay days against nobodies.

[soul_survivor]

Oh ffs it's not about if you think he would have beat them, it's about that he didn't fight them and fought nobodies instead.

Pretty much true.

I'm a huge Jones fan, think he was THE outstanding fighter of the 90s, when I was growing up, captured my attention along with Oscar, Prince and Tyson. Having said that, he skipped out on WAY too many 50/50, 60/40 fights. Jones himself has gone on trouble and said Eubank would have given him the most problems, why didn't he fight him? Was he shook?

Guys like Eubank, McClennan, Nunn weren't just big punchers, they were skilled boxers too, especially Eubank, probably the most underrated fighter in the SMW divisions history (I have him as the second best 168lb fighter I've ever seen). Nunn admittedly was past his best but way better than all the crap Jones fought instead. Heck he fought Hill when Hill had his titles taken from him by Daruisz, why did that fight not happen instead? Jones has time and time again said that he wanted new records and to fight the best prime fighters, Dariusz would have made a lot more sense than Hill in that case.

Jones has 2 huge problems with his career, the first being the second half of his career which has been pathetic and the first being when he was primed and possibly the best fighter on the planet, he missed out on far too many good match ups. This stops RJJ from being spoken about in the same breath as a Hopkins, a Pacquiao, a Lewis, a Chavez, a Whitaker and a Mayweather.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Stupid thread.

Jackson, Eubank and McClellan were never realistic fights for Roy. Nunn was past prime and not a very big puncher at 175 when he could of fought Roy.

G-man was realistic in 92,93 when he was a mw champ

eubanks was really realistic in 95

You dont even make any sense in terms of micheal nunn,,,, Nunn was roy's mandatory at 168, and then roy vacanted and moved up

How about liles,, he was roy's nemesis from the amateurs and had dropped roy in the amateurs, was a longtime 168 champ during the same time roy was there,,, just watch the pre-fight presser for the brannon fight where all the press is complaining to roy about why he aint fighting liles,,

Collins fight could have been made in 96,97

not saying roy had to fight everyone but with nunn, benn, collins, eubanks, G-man, liles, michlewski,, at least 2 or 3 of those guys would have been fine,,,
Toney was a great win, it put roy on top, but roy wouldnt take another challenge for a decade,,,

I wish people would quit saying that hopkins was a big fight back then,,,, Hopkins was a nobody and was USBA champ,, he was only chosen to fight roy because he was thought of as not very good, or at least top level,,, it wasnt till years later that hopkins got respect,, so lets not act like hopkins was a top guy back then,,,, Roy fought him for toney's old vacant mw belt, because the other major champ at mw was G-man, and roy wasnt taking that fight,,,,,,,,

[BoxingGenius27]

What the fcuk is with people and this ducking business?

Why didn't Chavez fight Aaron Pryor?

Why didn't Foreman fight Tyson?

Why didn't Vitali fight Lamon Brewster?

Why didn't Lewis fight Michael Moorer?

Why didn't Pryor fight Sweet P?

I can do this for days. Sometimes fights just don't happen. In Roy's case, he didn't duck not one soul. The only fight that could've happened that didn't was Roy-Dariusz, but that's only because Roy wasn't about to go all the way to Germany and get robbed like he did in Korea. And rightfully so, he shouldn't have too because he was the undisputed champ.

Oh yeah and Roy-Hopkins 2 in the early 2000's didn't happen because of negotiations, but that's about it.

All these people saying Roy should've fought (i.e. Collins, Lyles, Eubank, etc) is bullschit. If anyone followed the sport during the time, none of those fights were mentioned as potential fights wanted by mainstream fans. Back in the day, during the mid to late 90's, we didn't have these internet forums to check up on the statuses of potential fights. The only way you found out was either in a newspaper, ESPN highlights the next morning, or HBO post fight interviews. So all this schit about Roy ducked this fighter or ducked that fighter or should've fought this guy or that guy is bullschit.

Roy fought and beat everyone he was supposed to fight and beat. The man had like 13 belts all in different weight classes at the same damn time. He was the undisputed champ in several different weight classes yet he was ducking people.

This schit is crazy some of the stuff I read on this site

[BoxingGenius27]

Oh yeah and Euro fighters then are nothing what they are today.

If you mentioned fighting one of the european fighters (i.e Collins, Eubank, etc) instead of the top U.S fighters (i.e Johnson, McCallum, ect) you would've been crucified back then.

Up until Lennox Lewis, Euro fighters were considered a joke with the likes of Frank Bruno representing the entire country. Come on folks

[Boxing Goat]

This is a honest question. I want honest non bias answers.

Why did a Prime Roy Jones Jr never fight the 6 biggest punchers of his divisions?

They weren't just big punchers. You could make a case that they were 6 of the top 8 guys around Roy's divisions during his era.

Jackson-Mccellan-Daruiz-Nunn-Benn-Eubank. From 160-175

I'm serious. Why? Ya. Nobody beats Roy . Yep Yep. He will win every round against these six inferior human beings? Right? Ok. He still didn't fight any one of the six.

Not one.

Once again:

Roy's biggest rivals during his era
Toney
Collins
Nunn
Jackson
Mccellan
Hopkins
Benn
Eubank
Daruiz

He fought 2.

He fought the two ATG's on the list and Hill. The others didn't want to travel and fight him here in the USA like Woods did.........thread over.