Has Roy Jones Hurt His Legacy By Getting KTFO Too Many Times

[Fury4daWIN]

What does being ktfo 12 times have to do with legacy?

If it happens during your prime, quite a lot. If it happens afterwards, not as much.

[- Ram Raid -]

Ezzard Charles suffered 7 KO losses, 5 of which came in the last 5 years of his career. He's still universally regarded as an ATG.

Chavez Sr.'s only four stoppage losses occured in his later years. He's still universally regarded as an ATG.

Sugar Ray Robinson lost 5 out of his last 11 fights to lesser opponents. He's universally regarded as the #1 fighter in history.

Roberto Duran lost 3 of his last 5 fights, has several losses to journeyman and is still universally regarded as a top 5-10 ATG.


The list goes on. These losses have 0 impact on what people will think of Roy Jones 10-15 years from now.

That's a very good point. The passage of time is usually kind to boxers once considered great. Icons are the walking embodiment of certain qualities that we admire, they become part of the story that we collectively tell about ourselves. Lauded as ideals. So there's a cut off point right? Of what we are willing to acknowledge about them and about ourselves? After all, when they become vunerable, when they've gone on to long, who wants to acknowledge that, who wants to look and really see it for what it is? We want to bask in reflected greatness, not to be startled by the sorry face of human fragility. By the stark realisation that our icons are all too mortal, and so are we.

If we look on for to long then we start to unwittingly pick at a thread that unravels the whole glorious tapestry that we've created. Behind the narrative that we weave is a story less comforting. Behind the shine are burnt men, horrendously damaged by their own tormenting drives. Chavez and Duran battle scarred, drug addled and booze soaked until they start to resemble shadows. Charles crippled from the waist down by the ravages of lateral sclerosis. And Ray Robinson with so many dementia induced holes in his brain that he had no idea that he was once the greatest boxer to ever lace up a pair of gloves.

Past a certain point, it is best that we avert our gaze. To disavow. So that we can go on as if we didn't know. Still telling ourselves glorious stories. Because if we go on looking to long, we see that these men didn't win. They didn't get out on their own terms. Unscathed. No longer the stuff of heros they become all to mortal tragic figures.

It is best if we cut the story short. To remember it in parts rather than in its entirety. That way we can tell it with a smile upon our faces and bask in the reflected glory.

[hugh grant]

I like Joe calzaghe but I know him haven beaten rjj as well as having a zero don't make him greater.
So even though rjj is sad to see him fight and lose badly now, at least people still respect him for what he was.

[The Problem Child]

Are you trying to tell us you are older than 15?

Same here, nothing that happens now can erase his accomplishments, its a shame to see it keep happening to him but he was once a great fighter he just cant let go for some reason.

Right. And I feel the same way, it is sad to the once great athletic and confident Roy being taxed by time and his love for the sport. Downfalls are sad to witness.

[MrRolltide91]

Naw roy isn't in his prime

[FeFist]

It is difficult to explain.

It's comparable to a pretty woman dying in her prime, for example Marilyn Monroe, and a pretty celebrity who grew old and then had too much plastic surgery. You know that humans grow old and wither, but you're left with a perfect image when they leave before their time.

In the case of Roy Jones Jr., we will always know what he accomplished but we were able to see that he is human.

I would say that it hindered his legacy so far as preventing him from becoming some type of mythological figure in boxing.

[imperial1]

No it's just hard to watch like any other past great that held on for to long

[Slip Stream]

Roy hasn't somehow un-won any of his great fights, but what he's leaving is a perception that's profoundly eating away at what people believed they thought they saw when he was great. It's all about how Roy wants to be remembered, does he want the fresh images of a beaten man that refuses to retire or does he want fans to remember the guy with the lightening fast reflexes and that was so entertaining to watch?

[hugh grant]

Most, or at least many great boxers have two or three too many fights, and it don't hurt their legacy. Its hard to avoid that if you are ambitious as you want to beat the b3st.

But rjj has got too many highlight reels of himself being koef now. So maybe someone should lie to him and say his legacy will be effected to save him from himself

[GrandpaBernard]

It is difficult to explain.

It's comparable to a pretty woman dying in her prime, for example Marilyn Monroe, and a pretty celebrity who grew old and then had too much plastic surgery. You know that humans grow old and wither, but you're left with a perfect image when they leave before their time.

In the case of Roy Jones Jr., we will always know what he accomplished but we were able to see that he is human.

I would say that it hindered his legacy so far as preventing him from becoming some type of mythological figure in boxing.

Roy's tale being the most interesting

He goes from boxing god to the portrait of human mortality