By Cliff Rold

With their showdown now only days away, and in the spirit of a fight that celebrates yesterday as much as, probably more than, tomorrow, it’s a fitting time to take a look at the careers of Roy Jones Jr. and Felix “Tito” Trinidad.  Specifically, this is a look at the broader view of their accomplishments and how those rate historically in the divisions they have fought in over the years.  Having looked at Tito yesterday, it turns now to the three divisions where Roy bears examination.
 
Roy Jones Jr.
51 Wins, 4 Losses, 38 Wins By KO, 2 Losses by KO

Jones at Middleweight

IBF titlist (1993-94); won vacant title against Bernard Hopkins; 1 successful defense

Summary:  19 of Jones first 25 fights were fought at or below 160 lbs. and it’s where he won his first title.  That title win came against Hopkins, assuring one must always acknowledge Jones middleweight beginnings.  Forgotten is that Hopkins was not the only quality victory for Jones at 160.  Jones also defeated future titlist Jorge Castro and obliterated a normally stout Thomas Tate in two rounds.

The Good:  He beat Hopkins cleanly and without dispute; he’s the only Middleweight that ever did.  That goes a long way with some.  That the iron-chinned Hopkins and Castro were the only fighters at the Middleweight limit to last the distance with Jones speaks to the substantial power he carried, along with his other-worldly hand speed. 

The Bad:  As much as Jones fans hate hearing it, Hopkins was not what he would become when Jones beat him.  It’s fair to say that Jones was not yet in his prime either, but his much deeper amateur background, and the competitive (if boring) nature of Jones-Hopkins suggests that a fight between both, at their developed best, might have turned out different.  The primary concern here is Jones though and, while perfect at Middleweight, the class was really a stopover on the way to his prime.  Once he got to that destination, he was too big to compete at 160 anymore, even in the era of the day-before weigh-in.

Rating Roy at 147:  Like Ray Robinson at Lightweight or Ezzard Charles at Middleweight, Roy’s earliest weight class gave hints at what was to come.  Hints alone are not enough.  To argue Roy into a high rating at 160, one has to make a case that a pre-prime Jones would have been too much for a prime Carlos Monzon, Harry Greb or Marvin Hagler.  That’s just not rational.  It is rational to argue that, based purely on his physical tools, Roy could be argued anywhere outside the top twenty all-time in this class.

Jones at Super Middleweight

IBF titlist (1994-96); won from James Toney; 5 successful defenses

Summary:  He defeated James Toney by lopsided decision to win the IBF belt and went on to defend that title five times.  Prior to that win, he also destroyed future titlist Thulani Malinga in six.

The Good:  This is the weight most think of when remembering Jones as human highlight film.  His win over Toney was so one-sided that even hardened boxing writers could be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed.  Toney had the appearance of a future great and Jones completely dismantled him.  The Malinga win was a six-round, one-man show and, considering Malinga’s later wins against titlists Nigel Benn and Robin Reid, that win bears remembering. 
 
The Bad:  The opposition Jones fought in title defenses is as hard to fathom now as it was then.  In a weight class that, during his reign, offered Frankie Liles, Steve Collins, Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn, fans got Antoine Byrd, former Jr. Welterweight Vinny Pazienza, Tony Thornton, future divisional titlist Eric Lucas and Bryant Brannon.  I don’t care if the reasons were Roy’s management, the HBO-Don King 90s civil war, or El Nino.  It was bad run post-Toney and a waste of time at Roy’s peak.

Rating Roy at 168:  That said, it wasn’t bad enough to undue the Toney result.  Jones, at his best, was good enough to almost make fans forget the opponent in front of him.  In a weight division, Super Middleweight, that has only been around since the mid-1980s, those two factors allow Jones to settle nicely as the number two man, all-time, at this weight.  The only fighter who merits mention ahead of him is current World Champion Joe Calzaghe.  I don’t know who would win a prime fight between the two, but Calzaghe’s longevity, high WBO title defenses, and relatively equal quality of competition make a difference.

Jones at Light Heavyweight

WBC titlist (1996-1997; 1997-2003; 2003); won interim (later full) title against Mike McCallum; regained from Montell Griffin; regained against Antonio Tarver; 11 successful defenses
WBA titlist (1998-2003); won from Lou Del Valle; 10 successful title defenses
IBF titlist (1999-2003); won from Reggie Johnson; 7 successful defenses
Ring Magazine titlist: (2002-2004)

Summary:  While he never was the ‘lineal’ champion of the class, Roy unified the three most recognized belts and faced all but one of the division’s best fighters during his time.  Of those men, only Glen Johnson, so far, can say he got a win over Roy without having to give one up in return. 

The Good:  This was the class where Roy got the most done in his career.  Just look at the wins: a still-viable, if aged, McCallum and Hill; the one-round destruction of Griffin after being disqualified in their first fight; young gun Eric Harding; solid veteran scalps like Del Valle and Johnson; future titlist Clinton Woods; future lineal World champion Julio Gonzalez; future Ring Magazine titlist Antonio Tarver.  All of them have a loss on their records to Roy Jones Jr.  It’s not the greatest run of foes in the history of the division, but it stacks up passably, foe for foe, against the reigns of Billy Conn and Bob Foster.

The Bad:  Roy’s years at 175 seemed more food for controversy when they were occurring then they do in retrospect, but there were some sore spots.  Well, one really.  That spot?  He never fought German-based Dariusz Michalczewski, the lineal World champion and WBO titlist; a fighter who remained undefeated in parallel to Jones from 1997 to 2003.  Regardless of why they didn’t fight (an argument that can last weeks without an answer that satisfies all) the fact is that they did not.  In determining where a fighter rates all-time, speculation is of little assistance.  Oh, and he fought woeful mandatory Ricky Frazier for millions on HBO, one of the single most disgraceful moments of boxing broadcasting ever witnessed.  Great for Roy; not so much for anyone else.

Rating Roy at 175:  Look at his record again.  From late 1996 and on through to the end of the Roy mystique at the hands of Tarver and Johnson in 2004, Jones beat every notable Light Heavyweight except one.  That ‘one’ didn’t face anywhere the same level of competition from the top to bottom of his reign.  Had Roy defeated Dariusz in the late-90s (when they should have fought), he might have a case as a top five Light Heavyweight based solely on ‘he fought everybody and you can’t do more than that’ logic.  Without Dariusz, he reasonably falls anywhere from 6-15 on the all-time scale.

Beyond 175:  Jones famously added a Heavyweight strap by defeating John Ruiz in 2003, an accomplishment made for TV more than memory.  It was a nice win, but former Middleweight Jimmy Ellis moving up to be competitive in the greatest pool of Heavyweights ever in the 1960s and 70s should put it in perspective.  If it doesn’t, look up Sam Langford.  After Ruiz, the fall was fast.  He narrowly defeated Tarver before losing three in a row to Tarver and Johnson.  He enters the Tito Trinidad fight riding a two-fight winning streak against suitable rebuilding fare.

The recent past doesn’t mean Roy didn’t get plenty done and it doesn’t mean that, at his best, he was anything less than special.  Anyone who wishes to argue his place, pound-for-pound, anywhere from slots 21-50, can get away with it and be well within their sanity.  Top twenty?  That’s a tougher case.

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com