By Matteo Alderson

Roy Jones always galvanizes our emotions and his supporters and naysayers are equally aggressive in their views of the 35-year old fighter.  His detractors say that he never beat a great fighter in his prime and that he selectively chose his opponents, maneuvering around potentially risky fights such as the often-proposed match-up with Dariusz Michalczewski.

On the other hand, his fans feel that he was never beaten in his prime and that his ten-year pound for pound reign of terror solidifies his status as one of the five or ten greatest fighters of all time.  All in all I lean more towards the opinion held by his supporters and feel that he is one of the best 20 fighters to ever lace up a pair of gloves. 

He won legitimate championships in four different weight classes, beat a 28-year old Bernard Hopkins and a 44-0 James Toney.  And during the course of his prime, he dazzled us with his natural skill and surreal speed.  Who can forget the 52-punch combination he threw in his fight against Toney Thorton or his punch from behind the back to knock out Australian Glen Kelly.  Without a doubt my most vivid memory of Jones was his knockout of Art Serwano on the undercard of Mancini-Haugent in 1992.  Roy hit Serwano with an overhand right so hard that he went flying sideways and went into momentary convulsions while his eyes rolled back behind his head. 

To me those spectacular performances epitomize the fighter who is Roy Jones. He was so much better than everybody else, that his perfection and utter domination of the world´s best fighters stopped him from being considered one of the true greats, like a Duran, Ali, or Robinson because in order to be great you have to overcome adversity and upset the odds like Leonard did with Hagler or Ali with Foreman. 

Roy Jones was so good that he never had to dig down deep and pull out a fight with sheer will and courage like Sugar Ray did in his epic battle with Hearns.  That´s why I don’t consider Roy to be one of the ten greatest fighters of all time because I never got a chance to see that extra little something that all great possess.  In a way it’s not fair, why should we penalize Jones for being too good.  Would we rate Jones higher if the Toney fight had been a war?  We’ve always judged Roy by another standard, the Roy standard.  When Toney defended his IBF 168 pound title against Tony Thorton, all the experts called Toney a craftsman, an old school fighter for winning a decision, but when Roy Jones fought him, the experts downgraded the Mailman and criticized Roy's quality of competition. 
 
Today a lot of detractors point to his knockout losses to Glencoffe Johnnson and Antonio Tarver to validate their opinions of Roy, but the Jones they fought wasn’t the one that dazzled us in his prime and there is conclusive evidence to support this belief. 

First look at Tarver, he beat an old Reggie Johnson in 2002 and one of the judges even scored it for Reggie while Roy easily handled the slick southpaw, knocking him down twice and winning every second of every round en route to a three card 120-106 decision. 

Also compare their performances against Eric Harding and Montell Griffin.  A lot of people like to say that Griffin was beating Roy in the first fight, but come on, Roy was about to stop Montell and had him on shaky legs right before he fouled him. Montell wasn’t going to win that fight.  That loss is about as shady as Pernell Whitaker's loss to Jose Luis Ramirez and Jones rectified it when he knocked Griffin out in a Tyson-Spinks like manner.

Also look at Glencoffe Johnson. The Jamaican went 24 hard rounds with Clinton Woods, the man that Roy Jones played with like a barbie doll.  I could go on and on, but the point that I want to make is that Roy Jones is shot, he's past his prime, his move from heavyweight back down to light heavyweight took it's toll on his body and dramatically exasperated the speed of his physical decline.

That’s why I think it’s ridiculous that a lot of experts are picking Jones over Tarver.  Yes, I know that great fighters can sometimes call back the magic of the past and give one last virtuoso performance, but Jones’ style was predicated on his speed and amazing reflexes and those attributes aren’t going to improve after a year.