Roy too reluctant to be great

For the 1st time I agree with JUY. I've been a Roy fan for a damn long time but after Saturday I'm officially a Roy Hater. I can't root for someone that has no fucken balls.

This article is from East Side Boxing I believe.

Listen, are fighters in the hall of fame great? Yes, look at the list. Roy Jones Jr. is going in the hall of fame right? Absolutley...the end.

you should link directly to the article to give them some credit since that name is I guess banned from being posted on here im not sure mate, i tried to put a link from it's original website ******** boxing, but the web adress was changed to www.*********.com.

03.10.05 - By Geoffrey Ciani: “How many people do you know of, who are crazy enough to come back after two consecutive knockouts and fight one of the guys that knocked you out. When it comes down to it, this really shows the heart that I got." These were the words spoken by Roy Jones Junior in the aftermath of his unanimous decision loss to Antonio Tarver on Saturday night. Sadly, the fact of the matter is, simply taking the fight does not in itself constitute heart; heart is exhibited in the boxing ring, and Jones didn’t show any. In fact, this fight might be representative of his entire career. After all, this fight illustrated one thing that was constant throughout his career – the fact that Roy Jones Junior never dared to be great. Roy Jones Junior was one of the absolute greatest talents to ever enter the ranks of professional boxing. Jones possessed a unique combination of athleticism, speed, and reflexes that few other boxers have had in the history of the sweet science. In fact, he could have been one of the greatest boxers to ever lace up the gloves, but one thing stopped him from ever achieving that level of greatness – the fact that he never dared to be great. This was obvious in Saturday night’s rubber match between Jones and Tarver. Roy Jones was reluctant to fight. He never gave himself a chance to win this fight. Instead, he was content running for cover throughout the match, doing all that he could to avoid engaging in any type of meaningful exchanges with his opponent. Jones was seemingly more focused on not getting knocked out, rather than being focused on actually winning the boxing match. This has been a consistent problem throughout Jones’s career. In this writer’s view, he’d have better served himself by taking a chance and daring to be great – even if it resulted in him being knocked out. Instead, he lost a lop-sided decision in which he cheated both his fans and himself, because he never even tried to win. Throughout Jones’s career, he cheated boxing, the fans, and himself, so this is nothing new for Jones. It just further exposes what many suspected about Roy all along: that is, he’d rather take the path of least resistance than to actively pursue a great challenge. Despite the fact Jones has won titles in four different weight-classes, he never beat the man who was considered to be “the top dog” in any of those divisions. On the contrary, it can be said that Jones often avoided such challenges at all costs. A short list of fighters that never appeared on Jones’s resume include Julian Jackson, Gerald McClellan, Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank, and of course, Dariusz Michalczewski. It’s no coincidence that these were some of the strongest punchers in their respective divisions at the time Jones could have fought them. However, instead of fighting them, Jones took the path of least resistance avoiding these challenges at all costs. I find it interesting that leading up to the past two weeks, many boxing fans were actively discussing the ‘weak chins’ possessed by heavyweight contender Wladimir Klitschko and Roy Jones. Prior to their respective matches, both Klitschko and Jones had been on the receiving end of some rather vicious knockouts. Naturally, this led to fans questioning whether or not their chins were up to the challenge of standing up to a good punch. While I think it might be unfair to consider either of their chins to be made of “glass”, it’s pretty clear that neither fighter had a chin made of “granite”. That said, there is one major difference between the two fighters: Wladimir Klitschko showed heart and dared to be great, whereas Jones clearly did not. That’s the saddest thing about Jones’s third consecutive loss. He was probably the more talented fighter of the two in the ring, and he probably could have won the match had he not been so reluctant to fight. In the 4th round, Jones began to show signs that he had what it took to beat Tarver, but in the end – he just never dared to be great. www.********boxing.com Great article, thanks.

hmm That was a pretty shitty and false article. Here's a better one. By Lucian Parfitt Roy Jones’ lacklustre attempt at redeeming two knockout defeats on Saturday night left everyone in boxing thinking the same thing: ‘No Excuses’ its time for him to call it a day. Although Jones showed flashes of his old self, notably in the 5th round where his showboating was backed up with some furious flurries, his 36 year old body is no longer capable of sustaining any sort of offense. The 5th was to be the only round that he really backed up his flamboyance with some hard punching, going on to land just 10 punches throughout the next 3 rounds. In the post fight press conference, Antonio Tarver tried to enhance his own questionable performance by stating he beat the Jones ‘Of the last ten years’. In truth however, he must know that Roy is an old 36. Jones has lost most of his leg speed, and he is now desperately gun shy, seemingly reluctant to take risks because he is no longer fast enough to get in and out of range. On Saturday night he apparently threw just 320 punches. To casual sports fans, the popular notion appears to be that Tarver de-cloaked Superman, that Jones had finally met his match. The truth is however, that unlike in the films Superman got old, but it must be said that Jones looked tremendous for a 36 year old. When you put it into context, how did Muhammad Ali look at 36 beating Leon Spinks? And Spinks is no Tarver. Despite many fans protestations Jones’ performance on Saturday was comparable to most of the greats at his advanced age. Jones’ approach on Saturday night reminded me of Ray Leonard when fighting Marvin Hagler. Though completely bereft of the drama of that 89’ showdown, it was similar in the way Jones was playing the game of deception, hiding his flaws and age with showmanship, most notably taping his boot whilst unloading on Tarver in the 4th. The difference being that Leonard was willing to engage with Hagler, probably because he had confidence that he could take Hagler’s punches. Jones could not afford to be that confident with Tarver because when he adopted an aggressive approach in the second fight, he ended it on his back. I mention Jones in the same sentence as Ali and Leonard because I believe he belongs in that same pugilistic pantheon. He may not have captured the public's imagination in the way those two did, but we should measure Jones' greatness with a different barometer. He was never in a struggle like Leonard had with Hagler or Hearns primarily because he never had to be. Jones was perhaps the greatest athlete boxing has ever seen. He may never have been in a great fight, but I would hold Bernard Hopkins, John Ruiz and James Toney responsible for that. It must be frustrating for his fans and for Jones himself that he only took chances when he was past his prime. Jones’ post Toney opposition is often unfairly derided as truck drivers and plumbers but I dare say Virgil Hill or Mike McCallum would not oblige if you asked them to fix your sink. However there were many match ups that slipped by. Nigel Benn, Gerald McClellen, and Darius Michalczewski would probably have been handled like the rest but we never found out. It is up to you whether you’re willing to take Jones' word for it, but whatever you do don’t believe Tarver’s claim about beating a prime Roy Jones. I implore you to stick in a tape of the Toney battering, or the destruction of Montell Griffin. I’m confident you will be reminded that 5 years ago it would have been a different story.

I agree with this article.

you should link directly to the article to give them some credit since that name is I guess banned from being posted on here