Would Roy Jones get exposed much earlier if he fought better competetion?

nope never.

joe calzaghe, 35 bernard hopkins, 42 winky wright, 35 All three of those fighters are still going strong, two are probably in their prime right now, age is not always to blame, roy got caught. mmm but he was not caught while fighintg better fighters than tarver (and tarver himself the first time) When your style is based on reflexes and speed, your going to be done faster than solid technicians and KO artists. It is not by chance that I mentioned fighters who, like Roy Jones, owe most of their careers to their blend of reflexes and speed. Wright and Hopkins are not that type of fighters. Calzaghe is more similar, and, in fact, he is slipping. (look at his old fights, look at his most recent fights.. do the math)

Originally Posted by Stromprophet Roy is and always has been a style fighter. He did things boxers weren't supposed to do and could get away with it. His natural boxing ability was so great that standard tactics didn't apply to him. Bottom line, Roy was never exposed when he was young cause NO ONE COULD EXPOSE HIM. Not because of competition, jesus, the man decimated just about anyone he could face in all kinds of weight divisions. It's not like he was in one weight division his whole career. Roy probably is the most naturally gifted fighter in the history of boxing. I say that with no second thoughts at all. I totally agree :biggthump :biggthump :biggthump

joe calzaghe, 35 bernard hopkins, 42 winky wright, 35 All three of those fighters are still going strong, two are probably in their prime right now, age is not always to blame, roy got caught. roy's downfall was going too hw's bulking up the way he did and then having to lose the weight to go back down. anyone could see he wasn't the same after coming back down from hw.

Nigel Benn at his best takes Jones out (six rounds with Benn is too many rounds for Jones to escape), but doesn't 'expose' him or his chin. prime vs. prime jones takes benn too much speed and skill.

joe calzaghe, 35 bernard hopkins, 42 winky wright, 35 All three of those fighters are still going strong, two are probably in their prime right now, age is not always to blame, roy got caught. Are all of these fighters still going strong? Joe Blows best competition was when he was still younger. And then he was fighting aging champions. I'm not knocking joe, I like joe, but really? Sakio Bikka, an unproven Jeff Lacy, and who was that last guy? Oh yeah, some guy from a reality show. How has Bernard fought in the last 10 years? Sparingly. Again, don't get me wrong, but Bernard has not been a lion for a long time. Even the Tarver fight he made sure he did a lot of things to protect himself and not get in any kind of a slug fest. Winky. How does winky fight? He is in great shape sure, but winky doesn't need to have tremendous stamina, and he doesn't have that much power. He jabs a whole bunch with limited power shots. While he did fight Taylor who is in his prime, it showed us Wink certainly could not hurt anyone with a chin nowadays. I'd disagree. Most older fighters fight a less taxing schedule, thus extending their careers. Fighting every six months, and not fighting other fighters who are in their prime. ------------------------------ On topic. Age did catch up to Roy. But he also allowed it to. All the fighters you mention above stick to the basics, stick to the basics, stick to the basics. They all have solid defense and solid offense and box how a boxer would normally box. Roy is and always has been a style fighter. He did things boxers weren't supposed to do and could get away with it. His natural boxing ability was so great that standard tactics didn't apply to him. Problem being as he got older the body cannot do what it once did. And trying to fire at odd angles, moving, and being able to have good footwork all slowed down for Roy. When he was young you could see him come from all angles and not get hit a single time in a round (which he actually did and the first time in compubox recording to record a round without getting hit once). But as he got older trying to box that way he could not avoid counters. Roy also didn't put in the work to keep himself in the shape needed so his physicalness would not betray his natural ability. To execute his natural and unconventional boxing ways he had to be in tremendous shape. For years Hopkins, Wright, and Calzaghe have maintained vigirous schedules, watched what they ate, and were always in shape. As Bernard would say, you don't get in shape by training for a fight, your always in shape and then train for your fight. Bottom line, Roy was never exposed when he was young cause NO ONE COULD EXPOSE HIM. Not because of competition, jesus, the man decimated just about anyone he could face in all kinds of weight divisions. It's not like he was in one weight division his whole career. Roy probably is the most naturally gifted fighter in the history of boxing. I say that with no second thoughts at all.

no roy jones was never exposed. when you are 35, you are not in your prime. end of the story. so what did we see? that Jones without his reflexes could not compete anymore in a weight class where he was systematically the smaller man? boo-f...n'-hoo. I could have told you that. where was sweet pea at 35? getting battered by tito after getting out of coke where was sugar ray leonard at 35? retired after terry norris handed him his ass. where is floyd mayweather going to be at 35? probably retired where was sugar ray robinson at 35? he had 7 more title fights. the record for those fights? 3-4-0. not exactly prime robinson of say 1952..., isnt it? bottom line, none of the above fighters was a shadow of his former self at 35. why would roy jones have been much different? joe calzaghe, 35 bernard hopkins, 42 winky wright, 35 All three of those fighters are still going strong, two are probably in their prime right now, age is not always to blame, roy got caught.

roy jones fought gerald mcclelan didnt he in the ameteurs now that man could punch ,roy jones would nt have had any problems with eubank or benn .benn one dimensional and chinny schooled easily by michael watson by virtue of the fact he kept his hands up and was sensible fighter .eubank was overated even though i enjoyed watching him soon as a fighter pressurised him he could nt handle it calzaghe ,thonpson, watson 2 ,collins .james toney would have beaten them easily aswell ,needless to say jones would just step give them angles and flurry and pot shot benn would nt lay a glove on roy jones jr .calzaghe would give roy jones a lot of problems though hes quick ,strong ,durablecan box has a great jab has great stamina

yes....nice one

best post ever couldnt have said it better i agree wmute, said it all in one post

no roy jones was never exposed. when you are 35, you are not in your prime. end of the story. so what did we see? that Jones without his reflexes could not compete anymore in a weight class where he was systematically the smaller man? boo-f...n'-hoo. I could have told you that. where was sweet pea at 35? getting battered by tito after getting out of coke where was sugar ray leonard at 35? retired after terry norris handed him his ass. where is floyd mayweather going to be at 35? probably retired where was sugar ray robinson at 35? he had 7 more title fights. the record for those fights? 3-4-0. not exactly prime robinson of say 1952..., isnt it? bottom line, none of the above fighters was a shadow of his former self at 35. why would roy jones have been much different? best post ever couldnt have said it better

In his prime no way Tarver, Johnson or any of those guys you mentioned woudl beat Roy. I agree. The thing that spurred RJJ's downfall was the playing around w/muscle weight. Actually the losing of it. He lost alot of muscle weight in a really short time before Tarver 1. I was liek, this dude looks sick. Still won easily just not the 100% we're all used to seeing. But anyway, I've done a smidget of research about it and when you lose muscle weight in a short period of time you can suffer nerve damage. Its only obvious this is what happened to Jones reflexes and chin. RJJ always had a chin. It wasnt like he never took shots. Cant say RJJ ducked anyone either. I remember the pre Virgil Hill when it was said RJJ was running scared. Dude stopped him w/a body shot. See, theres this thing that people do when they see someone dominate and KO everyone. They start to doubt the fighter when they see anything less than 110%. When Mosely got his 1st lost it was like the networks ran for the hills.

That is what has been said about Calzaghe....Kessler now...etc

Do you think if Roy had faced more quality competetion earlier in his career that his chin would have gotten exposed much sooner? If he fought guy's like Nigel Benn ,Joe Calzaghe ,Darius Michalchewski , Glen Johnson ,but a couple of years earlier. Roy looked awesome against counterpuncher type fighters that did not take the fight to him. I think the fighters above would bring the fight to him,no matter how much he was in his prime,and give him a lot of problems. I know he beat Toney in 1994 ,but Toney's type of style was perfect for Roy because he is more of a counterpuncher who is not very aggressive. If Roy tried that same move he did on Toney on Nigel Benn or Glen Jonnson they would have been all over him before he even tried it. In his prime no way Tarver, Johnson or any of those guys you mentioned woudl beat Roy.

He was never exposed. Because he is a true great fighter in p4p history, you cant take anything away from him.. His 1st fight with tarver was drained cuz came down from heavy.. 2nd was roy dictating the pace as usual and tarver landed a good shot.. not much else to it.. after that he was straight up gun shy, was too soon when he fought glen johnson and I dont know if he will ever fully recover from that 1st KO.. which also is why he seemed to hold back in his 3rd fight with tarver.. Some people are too focussed on what happened to roy in last few yrs as he has hit end of career.. and tend to forget the rest of his career.. Watch his fights, there will never be another Roy Jones Jr..

When Roy was finally beaten he was what 35 years old? That's not prime at all & Roy skills had already declined. How many boxers fight on a high level at the age of 35 & near 50 fights? Not too many. So to answer to the question no I don't think that he would've been exposed.

Thers no doubt in my mind that Roy would clearly defeat every one of the names listed. Roy was never "exposed" either.

Here's a different approach...if HBO and Don King were doing business in the 90s, how much greater would Roy have had a chance to be? One thing people forget is that it wasn't all Roy in his opponent issues. Don King and Frank Warren had almost all the best guys at 60 AND 68 and both did business near exclusive with Showtime. If Roy had beaten Julian Jackson or later Gerald at 160, and beat Liles and just one of the British three...in other words, if he had the right two marquee wins currently missing on his resume, you could argue that he cleaned out 3 weight classes. Argue it (DM will always be there at 75). But no one can sanely argue that he cleaned out 60 or 68 now (his defenses at 68 were the worst run of ham and egg crap ever by an elite fighter); so it gets brought up. My point is that, yes, he may have been exposed earlier as 'human' but he may also have expanded his reach on history.

Jones is overrated. Sorry those who think he isn't, but he is in my opinion. I believes hes a great fighter, but not as great as most people think. i think every former p4p kings are overrated.

To answer the orignal thread question: No i dont think roy would of got exposed at all earlier in his career if he did fight better fighters.. He should of retired straight after that Ruiz win. Remember no heavyweight could get rid of ruiz he was like the plague hanging around and here comes little roy and beats him (fair play) I really think that move to heavyweight straight down to LH to take on tarver took its toll on roys body..