Prime RJJ's weaknesses.

[billeau2]

Not too many.

Obviously his fundemtnals were lacking, although underrated IMO.

Montel Griffin did a great job of timing him leaping in in the first fight, Roy's leap in left hook although extremely effective for the most part did leave him open. His left hook in general left him open but he was just so fast with it he got away with it.

Exactly...Because of his angle, the feinting, the speed, it was a tall order to counter his hook. Easier said than done.

[robertzimmerman]

I wouldn't say his divisions were strong..

while 160-168 were deep at the time, he only fought one top guy in each division.. Hopkins at 160, toney at 168.. The rest of his time were against no-hopers...
His light heavy reign was good and long, but not really a super strong division.. Guys like lou del valle, old faded jr mid reggie, a 42 year old jr mid mccallum were the champs.. Not exactly a murderers row and nowhere near as talented as the late 70s-early 80s light heavy division.. I think the current light heavy division is better with kovolev, ward, adonis, beterbiev,pascal, hopkins, fanfara, barrera, etc...

The MW division was incredibly deep in the early 90's. But by 94, many of the best guys had either retired or moved out of the division.

After Roy had fought Toney, he couldn't unify the SMW division, so he moved up to LHW.

By the time he'd settled in at LHW, the division was stronger than the SMW division, where like the MW division before it, many of the big names had either retired or moved out of it.

Roy didn't fight no hopers.

I'm not sure if today's LHW division is stronger. Ward hasn't fought there yet, Hopkins is in his early 50's and is just about retired, Beterbiev hasn't done anything yet, and Stevenson is in his late 30's. Although there is potentially some great matches to be made.

While Roy was at LHW, the following fighters campaigned there: Dariusz Michalczewski, Virgil Hill, Michael Nunn, Reggie Johnson, Montell Griffin, Graciano Rochigianni, Eric Harding, Clinton Woods, Antonio Tarver. It was a decent division.

[robertzimmerman]

I think roy was exposed by Tarver. Tarver was so angry at Roy that he was not put off by his feints, he did not back off of Roy like most opponents did, out of fear of being hooked...he held his ground and tapped that chin. After Tarver did it Glen Johnson did much the same thing.

Roy was incredible but depended on a patina of invincability.

He'd obviously taken a lot of confidence from their first fight.

That was a great win by Tarver in the rematch, but I'd hardly say Roy had been exposed.

[robertzimmerman]

benn wanted to fight roy when he was champ at 168, he tried to get his manager to make the fight but roy wasn't interested. i would have loved to have seen that fight, most likely RJJ would have won a UD, but benn is one of the few guys that could have got to that chin and tapped it. actually though, the better fight between them would have been at 160, when benn bulked up to go to 168 he lost his speed. a fast benn makes the matchup more interesting.

a calzaghe fight tens years earlier than it actually happened would have also been way more interesting, because roy wouldn't have gassed out after the 4 th round

Benn desperately wanted to fight Roy. But things were never straightforward when Don King was involved. Greg Fritz, who was Roy's advisor at the time along with The Levin Brothers, says that King wanted options.

An earlier fight against Calzaghe would also have been great. But Joe had zero interest in fighting Roy when he was prime.

[robertzimmerman]

well said agreed, Eubank would have been interesting too because no way was that guy getting KOed, and he was relatively smart and tactical with very good power, so he might have been able to pressure and take it to Roy with the right game plan, if he could catch up with him

All the good match ups we didnt see, its a guttering shame that boxing is dominated by a single governing body like the UFC is, because we all miss out so much, all these awesome match ups, the boxers win, the promoters win but the fans lose big time

A Eubank fight would have been very interesting. But he wasn't interested in fighting the likes of Roy and Toney etc. He was just content to defend his WBO belt for SKY/ITV.

[robertzimmerman]

Not necessarily a weakness but fighting southpaws was awkward for Jones. Hard to believe because he fought and beat so many middleweights through light heavyweights that were left handed. But how to fight them was the reason Roy Jones Jr. and his dad split after all those years. Ironically later, his first three loses were to fighters with the unorthodox stance.

I've never heard that's why he spilt with Big Roy. That split was inevitable, it'd been brewing for a long time. He wouldn't let Roy off of the leash, and according to Fred Levin, he even hid title shot opportunities from him.

Roy did have issues with southpaws, as most fighters do. Eric Harding gave him a tough night, as did Tarver, obviously. His first 3 losses weren't to southpaws though.

[robertzimmerman]

I think if faced with guys with longer reach than him, when he couldn't control the distance that easy and had to get in punching range to get his own offence going - he was struggling somewhat, because he didn't like taking risks and wasn't always technically correct. You can get away with that on the outside, but it's harder mid-range. That showed against Harding or Tarver..
Some tall Middleweight and Light heavies like Monzon, Foster, even Nunn could beat him because of that, imo, but I don't think there were many fighters throughout history with right characteristics and talent to really expose those flaws.
His chin definitely wasn't rock solid, either.

Good post.

[robertzimmerman]

A stiff Jab and the counter hook are lethal to him since he loves to leap in. The threat basically keeps him from leading. Also not a strong inside fighter and can be pinned on the ropes.

Why Golovkin would beat him.

Roy was a fantastic inside fighter, who often voluntarily backed himself onto the ropes.

I have a real hard time envisaging GG beating him. As great as he looks, he looks easy enough to tag for me, and I think Roy's speed would have caused him major problems.

[robertzimmerman]

I know Eubank feels he would have lost. I don't buy it. I think Eubank would have caught him in the later rounds with a shot Roy didn't see coming. Same as Benn.

I think Steve Collins would have countered and deflected Roy all night long.

I think Gerald McClellan would have gotten outclassed if he couldn't land a flush shot. Same as Michael Watson.

I think a prime Jones beats a prime Calzaghe by decision.

Roy was so fast, his speed would have bamboozled Steve Collins. There's no way he'd have countered Roy in my opinion. The Eubank fights tell me all I need to know. Roy was on another planet in his prime.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

The MW division was incredibly deep in the early 90's. But by 94, many of the best guys had either retired or moved out of the division.

After Roy had fought Toney, he couldn't unify the SMW division, so he moved up to LHW.

By the time he'd settled in at LHW, the division was stronger than the SMW division, where like the MW division before it, many of the big names had either retired or moved out of it.

Roy didn't fight no hopers.

I'm not sure if today's LHW division is stronger. Ward hasn't fought there yet, Hopkins is in his early 50's and is just about retired, Beterbiev hasn't done anything yet, and Stevenson is in his late 30's. Although there is potentially some great matches to be made.

While Roy was at LHW, the following fighters campaigned there: Dariusz Michalczewski, Virgil Hill, Michael Nunn, Reggie Johnson, Montell Griffin, Graciano Rochigianni, Eric Harding, Clinton Woods, Antonio Tarver. It was a decent division.

Half the dudes you mention or reference roy didn't fight..

I will take kovolev, Ward,stevenson, beterbiev, barrera, over woods Harding, griffin, gonzalez..

And while mw and SMW were really stacked at the time, roy only had one major fight with toney, and hopkins was nothing more than a domestic level NABF espn champ fighting for a vacant on an undercard, it wasn't till the passage of time did that win become great.. You can't give credit to a guy for fighting in a tough division of he didn't fight the other guys.. He had one big middleweight fight and one big supermiddle fight.. It wasn't till light heavy that he settled down and had a nice long run albeit in a division that really had no legitimate threats or big fights