Who Could Roy Jones Not Have Beaten?
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1a) against Joey Giardello, Goerge Benton and Holy Mims. these fights are on youtube. Sure you don't know who Holy mims was, but he was a great fighter in that time period. There was 1 belt, and everyone fought each other. Once again, Jones doesn't have a considerable size advantage. he started at 154. Just because he lifted weights and dehydrated a few more pounds doesn't mean he has a "considerable size advantage". Hopkins was known for cutting what? under 5 lbs? he seemed bigger than Jones.
Question: "What's the Hipster's favorite band?"
Answer: "You haven't heard of it."
It was the same w/ those Emo kids not too long ago. It's the same w/ Boxing nerds. Find a legit, but relatively unknown/forgotten fighter and pimp the hell out of his legacy on internew chat boards.
I don't doubt those guys could have done well against Jones. We really didn't see him against a good Mw. But to confidently pick them to beat Jones is a bit of a stretch. There are definitely surer bets, but they don't carry the same currency do they?
Beating giardello isn't special. Beating Giardello when he was on his game, now that was a special feat. I doubt either of them ever could.
*As an aside, I did get to meet Benton. One of the memories of the 80's worth moving. I am from South Jersey. That was before I moved to Pittsburgh. Benton trained Frazier, then Spinks, then Qawi... ain't that something? He also worked for Duva after retiring from the ring, who supposedly screwed him over somehow when he was a fighter.
2) its between toney or Hopkins. With toney it was the weight cut and also the style. but these are his best wins.
I get it they weren't title holders but this is because there was only 1 real title. theres 5 now and there was at least 4 during Jones day. Ruiz wasn't even a real champion.
LOL, Hopkins was 22. His Mw career didn't even mean anything until he beat Tito. All his current glory, it's retrospective.
Toney was a strong favorite over Jones. The weight drain and lack of focus really hurt him.
Ruiz may not have been any more than just a "good" Hw, but it was a Hw. Weightclasses exist for a reason.
Tarver met a severely weight drained Jones. He had physical tools Toney and hopkins didn't.Comment
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I think he's all but invincible at Middleweight. His best scalp there was an unfinished product Hopkins, which isn't saying a lot when speaking about all-time achievements. But the size advantage he'd be carry into a fight against men like Greb, Steele, Robinson, Monzon and Hagler would be too much to not make him a favorite.
At Light Heavyweight he'd fall to Loughran, Tunney, Conn (possibly), Charles, Moore, Foster, Spinks.
Above LHw I see him losing to Dempsey (possibly), Tunny, Charles, Patterson, Spinks, Foster, Marciano, and Usyk.
He was vry talented, but much of his talent came from a needle in the ass. We see, especially in MMA, how that can make a person very, very dangerous, but it cannot completely compensate for deficiency of skill. Against the greats, Jones would find himself against men with the fortitude, stamina and Boxing ability to take him deep. It is hard to see him prevailing at that point.Comment
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I think he's all but invincible at Middleweight. His best scalp there was an unfinished product Hopkins, which isn't saying a lot when speaking about all-time achievements. But the size advantage he'd be carry into a fight against men like Greb, Steele, Robinson, Monzon and Hagler would be too much to not make him a favorite.
At Light Heavyweight he'd fall to Loughran, Tunney, Conn (possibly), Charles, Moore, Foster, Spinks.
Above LHw I see him losing to Dempsey (possibly), Tunny, Charles, Patterson, Spinks, Foster, Marciano, and Usyk.
He was vry talented, but much of his talent came from a needle in the ass. We see, especially in MMA, how that can make a person very, very dangerous, but it cannot completely compensate for deficiency of skill. Against the greats, Jones would find himself against men with the fortitude, stamina and Boxing ability to take him deep. It is hard to see him prevailing at that point.Comment
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- -Back then, Roy could've fought them back to back umpteen times and still come out on top.
No jive ma'am, just the facts.Comment
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LOL, Hopkins was 22. His Mw career didn't even mean anything until he beat Tito. All his current glory, it's retrospective.
Toney was a strong favorite over Jones. The weight drain and lack of focus really hurt him.
Ruiz may not have been any more than just a "good" Hw, but it was a Hw. Weightclasses exist for a reason.
Tarver met a severely weight drained Jones. He had physical tools Toney and hopkins didn't.
Thats my point, Hopkins was green but it's still Jones best win (second best, whichever). What does this say about Jones.
You keep writing off Carter and Benton but they fought live oponents. No they aren't "sure wins" over Jones, but Jones isn't a sure win over them either.
Benton and Carter obliterate Jones middleweight competition, including 22 year old overated Hopkins, so why do they have such little chance in your book vs Jones?
People forget about ring craft and only look for speed and power, then you watch a fat old benny Briscoe take a near prime Hagler to hell and back and remember there is more to boxing then just looking cool and being fast. Another great example is Foreman vs Briggs.Comment
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On a P4P basis, Robbo definitely ranks higher in my opinion. But in a H2H fight at MW, I'd have had to have favoured Roy. Ray was a genius in the ring. But his prime was when he was at WW.
People seem to forget that Roy fought Thomas Tate at MW when he was 25, which was the same year that he fought James Toney. Roy wasn't green at MW. He just didn't have the names on his resume at that point due to circumstances.
The 25 year old version of Roy from 1994 could have beaten any MW in history. He was in his prime, weighing around 170 pounds on fight night.
Basillio and LaMotta were great fighters. But what makes you think that Roy would have struggled with them?
Basillio was a 5'7 former WW, who often weighed in below JMW for his MW bouts, back in the days of same day weigh-ins.
LaMotta was 5'8, with a 67" reach, who was a come forward fighter who marked up due to his style and the number of fights that he'd had.
Although they were greats of the past, you've got to ask yourself how they would they have coped with Roy's size, speed and style.
Regarding Dariusz M, what did he do to make you think that a fight against Roy would have been a toss up?Comment
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That's the only time Roy failed to answer a legit challenge.Comment
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- -48-0 with a 25-0 title record and "lineal" LH titlist for the Fruitcakes to moan over, Darius came to publicly challenge Roy in the full fanfare of his last HBO defenses before their wheels both came off.
That's the only time Roy failed to answer a legit challenge.Comment
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It's certainly unfortunate (from a fight fan's perspective) that Jones ended up meeting Pazienza rather than the likes of Benn or Eubank.
Right from the outset I figured Paz (who I liked) was made for Jones and we really weren't going to learn anything we didn't already know.
I mean, Jones would undoubtedly enter the ring as favourite against either Benn or Eubank. But neither were guys he could afford to take lightly.Comment
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