If Roy Jones never left the Heavyweight division

[ИATAS]

So the Ring Magazine had a few "What if" scenarios in their latest magazine and one of these scenarios was the thread title. They said that likely after beating Ruiz, one very possible match would have been against Mike Tyson (something that was in the talks for a while). And considering Mike Tyson wasn't nearly the fighter he once was, it would have been very possible that Roy Jones could have won fairly easy, possibly even by KO. Further, they made the point that Jones has always been very careful at selecting his opponents, so he may have fought another heavyweight fighter, someone who wouldn't have had posed too much trouble, and after winning that he could have retired 50-1, with the only loss on his record being a DQ to Montell Griffin, which obviously really wasn't a loss.

Instead of getting KO'd to Tarver and Johnson, followed by sports fans questioning his greatness and his chin, all of that would have been erased and he would have gone down as possibly one of, if not thee, greatest boxer of all time.

I found it interesting to think about, that one single negative event or decision (tarver KO) can change a persons career dramatically and change people's perception of that fighter for ever. In addition, the effect this would have had on the sport would have been tremendous. Tarver would have never really made a name for himself (which means Tarver/Hopkins may never had happened, nor would have his role in Rocky 6), same with Glen Johnson and you can go even further.

Thought I'd share that.

[THE REED]

Yeah i get the ring magazine... read that article, obviously of all people i found it interesting...

Roy had the ABILITY to outbox lennox... but uhhhhh.... probably would be a bad move

[ИATAS]

Yeah i get the ring magazine... read that article, obviously of all people i found it interesting...

Roy had the ABILITY to outbox lennox... but uhhhhh.... probably would be a bad move

Well right, if he fought someone huge like lennox he probably would have lost, but even then, it would have been such a legitimate excuse, you know he lost to a heavyweight when Jones was never really a legit heavyweight. He could have got KO'd at Heavy and no one would question his chin, they'd just say he was in over his head.

[Fox McCloud]

I can't imagine Roy Jones outboxing Lennox.

Also, one punch from Lennox would put Roy out IMO.

Lennox could ****.

I'm surprised Hasim Rahman is still alive after what happened to him at the hands of Lennox Lewis.

[J90]

Interesting, never really thought of that

Tarver not making a name for himself sounds pretty sweet

[ИATAS]

I can't imagine Roy Jones outboxing Lennox.

Also, one punch from Lennox would put Roy out IMO.

Lennox could ****.

I'm surprised Hasim Rahman is still alive after what happened to him at the hands of Lennox Lewis.

Well right, but I'm not saying he would have fought Lennox (nor did Ring Magazine). The idea is that he would have hand selected a couple more opponents, just like Ruiz was, won them, then retire. Like I said he would have been about 50-1, with the only loss a DQ.

[siablo14]

yes that why pbf needs to face every up and coming boxer to let us see what he really got

[baya]

after roy beat ruiz, dude was on top of the world.

you have only antonio tarver to thank for the end of roy jones jr.

tarver was nothing special, tarver was taking on a man who killed himself to lose muscle mass in excess of 20 lbs while 30 + years old.

there wasn't anything so elite about tarver, IMO hes a better public speaker than fighter, but he got roy at the right time.

had roy never left the light-heavyweight division - i have no doubt that he would still be a top 3 p4p guy.

[MANGLER]

Good post. Roy coulda knocked off a couple fringe contenders in defense of his HW belt and gone out on top. Tarver lost the 1st fight when Roy wasn't even 100%. He just scored a lucky punch in the 2nd fight, and couldn't finish a shot Roy in the 3rd fight. Glen did beat him down handily, but he wasn't at his best then either. It's too bad the end of Roy's career tarnishes the whole thing overall.

[THE REED]

Good post. Roy coulda knocked off a couple fringe contenders in defense of his HW belt and gone out on top. Tarver lost the 1st fight when Roy wasn't even 100%. He just scored a lucky punch in the 2nd fight, and couldn't finish a shot Roy in the 3rd fight. Glen did beat him down handily, but he wasn't at his best then either. It's too bad the end of Roy's career tarnishes the whole thing overall.

I think theres still a few chapters left to be written... dont judge the book quite yet...