He dominated his sport like few others before him. For a decade he reigned as the best pound for pound fighter in boxing. And for the first 15 years of his career, he rarely lost a round. But since turning 35 years old in 2004, life just hasn’t been the same for old Roy.
He didn’t simply begin to slip down the other side of the hill. He fell into a precipice.
The reason for his sudden demise was the very reason that he had been so great for so long—speed. He had lost it. No, he hadn’t suddenly gotten slow. He remained one of the faster fighters around. But he had drifted back into the range of normal human reflexes, albeit still at the high end.
His foot speed had diminished to the point that he had lost the ability to jump in with lead right hands and hooks and then move out of his opponents’ range, sometimes literally before they knew what had hit them (I had begun to wonder at the time whether HBO would need to upgrade its video equipment from 24 to 32 frames per second in order for fans to actually see him fight).
He had mutated back into normal human form.
He was never a well schooled boxer because he never had to be. His style was centered around his athleticism. Boxing historians are still searching for clues as to whether the words “Roy Jones” and “jab” have ever been used in the same sentence. So when his inhuman speed had forsaken him, he was left as a fighter with very good hand speed, tired legs and mediocre boxing skills. Hence the demise.
Of course prior to this he did manage to accomplish a few things inside the square. Save for a DQ loss to Montell Griffin, he was unbeaten in 49 fights across five weight classes through age 35.
He became the first middleweight since 1897 to have won a heavyweight title after beating John “Is This Guy Ever Gonna Retire?” Ruiz. He beat Bernard Hopkins and James Toney while both were in their prime.
And he did pull off a gutsy win in his first fight against the “legend in his own mouth” Antonio Tarver.
The knock on him is that he was a safety-first fighter. Not only did he not like to take chances inside the ring but he was also a business minded prizefighter who seemed to prefer to maximize his risk/reward ratio by fighting opponents who really didn’t pose much of a threat.
Do the names Richard Frasier, Richard Hall, David Telesco, and Glen Kelly ring a bell? Roy fought all of them while in his prime. Not a one of them won even a single round.
But should this disqualify him from debates by the crusty old, cigar chomping aficionados of the ring as to who were the greatest fighters of all time? I think not.
Sugar Ray Robinson is thought by many to have been the best middleweight in history. But he spent his entire time at middleweight as a 30-plus year old who was not what he had been in his younger, lighter days.
Others believe that Bernard Hopkins is the best. Roy beat him pretty handily. Marvin Hagler and Carlos Monzon tend to get a healthy amount of press as possibly the best ever as well.
At light heavyweight, names like Archie Moore, Billy Conn, and Ezzard Charles are the most frequently mentioned as the greatest ever.
Super middleweight, as a relatively new weight class is not often the subject of debate as to whom its greatest fighter was, although besides Jones, it would be very difficult to make an argument for anyone other than Joe Calzaghe.
In my opinion, you can pick any fighter in history from middleweight through light heavy and I will say that at Roy’s best I would be hard pressed to bet money against him.
Why? Because more than toughness, fundamental skills or possessing a crowd pleasing style, boxing is about hitting and not getting hit. And at his best Roy did that as well or better than anyone. Ever.
So how will Roy Jones Jr. be remembered? Like Michael Jordan, he should be remembered as a great athlete who just happened to stay a little too long at the hookah party.
When people look back on Jordan’s career, I’m certain that virtually all of them will remember him as the “His Airness” of his younger days rather than the nearly 40 year old “Floor Jordan” of his time with the Wizards. Let’s hope that Roy gets the same consideration.
6 comments Last one added 5 months ago — Leave a Comment
Rich Groves 7 months ago
Alan great article. I love Roy as well and am sure he would give any of the other greats a hard time in their prime. Roy proved a lot to me fighting through his bloody mask and still trying his heart out against Joe Calzaghe. I still think a second fight between he and Hopkins would be a great fight.
So I just wanted to double check but wasn't the first middleweight in history to win the heavyweight title Bob Fitzsimmons when he knocked out James J. Corbett?
Edit Comment Cancel
Alan Thomson 7 months ago
Thanks Rich. Yes you are correct. I should have written "in modern boxing history". Apparently Fitzsimmons accomplished the feat in 1897.
I agree that should Roy decide to fight again that Hopkins is the one he should go after. I think he still has enough left to make it a competitive fight.
Edit Comment Cancel
Dan Boone 7 months ago
Sugar Ray Robinson stands alone as a fighter and his competition was tougher then Jones.
Hagler also faced fighters that allowed him to shine. Jones was never really tested by top guys save Hopkins. Stanley Ketchel was no slouch as a Middleweight.
The great middleweight Harry " The Human Wind Mill" Greb threw punches from all angles and was the only man to beat perhaps the greatest light heavy of all time...Gene Tunney.
Greb had fought 303 fights when he died under anesthetic at age 32. The Human Wind Mill was getting his damaged nose operated on when he died, after his death it was revealed for the last five years of his life he had fought blind in one eye from a blow. He had beaten Tunney with one eye...
As a light heavy Archie Moore had more power then Jones and the Mongoose's ringmanship was second to none. Moore fought both Marciano and Ali so he was adept at dealing with the heavies.
And no love for Michael Spinks and the Spinks Jinx?
Edit Comment Cancel
pablo liesenberg 7 months ago
I think that, as great as Roy Jones has been, he had some very bad habits in the ring that worsened as he hand-picked weak opposition at light heavyweight. Early in his career he would never ever stand in the roped trying to cointer of them. I am not sure when he internalized that the rope-a-dope was his best strategy, but that became his undoing. It was never a style that would age, because it meant that he would pay a higher price than he had to every time he fought. The HBO commentators were in love with Roy Jones, so they would never comment on the fact that lesser opponents regularly got a chance to land some big punches on Jones while he chose to pick his punches off the ropes. It's as if he wanted to make things hard on himself on purpose to give himself a challenge.
He had been slipping for a while, not being quite as sharp as he had once been, and not having scored knockouts for a while. The Ruiz fight -great accomplishment as it was- made us forget that. Then the Tarver trainwreck happened, and indeed he fell of a cliff. That is what sudden lack of confidence can do to an athlete, no matter how much he talks - it's a kid whistling in the woods.
I thought the Calzaghe fight painful to watch because it showed how limited and faded Jones is. His inability to sustain any sort of effective offensive was a sad contrast to the great fighter he once was.
Edit Comment Cancel
pleas kavanaugh 7 months ago
I agree with your analysis of Roy Jones' legacy. I, personally, do not believe that a fighter who looses past his prime should suffer a loss of stature from a historical perspective. While great victories can add to a legacy (to demonstrate intestinal fortitude that they never had the opportunity to demonstrate in their prime), nature dictates that everyone loses if they fight on long enough past their prime. A prime Roy Jones would have been a problem for anyone in history.
.
Edit Comment Cancel
King J 5 months ago
Great article Alan!
A PRIME Roy Jones Jr Destorys all..... PERIOD!
I personally feel Roy's downfall was going up in weight to HW and coming back down only months later. That really took its toll on Roy's body, his strength, reflexes etc. Had he not done that and retired after the Ruiz fight his legacy would be bananas!
Edit Comment Cancel
Leave a Comment
You must register to post a comment.