Roy Jones Jr.?

[NYDominican]

Roy Jones Jr., his professional boxing career.


1. What do you think Roy's all time legacy should be?



2. Is Jones underrated?



3. Should Roy Jones Jr. be considered among some of the all time greats?

If so, why? If not, why not?





Please explain.

[Kalan]

Roy Jones is an ATG... The 1st Middleweight Champion in 106 years to win a Heavyweight Championship and a 4-Division World Champion... Good stance, balance, footwork, timing, arsenal, defense, but fought with his left hand down -- which was good enough to outbox and out-punch Roy's first 50 opponents.

I always thought a tall, quick and really talented southpaw would be difficult for Roy cuz of the low left... If you can get the right jab and right hook on Roy you're going to get the left hook on him as well... If you can get the left hook on him you can get the straight left on him... The Tarver Fights went how I anticipated... Tarver had every reason to be confident. He loved the style. "You gonna have any excuses tonight Roy?" He knew he would land punches.

It's the reason Errol Spence kicked the shitt out of Mayweather in sparring when Errol had 4 fights... Very strong and fast.. very tall and rangy.. very lean and rugged.. good, strong legs and a fast stepper... Hooks, uppercuts, 45's and straight shots....all coming faster and at tougher angles than a shorter southpaw who's not as strong and can't crank as well... Had McGregor started as a boxer and had 40 fights instead of ZERO fights.. He would have been a good opponent.

[Scypion]

Roy looked good to me. Not sure how good, but probably an all-time great.

[SenorPipino]

Sadly, a strong part of Jones' legacy will be that he fought far, far too long.

Maybe 15 years past his expiration date.

It blights the memory of his brilliant skills and accomplishments during his prime years.

[Kalan]

I think so.... If he quit after the Ruiz fight it would have been perfect...

However, hindsight tells you everything... Foresight doesn't always tell you what you need to know.

[Ambling Alp II]

Sadly, a strong part of Jones' legacy will be that he fought far, far too long.

Maybe 15 years past his expiration date.

It blights the memory of his brilliant skills and accomplishments during his prime years.

Hopefully most people will realize that those fights don't mean much. It used to be that almost every fan knew that win/loss records, and other boxing stats were often misleading. Not sure so about that any more.

He was a tremendous talent. To what hurts his legacy is not fighting better competition at 175.

[gilgamesh]

1. What do you think Roy's all time legacy should be?

One of the most naturally gifted fighters to have ever graced a Prize ring. His reflexes, speed and timing in his prime were second to none

2. Is Jones underrated?

Definitely not.

3. Should Roy Jones Jr. be considered among some of the all time greats?

If so, why? If not, why not?

He's definitely one of the All Time Greats at Light Heavyweight...Top 10 at worst....Top 3 or 4 at best.

Because the division is so young you'd have to rank him as one of the absolute best at Super Middleweight. He, Calzaghe and Andre Ward are undoubtedly the Top 3 in that divisions young history. The order may differ according to who you ask, but it's definitely those 3 names.

I don't think he did enough at Middleweight to be considered one of the ATG's at that weight, but his talents certainly showed themselves still. I don't think he ever could've stayed Middleweight long without cutting too much weight and weakening himself so he wisely moved up.

He'd probably rank among the Top 50 fighters of all time P4P period at any weight, and considering how rich the sports history is. That's lofty praise indeed.

[oogiebe]

Another fighter who stayed too long.

Roy was great because of his natural abilities. So as he got older, his lack of pure boxing skills hurt him. He also has been suspected of PED use. Both of those items prevent me from considering him an ATG. I'm not impressed with moving up in weight to face a crappy HW.

[Yuzo]

his lack of pure boxing skills

such as?

[oogiebe]

his lack of pure boxing skills

such as?

His speed, power and quickness let him avoid punches earlier in his career. As he got older, those deficiencies in TECHNIQUE became more apparent as we saw him decline. Just MHO.

[gilgamesh]

Another fighter who stayed too long.

Roy was great because of his natural abilities. So as he got older, his lack of pure boxing skills hurt him. He also has been suspected of PED use. Both of those items prevent me from considering him an ATG. I'm not impressed with moving up in weight to face a crappy HW.

I don't rate the John Ruiz win all that highly, but surely the wins over Antonio Tarver, Bernard Hopkins, James Toney, Eric Harding, Montell Griffin and guys like that make him an ATG?

He absolutely dominated Toney, and I'd consider Toney one of the greats at Super Middleweight as well.

As for PED use. I would assume most guys in the sport these days have cycled on and off of PED's at some point or WILL at some point if they haven't already.

I don't hold it against you unless you're juicing so bad you get suspensions and fights cancelled over it.

Innocent until Proven Guilty for me. Even if all signs point to Guilty

[Yuzo]

His speed, power and quickness let him avoid punches earlier in his career. As he got older, those deficiencies in TECHNIQUE became more apparent as we saw him decline. Just MHO.

roy was very much a pure boxer. he used to do things you'd see pure boxers do. willie pep things. kid chocolate things. barney ross things. what you try to accuse roy of doing wrong you must accuse those guys of doing wrong.

[oogiebe]

His speed, power and quickness let him avoid punches earlier in his career. As he got older, those deficiencies in TECHNIQUE became more apparent as we saw him decline. Just MHO.

roy was very much a pure boxer. he used to do things you'd see pure boxers do. willie pep things. kid chocolate things. barney ross things. what you try to accuse roy of doing wrong you must accuse those guys of doing wrong.

I'm not interested in debating with you, I am stating my opinion.

[Yuzo]

I'm not interested in debating with you, I am stating my opinion.

sure.

[SenorPipino]

I think so.... If he quit after the Ruiz fight it would have been perfect...

However, hindsight tells you everything... Foresight doesn't always tell you what you need to know.

That's right.

I don't expect fighters to quit when they're on top.

As long as you have all your skills and there's plenty money to be made, it's unrealistic to think that a boxer will walk away.

Fighting is what they do, and if they still do it well it makes sense to continue.

Of course the Ruiz fight was the storybook time for Jones to retire. But that's because we also know that it was pretty much downhill afterwards.

But boxers are stubborn and always believe that there's legitimate reasons why their skills have suddenly diminished.

Age and attrition are never considered.

Give them one more chance and they'll prove that they're as good as ever.

It seldom works out that way.

But Jones hung on far too long before he finally got the message that was obvious to all a decade earlier.

[Abradolf Lincler]

1. What do you think Roy's all time legacy should be?

One of the most naturally gifted fighters to have ever graced a Prize ring. His reflexes, speed and timing in his prime were second to none

2. Is Jones underrated?

Definitely not.

3. Should Roy Jones Jr. be considered among some of the all time greats?

If so, why? If not, why not?

He's definitely one of the All Time Greats at Light Heavyweight...Top 10 at worst....Top 3 or 4 at best.

Because the division is so young you'd have to rank him as one of the absolute best at Super Middleweight. He, Calzaghe and Andre Ward are undoubtedly the Top 3 in that divisions young history. The order may differ according to who you ask, but it's definitely those 3 names.

I don't think he did enough at Middleweight to be considered one of the ATG's at that weight, but his talents certainly showed themselves still. I don't think he ever could've stayed Middleweight long without cutting too much weight and weakening himself so he wisely moved up.

He'd probably rank among the Top 50 fighters of all time P4P period at any weight, and considering how rich the sports history is. That's lofty praise indeed.

That about covers it. I don't hold his latter career against him. Past a certain point he pretty much turned himself into a punchline (literal and figurative), but it doesn't detract from the fact that he was arguably the best fighter in the game for damn near a full decade. He was in the very top rung in the sports' history when it came to pure talent. A true dilemma to fight. It's extremely rare to come up against a guy with the kind of blinding speed and defensive reflexes he had. Even rarer still when you factor in what a vicious puncher he was. If you put the pressure on him, you risked getting your clock cleaned coming in. If you tried to keep your distance, his speed and timing would see him box circles around you. A real nightmare matchup for just about anybody.

The one thing I'll say in regards to your post is that, while he probably did his best work on paper at Lt. Heavy, I don't rate him as highly there in a head to head sense as I rate him at 160 and 168. I have a really hard time outright favoring anyone over him at those weights, whereas the floor opens up a good deal more at Lt. Heavy, in my opinion.

[gilgamesh]

That's true, but there are a few Middleweights I can picture beating Roy at Middleweight because he was still a little bit Green at that stage of his Pro career. Still enormously talented obviously, but I think there have been some guys that could've given him fits. Particularly tough veterans like Marvin Hagler.

Basically what I'm saying is I don't think we saw the best Roy Jones until he moved up from Middleweight to the next 2 weight classes above it.

But yeah I think he almost certainly could've held his own or better with any Middleweight that ever lived in all likelihood.

I didn't even mention the latter portion of his career because I didn't think it was necessary. There was nothing there that would've added to his legacy, and I also don't think there's anything that should detract from it all that much considering he was clearly past his best.

[ewenhay]

One of the three fighters of the last 20 years who stand above all the others along with Mayweather and Pacquiao so an ATG for sure.

Obviously fought too long but he's not alone there. Pacquiao is doing the same thing and many of the old timers have losing records against ever diminishing opponents at the tail end of their careers. History is kind in that regard though, it will remember him mainly for the highlights which he has plenty of.

Should have went for a cruiserweight title after Ruiz rather than cutting straight back to light heavyweight. Some dubiety around ped use but unfortunately he's part of an ever expanding list there.

But an ATG? Nailed on. Probably at Light heavyweight but he looked best at super middleweight during his spell there I thought.