Roy Jones: the boxing genius

[amat]

Yeah, Roy could punch from anywhere and could put pretty much any 2 punches in his arsenal together back to back. I remember against Julio Gonzalez where he threw a left hook as he jumped in and then a left uppercut as he moved back out, and it was with blinding speed. There is a very good case to be made that he is the best offensive fighter of all time and I don't have any problems with that. Don't think he was the smartest fighter of all time, either that or he lost all his smarts with age which I doubt because he's fought a bunch of really dumb fights here recently especially against Johnson who is a smart fighter himself.

Also, the reason Roy looked so super human was one, because he didn't fight the competition of the others for the better part of his prime. And since he was a great offensive fighter, he didn't have to fight as much to the level of his opponents. Whitaker would work with what was given to him, he would create openings with his defense much of the time instead of forcing the issue but in reality he was just as dominant as Roy was as far as convincingly beating opponents and also doing things many did not think was possible for a fighter to do.

[Taeth]

I disagree. I think his intelligence in the ring needed his body to do what his mind wanted it to do. He's only really gotten his ass kicked once in terms of the technique of the right. In RJJ-Tarver 2 he got hit by an honest ridiculously clean shot that could have landed on anyone. Tarver was a good fighter. Only Glen Johnson really beat the shit out of Roy JOnes and made him look really flawed. By then Roy wasn't the same fighter so its not really a fair judgment to make. Its like Ali-Holmes, but Johnson isn't anywhere near as good as Holmes in any sense.

Roy is the smartest fighter at what he did, nobody ever dominated like him except maybe welterweight Robinson, but the fight game has evolved since then. Roy definitely did things differently, saying he was unorthodox would be the understatement of the century, but his style worked.

The only other person I see up there with him in terms of intelligence in the ring is Hopkins, but its hard to say unless they fought now where they are physically on a more equal playing field because in his prime Roy was always too good athletically for Bernard.

[Taeth]

Best offensive fighter? Ray Robinson without a doubt, He threw combinations like Roy, he had as close to Roy's abilites as anyone, but not quite. What makes his offense better, but his overall ring intelligence less so is that he was willing to trade to land his punches.That definitely was the style back then, but because of that he landed a lot cleaner punches on his opponents, and he was a bigger welterweight then Roy was at SMW. What made Roy so special is he could do everything he did offensively, and still he was almost impossible to hit, and that takes more then just overwhelming athletic ability to accomplish, I've only seen him, whitaker, pep, and Mayweather really to it at the level they did, and Benitez to a lesser to degree when he was on top of his game.

[dcR-Reckless]

I agree he is the most gifted/talented boxer ever.

[Dizaster]

He took the fundermental art to a whole new level... In the respect of some of his punching style, it was almost like street fighting in the sense, "i'm here, the other guy's there, his head is there, now I have to get this fist, into his head" then bang, he'd launch into attack and usually with devestating consequences to the other guys head... Yet in every fundermental respect, he was as fine tuned as they come...

He's one fighter that you just cannot use the word "overrated" for... I have absolutely no doubt that a prime Roy (and prime Roy was prime Roy), he could be thrown in with anyone of the past that competed in his main weight divisions, and he would never have less than a 50/50 chance of knocking them out...

For all his ability to not get hit (which was truely among the best guys out there), he could take punches well, he stayed relax even while being brawled on the ropes, and still was one of the best and most effective attacking boxers of recent times...

A once in a decade boxer....

[Dizaster]

Best offensive fighter? Ray Robinson without a doubt, He threw combinations like Roy, he had as close to Roy's abilites as anyone, but not quite. What makes his offense better, but his overall ring intelligence less so is that he was willing to trade to land his punches.That definitely was the style back then, but because of that he landed a lot cleaner punches on his opponents, and he was a bigger welterweight then Roy was at SMW. What made Roy so special is he could do everything he did offensively, and still he was almost impossible to hit, and that takes more then just overwhelming athletic ability to accomplish, I've only seen him, whitaker, pep, and Mayweather really to it at the level they did, and Benitez to a lesser to degree when he was on top of his game.

Always the Roy tribute threads/posts make me want to dust off all my old RJJ fights to watch again...