What is the greatest achievement of Roy Jones Jr's Career?

Roy Jones beat Jeff Lacy last night with ease basically, but whilst he was fighting I got thinking about this. The commentators said that great fights make great fighters and gave the examples of Leonard having Hearns and Hagler and Ali having Frazier but Roy Jones never really had that career defining moment where he had to go to a dark place in a fight and come out fighting and ultimately winning! A lot of Jones fans, me included will say it wasn't really his fault that he was too good for his own good and he didn't have anyone along the lines of a Hagler or Hearns to test him, but it doesn't change the fact that he never had that moment in his prime.

So I basically think that when you have a look back at Jones' career you have to define how good he was by his achievements in boxing rather than his great fights (or lack of). So i got thinking then about what are his greatest achievements and decided I'd put them into a poll on here and see what people think are his greatest moments! Please vote for yours whether you are a Jones fan or not!

I've gone for his return match with Griffin, he really struggled first time round and then when he finally got to his man made a huge mistake by hitting him when he was down. But Montell made a huge mistake by running his mouth for 6 months and paid the price in this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_Tb6...eature=related

His dominant win over one of the best fighters in the world at the time, James Toney.

by the way i think Roy being the only fighter being able to avoid every punch in a round is wrong.

If i'm correct in the Hopkins - Hakkar fight :), Hopkins was able to avoid all of Hakkar's shots, can't remember which round it was.

the way he dominated james toney was probably his best, but i think history will remember his heavyweight win over ruiz as the best

His win over Toney.

I would also rank his win over Tarver ahead of the Ruiz fight.

I think his win over Ruiz was up there especially since no heavyweight was really able to dominate the Quietman since the Tua KO or a middleweight to win a heavyweight title in a 100 years. Jones has 1 more stop to make and that would be to get the undisputed Cruiserweight belt off Adamek. He should pair up with Mackie Shilstone again and make more history.

i still think roy jones has alot to offer this sport, i think he can claim another title maybe where yet to witness his greatest achievement, who nos, i would love him to go out with a bang

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Originally Posted by Pugilistic

by the way i think Roy being the only fighter being able to avoid every punch in a round is wrong.

If i'm correct in the Hopkins - Hakkar fight :), Hopkins was able to avoid all of Hakkar's shots, can't remember which round it was.

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Been trying to find something on that but not found much, just this link that discuss' it.

Boxing - USA Boxing News - Gatti-Mayweather: What Did You Expect?

The part I was looking is actually discussing Mayweather-Gatti and said "The fight took place 10 years and a day after Roy Jones massacred Vinny Pazienza at the same site. In that bout, Pazienza set a Compubox record that will never be broken by failing to land a punch in the 4th round. Like Gatti, Pazienza was stopped in six. The two fights were equally one-sided."

If Hopkins had done that in 2003 surely they would have picked up on it by the time this report was made. Gonna watch the fight now anyway just to see for myself.

Beating Ruiz was the best. Did not think he could do it. Ruiz had beaten some decent heavies at that time and thought the jump would be too big.

I think its his win over James Toney. But him winning a HW title could be too.

I went with the James Toney win. Toney was not only p4p at the time but he was the most feared guy in boxing at the time also. I believe James Toney was like 44-0. Had already knocked out an undefeated middleweight champ in Michael Nunn. James Toney was favored and no one probably thought RJJ would dominate the way he did. I picked RJJ but I was not expecting such a display.

Jones had some opportunity's and viable opponents to bring out some other defining moments but much of the time he was stuck on risks vs. the numbers and Hbo's open ended allowances....Off the top I'd say the Toney fight.I honestly think he was fully in Toneys head prior.He psyched him out big time and then proceeding to smack him around.....also The ruiz win.Say what you want about huggy-bear Ruiz but he is a tough nut to crack and Jones whipped him like John insulted his momma.

Jones was asked this on ESPN, and he said beating John Ruiz was his greatest accomplishment.

If you recall Ruiz was a solid top ten heavyweight at the time. I believe he may have even been ranked in the top 5 at the time. (As we all know Lennox Lewis was the heavyweight champion at the time).

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Originally Posted by Pugilistic

by the way i think Roy being the only fighter being able to avoid every punch in a round is wrong.

If i'm correct in the Hopkins - Hakkar fight :), Hopkins was able to avoid all of Hakkar's shots, can't remember which round it was.

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Right I've watched it and in the first round Hakkar only lands one jab but it's still not a full round like Jones'.

I don't know if he's the ONLY guy to avoid every punch thrown in one round....Willie Pep, Pernell Whittaker, etc may have also acheived that.

I think one of his best acheivements was the demolition of Thulaini Malinga a guy Chris Eubank struggled with and a guy Nigel Benn couldn't stop and RJJ smashed him out in 6

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Originally Posted by Lyle

I don't know if he's the ONLY guy to avoid every punch thrown in one round....Willie Pep, Pernell Whittaker, etc may have also acheived that.

I think one of his best acheivements was the demolition of Thulaini Malinga a guy Chris Eubank struggled with and a guy Nigel Benn couldn't stop and RJJ smashed him out in 6

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Yeah and he beat Benn in the rematch. I was interested in what you'd vote for actually because I half thought you would go for the Ruiz win because of the size difference but then again you also share my belief that Ruiz is and was then a joke for want of a better word. In fact joke isn't fair because people get on at Ruiz for being a muliple time world champ but its more the boxing organisations splitting everyone so they all have their own champs and making it harder and harder to be undisputed!

So? I made a mistake not making this poll public. What did you vote for Lyle?

Stat-wise his run at LH was pretty impressive. He unified the titles for the first time since the early 80's, He fought 4 undefeted fighters, fought 9 fighters with 3 or less losses almost all of them southpaws, 2 future Hall of Famers (both a little past there prime) and maybe the one true fight of his career gutted out the last 2 rounds to beat Tarver. Tarver totally blew that fight IMO. Roy probably lost more rounds in that fight than his entire run at Light Heavy.

I really can’t decide between James Toney and John Ruiz fights, both representing an amazing accomplishment; but I use to relax sometimes with Griffin (II) or Richard Hall fights when I’m in a bad mood.

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Originally Posted by iwng100

I really can’t decide between James Toney and John Ruiz fights, both representing an amazing accomplishment; but I use to relax sometimes with Griffin (II) or Richard Hall fights when I’m in a bad mood.

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I think his display against Hall showed just how much he could control a fight. He showed early that he could KO him at any point and then had 100% repect from his opponent from then on whilst he pot shotted his way to a painful (for Hall) late stoppage victory!

I went with beating B-Hop with a broken hand.

BTW, James Toney while a top 10 p4p fighter at the time he fought Jones was not the #1 guy, it was either JCC or Whittaker.

Who else can start a career at Light Middle and wind up winning the Heavyweight crown?

Seriously, look through history and ask your self, who could of done it?

The answer? No one.

Roy was Superman :cool:

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Originally Posted by generalbulldog

I went with beating B-Hop with a broken hand.

BTW, James Toney while a top 10 p4p fighter at the time he fought Jones was not the #1 guy, it was either JCC or Whittaker.

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Well there is no official p4p rankings. I think you may be right as far as the Ring were concerned at the time with Sweet Pea but many boxing experts regarded Toney #1 after the Nunn fight and I would have agreed!

Being in almost 30 bouts with someone who was or is a fomer world champion. For me, that is astounding!

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Originally Posted by rjj tszyu

So? I made a mistake not making this poll public. What did you vote for Lyle?

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I didn't vote, I couldn't decide on what to vote for....I think the win over James Toney was probably the biggest win he had

His one round icing of Montell Griffith in their rematch had important implications.

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Originally Posted by holmcall

His one round icing of Montell Griffith in their rematch had important implications.

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...true but it's not like RJJ was losing the first fight when he hit Griffin when he was down

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Originally Posted by Lyle

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Originally Posted by holmcall

His one round icing of Montell Griffith in their rematch had important implications.

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...true but it's not like RJJ was losing the first fight when he hit Griffin when he was down

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Thats right. Alot of people seem to think Jones was losing the fight but he had turned it round and was actually ahead on two of the cards at the time he was DQ'd!

Dominating Toney. That was a career-defining win. It's a must-watch fight for any boxing fan. Absolutely graceful display from a beautiful unorthodxy fighter.

On the subject of the first Griffin fight... man Eddie Futch had RJJ studied masterfully. Griffin was effective with that overhand right.

I would say: spending almost 10 years without almost losing a single round, that just shows how good he is.

Also, I know some people write off the McCallum win but I think that's rather a good win on RJJ's record.

McCallum was a fine technician (young, aspiring boxers should be studying tapes of this man) and boxers whose style has its foundation in technical soundness usually do well as old men. Technique is what let Toney do well more than 50 pounds above his natural weight class and it's what let Hopkins hand out a boxing lesson against a much younger man. It's what let McCallum go the distance with a prime(arguably) RJJ.

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Originally Posted by jokaleras

Also, I know some people write off the McCallum win but I think that's rather a good win on RJJ's record.

McCallum was a fine technician (young, aspiring boxers should be studying tapes of this man) and boxers whose style has its foundation in technical soundness usually do well as old men. Technique is what let Toney do well more than 50 pounds above his natural weight class and it's what let Hopkins hand out a boxing lesson against a much younger man. It's what let McCallum go the distance with a prime(arguably) RJJ.

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Roy always respected McCallum even in the early days when he was a contender and McCallum was a champion. Roy probably took it easy on the old fighter and could have stepped it up if he wanted.

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Originally Posted by Master

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Originally Posted by jokaleras

Also, I know some people write off the McCallum win but I think that's rather a good win on RJJ's record.

McCallum was a fine technician (young, aspiring boxers should be studying tapes of this man) and boxers whose style has its foundation in technical soundness usually do well as old men. Technique is what let Toney do well more than 50 pounds above his natural weight class and it's what let Hopkins hand out a boxing lesson against a much younger man. It's what let McCallum go the distance with a prime(arguably) RJJ.

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Roy always respected McCallum even in the early days when he was a contender and McCallum was a champion. Roy probably took it easy on the old fighter and could have stepped it up if he wanted.

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I see. Still McCallum was a damn fine fighter. His first fight with Toney is one of my favorite fights.

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Originally Posted by jokaleras

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Originally Posted by Master

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Originally Posted by jokaleras

Also, I know some people write off the McCallum win but I think that's rather a good win on RJJ's record.

McCallum was a fine technician (young, aspiring boxers should be studying tapes of this man) and boxers whose style has its foundation in technical soundness usually do well as old men. Technique is what let Toney do well more than 50 pounds above his natural weight class and it's what let Hopkins hand out a boxing lesson against a much younger man. It's what let McCallum go the distance with a prime(arguably) RJJ.

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Roy always respected McCallum even in the early days when he was a contender and McCallum was a champion. Roy probably took it easy on the old fighter and could have stepped it up if he wanted.

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I see. Still McCallum was a damn fine fighter. His first fight with Toney is one of my favorite fights.

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Agreed I thought he won the first two fights against Toney. He was a brilliant fighter.

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Originally Posted by Jimboogie

Who else can start a career at Light Middle and wind up winning the Heavyweight crown?

Seriously, look through history and ask your self, who could of done it?

The answer? No one.

Roy was Superman :cool:

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To answer your question: if his LHW bout had been either: inside [Like Jones']; 12 rounds [like Jones']; or he had taken on fluids before the fight, Sugar Ray Robinson would have been LHW champ by a landslide UD.

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Originally Posted by rjj tszyu

Roy Jones beat Jeff Lacy last night with ease basically, but whilst he was fighting I got thinking about this. The commentators said that great fights make great fighters and gave the examples of Leonard having Hearns and Hagler and Ali having Frazier but Roy Jones never really had that career defining moment where he had to go to a dark place in a fight and come out fighting and ultimately winning! A lot of Jones fans, me included will say it wasn't really his fault that he was too good for his own good and he didn't have anyone along the lines of a Hagler or Hearns to test him, but it doesn't change the fact that he never had that moment in his prime.

So I basically think that when you have a look back at Jones' career you have to define how good he was by his achievements in boxing rather than his great fights (or lack of). So i got thinking then about what are his greatest achievements and decided I'd put them into a poll on here and see what people think are his greatest moments! Please vote for yours whether you are a Jones fan or not!

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I'm going with Returning to KO Montell Griffin he earned this fight with his fists not his mouth

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Originally Posted by SRR

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Originally Posted by Jimboogie

Who else can start a career at Light Middle and wind up winning the Heavyweight crown?

Seriously, look through history and ask your self, who could of done it?

The answer? No one.

Roy was Superman :cool:

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To answer your question: if his LHW bout had been either: inside [Like Jones']; 12 rounds [like Jones']; or he had taken on fluids before the fight, Sugar Ray Robinson would have been LHW champ by a landslide UD.

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Yes but he asked who else could move from 154 to haevy, not 147 to light heavy

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Originally Posted by rjj tszyu

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Originally Posted by SRR

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Originally Posted by Jimboogie

Who else can start a career at Light Middle and wind up winning the Heavyweight crown?

Seriously, look through history and ask your self, who could of done it?

The answer? No one.

Roy was Superman :cool:

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To answer your question: if his LHW bout had been either: inside [Like Jones']; 12 rounds [like Jones']; or he had taken on fluids before the fight, Sugar Ray Robinson would have been LHW champ by a landslide UD.

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Yes but he asked who else could move from 154 to haevy, not 147 to light heavy

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My bad, misread on the fly :-X

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Originally Posted by Pugilistic

by the way i think Roy being the only fighter being able to avoid every punch in a round is wrong.

If i'm correct in the Hopkins - Hakkar fight :), Hopkins was able to avoid all of Hakkar's shots, can't remember which round it was.

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I don't mean to be a smartass but did Morrades Hakkar even throw a punch in that fight? I am being dead serious I must have missed the one he did throw and B-Hop slipped or blocked.