Roy Jones Chin

[Master]

Was Roy Jones chinny?

Was he hiding behind his skill and athleticism the fact that if he was hit on the chin he was liable to get knocked out?

He was knocked down by a southpaw (whose name I forgot) and out by Tarver and Johnson. Then the rest all add to my theory.

[El Kabong]

I don't think he was before he drained himself back down to 175. Let's face facts RJJ vs Tarver would have been best done either BEFORE the Ruiz fight or after the Ruiz fight at CRUISERWEIGHT where RJJ at 199 would have been just fine. When Roy got KO'd by Tarver he got caught with a HUGE punch from a big puncher, when he got KO'd vs Glen Johnson he was getting out hustled, he had 0 pop in his punches, his stamina wasn't there, and again he got hammered by a guy who could bang pretty good.

That said he never really played with fire in terms of allowing himself to get hit he was always a guy who accepted a punch and then gave back punches harder and faster to quell the attack. He was never a face first brawler obviously.

[J_Undisputed]

The southpaw you were thinking of was Lou Delvalle, a former sparring partner of Jones.

[chris6878]

I think it was the weight drain that started it. Then the old age it and it was down hill. He used to never get hit, then in Tarver fight he decides to lay on ropes and take blows to the face. All down hill. Athletic abilty dissipated over night

[SlimTrae]

Honeyboy Devalle also was fortunate to have landed that shot- while RJJ was in a corner (i think his) drenched.

I'm not one to defend, but it was both a good shot and his feet-clearly slipped.

He recovered and went on to dominate in RJJ fashion.


And if you can find the introduction...it was Roy's best ring entrance. 3 fine women & ROY dancing in sequenced outfits in sync.

Tidbit- Lou Devalle & his sister Melissa are the only brother-sister duo to win a title- in the amatuers..another small piece of boxing knowledge!

[J_Undisputed]

Jones was hit enough before he got to light heavy that we'd have known he was chinny. You can have all the speed and reflexes in the the world, but someones going to time you sooner or later. So if your chinny, and you fight with with your hands down, not to mention clowning and etc, you can expect to get dropped fairly early in your career. Like Zab judah; Bergman, millet, Tszyu, Khan, Cotto, and others had zab down. Generally chinny fighters dont take those kind of chances without adjusting somehow.. and wont prematurely move up in weight class very much to fight guys with extra weight on they're punches if they can drain down and fight guys with less pop on their punches. I think jones had an average chin for his height and weight. He was taking elbows from an over-sized telesco in the corner while mercante sr. did squat in the radio city music all fight.

[SlimTrae]

I disagree J.

RJJ @ MW & LHW had compubox numbers that were silly-stupid in his favor.

I think if we researched those stats we'd find Roy was the least hit fighter...since Floyd.


But there is a myth about RJJ's chin in the amatuers- durable.
When he lost his 3rd bid at the GG...he was a two time winner. He faced Gerald McCellan and they banged.

I know the fighter who talked about but cant think of his name right now. He was one of the amatuers who fought & said it was a war! McCellan won, but he had to wait out a few weeks from a sore jaw.

RJJ was actually able to fight the very next week.

[J_Undisputed]

I disagree J.

RJJ @ MW & LHW had compubox numbers that were silly-stupid in his favor.

I think if we researched those stats we'd find Roy was the least hit fighter...since Floyd.


But there is a myth about RJJ's chin in the amatuers- durable.
When he lost his 3rd bid at the GG...he was a two time winner. He faced Gerald McCellan and they banged.

I know the fighter who talked about but cant think of his name right now. He was one of the amatuers who fought & said it was a war! McCellan won, but he had to wait out a few weeks from a sore jaw.

RJJ was actually able to fight the very next week.

I never paid attention to the numbers. They can be inflated. I've seen him hit enough times to know if he was chinny or not based on how the punch was thrown, landed and how ready he was for it. He wasn't chinny but I wouldn't say he had a granite chin either. He rolled very well and was careful about his positioning. Also take into account that Aside from the headgear and the +2 oz weight difference in gloves from the pros, that many fighters in the GG aren't really polished yet either. I've seen lots of kids in the GG that are not fully turning their punches over, generating power from their stance, their waist and not snapping hooks at the elbows. Not saying roy or the G-man weren't. Its not as bad as the olympics in terms of encouraging numbers instead of power, but its not like the pros. There just tends to be a difference.

[rjj tszyu]

I don't think he was before he drained himself back down to 175. Let's face facts RJJ vs Tarver would have been best done either BEFORE the Ruiz fight or after the Ruiz fight at CRUISERWEIGHT where RJJ at 199 would have been just fine. When Roy got KO'd by Tarver he got caught with a HUGE punch from a big puncher, when he got KO'd vs Glen Johnson he was getting out hustled, he had 0 pop in his punches, his stamina wasn't there, and again he got hammered by a guy who could bang pretty good.

That said he never really played with fire in terms of allowing himself to get hit he was always a guy who accepted a punch and then gave back punches harder and faster to quell the attack. He was never a face first brawler obviously.

I pretty much agree with this completely!!

I always though that Jones should have called it a day after that fight with Ruiz, he had nothing left to prove, he dominated 175lbs division for years and then took on a HW because he had run out of challenges years before in his own division. He was obviously never going to beat Lennox and he knew that so all he could really do was go down in weight and after adding 20+lbs of muscle in his mid thirties it was never going to be easy and as you say he lacked the pop in his punches and stamina when he did go back down and I also believe he lost his punch resistance then too, although there wasn't much proof he had a great chin before as he very rarely got touched on it.

Lets be fair Tarver, Johnson and Calzaghe would not have beaten or even got close to beating a prime Roy Jones.

[Beanflicker]

I pretty much agree with this completely!!

I always though that Jones should have called it a day after that fight with Ruiz, he had nothing left to prove, he dominated 175lbs division for years and then took on a HW because he had run out of challenges years before in his own division. He was obviously never going to beat Lennox and he knew that so all he could really do was go down in weight and after adding 20+lbs of muscle in his mid thirties it was never going to be easy and as you say he lacked the pop in his punches and stamina when he did go back down and I also believe he lost his punch resistance then too, although there wasn't much proof he had a great chin before as he very rarely got touched on it.

Lets be fair Tarver, Johnson and Calzaghe would not have beaten or even got close to beating a prime Roy Jones.

As a big Roy Jones fan, I wish he would have. At the time (after the first Tarver fight) he said he wanted a super fight with Mike Tyson (who IMO he would have beat at the time) and retired.

If he was talking about retiring, then you know his heart wasn't in the game anymore.

It's a shame how he went out because he truly was one of the all time greats, I've never seen anyone with the physical gifts he had and I probably never will.

[El Kabong]

Well I had hoped for 1 of 3 things for Roy's career when he went to heavyweight

1. Retire after fighting Ruiz

2. Defend the title vs heavyweights more his own size: Byrd, Toney, Jirov, Tyson, Holyfield etc

3. Drop to cruiserweight which would only be in name only as he was never truly a heavyweight and have some fights without getting weight drained.

RJJ just never rebounded from making the mistake of allowing Antonio Tarver to goad him into that first fight (a fight Roy STILL won). I think at cruiserweight he could have lasted a while longer and there were some decent fights available for him at heavyweight too

[IamInuit]

I think the notion of "chinny" fighters is the most over played aspect of the sport with the least amount of actual evidence supporting it. Nowadays a fighter gets dropped a few times and he's chinny. Considering the sports design, its not only one of the dumbest conclusions in boxing but also one of the funniest.

[SlimTrae]

Well I had hoped for 1 of 3 things for Roy's career when he went to heavyweight

1. Retire after fighting Ruiz

2. Defend the title vs heavyweights more his own size: Byrd, Toney, Jirov, Tyson, Holyfield etc

3. Drop to cruiserweight which would only be in name only as he was never truly a heavyweight and have some fights without getting weight drained.

RJJ just never rebounded from making the mistake of allowing Antonio Tarver to goad him into that first fight (a fight Roy STILL won). I think at cruiserweight he could have lasted a while longer and there were some decent fights available for him at heavyweight too

I remember RJJ eventually downplaying a fight with Holy because he knew some would claim Evander was washed up.

But as you've stated he had some options..Good ones..including retire after Ruiz.
Hurts to see him fighting on, out of the spotlight with little to no reflexes he once had in abundance.