How will you remember RJJ?

[Roburai]

Roy Jones Jr: best pound-for-pound boxer of the 1990s. Without question, that's his legacy.

Now, Jones is a fighter past his prime. But his legacy is already established. He earned it. For reasons so many speak highly of Tyson in the '80s, I'm that way with RJJ: fierce, precise, powerful and extremely brutal. But Jones had quickness Tyson never had, flash knock-outs galore.

 

[Chrisdude]

Absoulete Greatness
but when he got Ko'd
he Got KTFO'ED

 

[MMAmouse]

As a great middleweight and super middleweight but also as a guy who fought the top level light heavyweights a few years too late.

 

[bucketchoke]

Not fighting Mikhelzewski(sp).

This is really a non-issue for me. Prime Roy at LHW would have made an absolute fool of Dariusz. Dariusz had no marketability at all outside of Germany and Poland. It was mutual, Dariusz didn't want to come to the US. And why the hell should Roy have gone to Europe? Dariusz also lost in his homeland to Julio Cesar Gonzalez. Roy schooled Gonzalez.

 

[HomemComH]

As a BAMF.

 

[TRYHARD 2001]

Everyone's already covered the major bases for Roy, but for me, he may well have been the hardest punching MW of all-time. He wasn't there for a super long time, but the power he had at that weight was frightening. We all know about the speed, agility, and inability to throw a jab, but the power he possessed at 160 was amazing. In his youth he was like Bo Jackson in Tecmo Bowl.

And RJJ/Michaelczewski didn't happen because neither one of them wanted it to happen badly enough, not just Roy. Dariusz didn't wanna leave Germany and Roy didn't want to leave the States to make it happen so it didn't happen. For the record, RJJ would've pieced him up for 12 rounds.

 

[svmVR2097]

The best natural talent we’ve probably seen. The best p4p fighter of the 90’s. The only middleweight to win the HW title. Stayed in a decade too long and ruined his reputation. If he retires after winning the HW title there’s a very legit argument for him being the GOAT.

Was never the same after dropping back down to LHW.

And with all that said, a tarnished legacy by testing positive

 

[hillelslovak87]

Who is he? I must've forgot.......

 

[Woldog]

As the guy who got knocked out after the most pathetic pitter patter combo ever thrown.

 

[hillelslovak87]

As the guy who got knocked out after the most pathetic pitter patter combo ever thrown.

Man, fuck this Enzo Macidackirinirelli stopping RJJ world.

 

[mozfonky]

in my mind? I don't know what to do with him, just like I don't know what to do with Tyson. I've seen more fighters like Tyson (foreman,Liston,Duran) than i have like Roy. And since I've never believed that his chin aged, I can't ever view him as a guy who couldn't have been kayoed by just about anyone who could have caught him, at any point. Prodigious talent (like Tyson) but not very good at answering the questions we want answered by our great fighters. Also, personally, the last guy to make me feel like a young fan watching a hero. probably the best combination of speed and power ever seen. I think that maybe that combination may have been what kept him on top for so long, no one wanted to deal with that speed and power enough to risk getting in good shots, few even tried. so, like tyson, many of his opponents were already beaten before the fight. He could have also done things like rematched toney, rematched hopkins sooner, fought the english guys, but honestly, even if he'd done all that, would that have been enough to cement himself into the pantheon of the top ten guys? Let's face it, wasn't a lot of talent around and the talent that was around were either in shitty condition or green like hopkins and toney.

 

[mozfonky]

As the guy who got knocked out after the most pathetic pitter patter combo ever thrown.

I hate seeing roy like that. After tarver he'd just close his eyes like he was scared to get hit, which of course doesnt help.

 

[defjaam]

in my mind? I don't know what to do with him, just like I don't know what to do with Tyson. I've seen more fighters like Tyson (foreman,Liston,Duran) than i have like Roy. And since I've never believed that his chin aged, I can't ever view him as a guy who couldn't have been kayoed by just about anyone who could have caught him, at any point. Prodigious talent (like Tyson) but not very good at answering the questions we want answered by our great fighters. Also, personally, the last guy to make me feel like a young fan watching a hero. probably the best combination of speed and power ever seen. I think that maybe that combination may have been what kept him on top for so long, no one wanted to deal with that speed and power enough to risk getting in good shots, few even tried. so, like tyson, many of his opponents were already beaten before the fight. He could have also done things like rematched toney, rematched hopkins sooner, fought the english guys, but honestly, even if he'd done all that, would that have been enough to cement himself into the pantheon of the top ten guys? Let's face it, wasn't a lot of talent around and the talent that was around were either in shitty condition or green like hopkins and toney.

What is your top ten though? It's hard to imagine that all boxers in there exceed what Roy did - Olympic gold (pretty much), looked unbeatable from 160-175, influenced the entire sport with his style, world champion in several weight classes (including the heavyweight championship).

 

[benebox]

Unfortunately, probably his terrible rap video.

 

[Hagler]

One of the greatest ever. So he boxed past his prime ? Many did, but never looked remotely close to him at their peak.

 

[burningspear]

A freak athlete but not a freak fighter.

 

[Absolut]

All time great- tainted by testing.

a monster at his peak.

tremendous lesson on what boxing does to even the best when they hang on too long.

 

[borntoloseNOT]

I'll remember him for a little bit of everything. Smartest boxer ever, made cerebral fighters look dumb except for maybe old McCallum. Incredible athlete. Can't and won't be repeated in my lifetime. I don't hold his later decision to fight too long against him. He just didn't want to retire. I understand. He took his loses like a man. Maybe even more, I also love him as a commentator, and now his post fight interviews where he is asked his opinions on the big fights. People say he was a freak athlete, and relied on that with no fundamentals to save him when those attributes left him, but he had the fundamentals in his brain. Roy knows the game, and listening to him talk about the fights, I realize how much I really don't see or know about the game. Obviously I grew up a wrestler not a boxer, so I'm always gonna be a dumbass compared to some of you who post here, but I love boxing so much, I watch so intensely, try to absorb so much, think about the fights in my free time, analyze things to the point I sometimes wonder if I should try and some how have some involvement in the sport to help support the fighters with fight hype or literature or something. Roy is one of those fighters, listening to him talk, I feel like a kid listening to some amazing story from his dad or Grandpa, just like a lot of the great boxing minds, but with Roy, my absolute favorite. Ill always appreciate the fighter and the member of the media side Roy is and was.

 

[aries]

As the guy who got knocked out after the most pathetic pitter patter combo ever thrown.

I think the hard upper cut and the big overhand right are what did him.

 

[djacobox372]

The greatest boxer of his generation. I don't care about his late career... to put things in perspective: at 34yo Roy was winning the HW title in dominating fashion, the same age Leonard was when he was destroyed by Norris.