Roy Jones, JR’s Retirement Signals the End of an Era
By Faisal “Fayz” Masood
In the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Roy Jones, JR. was one of the boxing stars of the tournament. Fighting at light middleweight, Jones, JR. was displaying the kind of punching ferocity which would become his trademark in future years. As Jones, JR. fought in the final, once again he was putting in a performance that would befuddle his opponent, in this instance the opponent was the host nations very own Park Si-Hun. Landing 86 punches to Park’s 32, it looked a foregone conclusion that Jones, JR. was walking home with the Gold. The final result though, somehow had Jones, JR. losing the three round bout with a 3-2 decision to his opponent.
The score was such a farce that Jones, JR. would even contemplate leaving the sport and in the aftermath the judges who scored the fight were suspended. Jones, JR. may not have taken home the Gold, but he took home the Val Barker trophy as the tournaments best stylistic boxer and the absurdity of the scoring led the Olympic organizers to establish a new scoring system for Olympic boxing.
Ultimately what it did though, much like what happened to Floyd Mayweather, JR. in the Olympics of 1996, was give fuel to the fire and drive them to leave the amateur ranks and to develop the burning passion to succeed in the professional game.
This past Thursday, in his home town of Pensacola, Florida, where it all began and where he made his professional debut almost 29yrs previously, the 49yr old Roy Jones, JR. added the 66th win of his career and drew the curtain down on the careers of one of the most gifted fighters, possibly THE most gifted fighter to have ever stepped foot inside the squared circle. Yes, Roy Jones, JR. was arguably the most naturally gifted fighter to have ever laced up a pair of gloves. When you think about the most entertaining and most explosive fighters I have ever seen fight, three names immediately spring to mind, Mike Tyson, Naseem Hamed and Roy Jones, JR. You knew when any of these were fighting, you were going to get your money’s worth.
Jones, JR. was the only man to start his career as a light middleweight and go onto win the heavyweight title when he defeated John Ruiz in 2003 for the WBA heavyweight title. To put that into perspective, when Jones, JR. fought for the heavyweight title, he weighed 193lbs, his opponent weighed 33lbs more. Even the greatest Sugar Ray Robinson struggled to fight as a light heavyweight having started his career at welterweight, although it was the heat which eventually beat him, there is no denying that fighting a bigger man took a toll physically on Robinson, and he eventually had to retire at the end of the 13th round. Incidentally, Ruiz would also fall to a former foe of Roy Jones, JR. at heavyweight – James Toney, who won titles as a middleweight, but Toney would fail a drug test and the fight was changed to a No Contest.
It would be the fight between these two stars, James Toney and Roy Jones, JR. that would really catapult the latter as a superstar of boxing. Toney at the time was the IBF Super Middleweight champion and undefeated in 46 fights. Jones, JR. was coming as the underdog for the first time in his career, despite boasting a 26-0 record which included wins over “Sugar Boy” Malinga and Bernard Hopkins. (The victory over Hopkins would earn him the IBF middleweight belt) By the end of the night, not even one of the greatest ever defensive artists could figure out the puzzle that was Roy Jones, JR. who took it by scores of 117-110, 119-108 and 118-109 on the judges’ cards. Was it really a surprise that one of the Roy Jones, JR.’s nicknames would be “Superman”?
Jones, JR. in his prime was almost untouchable and was ‘undefeated’ in the 1990’s. I say undefeated because the only blemish on his record was a disqualification loss to Montell Griffin for hitting him after a knockdown, whilst he ‘lost’ the fight, he displayed his superiority in the return match with a first round knockout of Griffin. There was little surprise when at the end of the 90’s the boxing writer’s association of America named him as the fighter of the decade.
The fighting style of Roy Jones, JR. was symbolised by blazing hand speed, raw athleticism and snake like reflexes. Captain Hook could hit you with punches before your own hand had snapped back from throwing your punch at him. Only when he was well into his 30’s did he begin to show signs of slowing down, and although he has fought on for far too long past his prime, there is no denying that when you judge boxers by how good they were at their best, then Jones, JR. really was one of the all time greats. When Jones, JR. won the heavyweight title against John Ruiz, his record stood at 48-1 and he was a four weight world champion, had he decided to retire then, where would he have placed amongst the greatest ever in ring history?
Few would argue that his name would be top of the list when it comes to the greatest super middleweights in history and perhaps due to fighting well past his prime his name will not be mentioned alongside the likes of Sugar Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong, Muhammad Ali, Roberto Duran to name just four of the best but at his peak, Jones, JR. was as dominant as they came. Just like Ali though, for a fighter who relies on extreme natural gifts and reflexes, when age got the better of him their reliance on this athleticism becomes their downfall, the same gifts which allowed them to look like kings in the ring compared to their mere mortal opponents is now the cause of their losses, the fraction of a second lost is the difference between previously avoiding a punch, to now taking the punch, as compared to great defensive tacticians such as Bernard Hopkins who can rely on their strong technique to carry them through and still be successful at an age most fighters are well into retirement.
So where does Roy Jones, JR. rank on your list of all time greatest boxers? And will he ever fight again? “RJ” has called time on his boxing career, but has left the door open to a return with one man only, with Floyd Mayweather, JR. fighting UFC star Conor McGregor last year, Jones, JR. wants a piece of the pie and is open to the challenge of fighting a former UFC legend, the mixed martial arts star, Anderson Silva.
Watch this space….
Check out Fayz’s available books for download on Amazon. He also runs his own Personal Training site and blog over at Fayz Fitness.
Strength and Conditioning for Boxing – Workout Hits to get you Fighting Fit
The Boxing Cheat Sheet – Your Ultimate Guide to Ring Survival
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