By Davey Hogg: I’m sure that myself along with the millions of others in the 1990’s who bore witness to the meteoric rise of the stratospherically talented Roy Jones Jr, would have imagined his eventual legacy to be as accomplished as the very best to ever grace our sport.

In fact, the word grace is a very befitting word when you think of how the man handled himself with ease against some of that middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight era’s most elite fighters. One fight that no doubt stands out the most during Roy’s prime is 1994’s dominating and immensely skilful showing against (at the time) his biggest, and also unbeaten super middleweight rival, James “Lights Out” Toney. On that particular night it would be easy to imagine Jones retiring undefeated, like so few before him. There was simply no one on his level, such was the case.

In the years following his performance against Toney, Jones kept up his winning ways, outclassing one opponent after the other. 1996 saw Jones jump up in weight to win world titles the light heavyweight division, again beating everyone put in front of him including fighters the likes of Mike McCallum and Virgil Hill (also during this phase of his career its worth mentioning that Jones suffered his first “official loss”, a disqualification for punching 1997 opponent Montell Griffin while he was taking a knee, which was quickly avenged later the same year). Roy continued to dominate the light heavyweight division for the next five years before bulking up to comfortably John Ruiz for the WBA heavyweight title in what most, including myself, regard as the pinnacle of his career.

After Jones historic win over Ruiz at heavyweight, “Superman” began to look human. The no doubt tortuous ordeal of losing his heavyweight bulk to challenge light heavyweight rival Antonio Tarver, resulted in a shaky and unusually competitive fight for Roy that he managed to scrape by majority decision. Unfortunately the warning signs presented in this match-up were not clear enough to see. A 2004 return with Tarver saw Jones flattened in two rounds, followed later that year by another devastating knockout loss at the hands of Glen Johnson in the ninth round. A less dramatic unanimous decision loss resulted from a third meeting with Antonio Tarver before Jones spent the next two years bouncing back against less elite competition (the exception being a 2008 fight with a blown up come-backing Felix Trinidad at light heavyweight, which Jones dominated by unanimous decision). Later that year saw a lethargic Jones completely outclassed by undefeated ring magazine light heavyweight champion Joe Calzaghe after scoring a flash knockdown in the first round. Wins over Omar Sheika and one time prospect Jeff Lacy followed the Calzaghe loss and led to a face off with capable Australian Danny Green in Sydney. Although Jones was a favorite to win, he was shockingly knocked down and stopped in the first round. 2010 saw a return match with Bernard Hopkins who Jones had beaten seventeen years previously in 1993. In a foul-filled lackluster affair, Jones lost a unanimous decision. Jones traveled to Russia the following year to challenge prospect Denis Lebedev, resulting in yet another brutal knockout loss in the tenth round after again appearing sluggish throughout the fight. December of the same year was more positive for Roy in which he won a unanimous decision over little known Max Alexander. Although he got the win, Roy again looked like he was done, causing fans around the world to clamour for his retirement more than ever

Based on the assumption that he has decided not to fight again at the time of writing and suffer yet another heart-breaking disaster, here’s my take on the legacy of Roy Jones Jr:

Looking at the above analysis of Jones career, it’s clear to me that the good by far out-weigh’s the bad. This is a man that was so gifted in his heyday, nobody could touch him, he was a level above them all. Even in the later years, he was only beaten by very good fighters. Yes, Roy’s boxing journey hasn’t had the happy ending we’d expected all them years ago. Nevertheless, when this boxing legends shortcomings are eventually thrown into the ring with his achievements, it’ll be like most of his fights, a complete mismatch.

A legacy tarnished? Far from it.