jones343 By Gav Duthie: Roy Jones Jnr 58-8 (41) is possibly deluding himself into thinking he can win another world title as he prepares with another eastern European outing against Cruiserweight Hany Atiyo 14-2 (20) in Krasnodar, Russia on September 26th.

Roy is arguably the most talented fighter in history yet he sits behind 3 other currently active fighters in the top 50 boxers of all time. Floyd Mayweather Jr, Bernard Hopkins and Manny Pacquiao also feature in this group and still have the opportunity to improve their legacy whilst Jones is fighting on mediocre shows across the globe.

(Courtesy of bleacher report 2012) p4p top 50 of all time

Roy Jones Jnr #39
Manny Pacquaio #34
Floyd Mayweather #29
Bernard Hopkins #27

Obviously if Mayweather and Pacquaio do eventually fight one another the winner could probably see himself move up at least ten places in the subjective list and even at nearly 50 years old if Hopkins beats Kovalev he surely puts himself in the top 20.

Obviously at 45 and way past his best Roy is highly unlikely to be able to add to his legacy. This piece looks at what he could have done in his prime and the fights he missed out on particularly in the years between 1997 and 2003.

1997-2003

Roy was unstoppable during this period. He won fights with relative ease. After he destroyed Montel Griffin and knocked out the talented Virgil Hill with a sickening body shot his next 5 years were filled with average opponents until he took on the gargantuan challenge of facing heavyweight WBA champion John Ruiz. His other wins during this period in chronological order were:

Lou Del Valle
Otis Grant
Richard Frazier
Reggie Johnson
David Telesco
Richard Hall
Eric Harding
Derrick Harmon
Julio Cesar Gonzalez
Glen Kelly
Clinton Woods

Some of these opponents weren’t even fit to share the same ring as Roy and i’m sure he regrets not fighting some of the top fighters in the surrounding divisions before he started his decline in his first fight against Antonio Tarver. So who else could he have fought, lets take a look.

Steve Collins 36-3 (21) (1997)

Irish slugger Collins actually had a audacity to claim Roy ducked him and even called him out for a fight in 2013. Jones would have had no problem beating him but it would have been a good win for him. Collins was the WBO super middleweight champion and had beaten British legends Chris Eubank (twice in 95) and Nigel Benn (twice in 96). Despite rivals Eubank and Benn being past their best this gave Collins a lot of publicity. He surprisingly retired in 1997 after failing to secure a fight with Roy.

Jones UD 12

Dariusz Michalczewski 48-2 (38) (1998)

Why this fight never happened I will never know. Michalczewski was the Kovalev of his time. He and Jones were rated #1 and #2 for about 5 years at light heavyweight. In 1994 the German was the WBO light heavyweight and WBO Cruiserweight champion simultaneously. He dropped the cruiserweight title and stayed at light-heavyweight. He made no less than 23 successful defences before he eventually lost the belt after 11 years as champion. In 1997 he beat Virgil Hill on points to briefly become WBO, WBA and IBF light heavyweight champion. This was Hill’s first loss since Tommy Hearns. After that fight would have been the perfect time for him to fight Jones but Roy fought Virgil Hill instead winning a 4th round stoppage. There were several other times negotiations took place but it is unfortunate for Roy that this bout never materialized.

Jones UD 12

Juan Carlos Gomez 55-3 (40) (2000)

The talented Cuban was the number 1 cruiserweight and WBC champion for 3 years between 1998 and 2001. As often is the case at Cruiser a lack of big money fights and good competition forced Gomez to move up to heavyweight. He looked good on his debut against Sinan Samil Sam knocking down the former heavyweight European champion on route to an easy 10 round decision but was later knocked out in round 1 against journeyman Yannick Diaz. I don’t remember a big call for this fight at the time but it would have been a good technical battle especially with Jones having to move up in weight. Gomez later fought for the heavyweight title against Vitaly Klitschko but after losing went back down and is still currently campaigning in the cruiserweight division.

Jones SD 12

Joe Calzaghe 46-0 (32) (2002)

To be fair this would have been a bit of a step down for Jones at this point. Uneducated fans will point out that Joe beat Roy Jones in 2008 but he was well past his best at this point. Calzaghe didn’t really get the recognition he deserved until he beat Lacy in 2006 but even this was 3 years too late for Roy. In 2002 Joe was more interested in Sven Ottke and he kept getting uninspiring defences against the likes of Jimenez and Pudwell. I think after the Brewer fight in 2002 would have been a great time to schedule the fight although as I say their prime years were unfortunately at the wrong time. At this stage I see the bigger Jones schooling Calzaghe for an easy victory.

Jones UD 12

Sven Ottke 34-0 (6) (2002)

Like Calzaghe, Ottke retired undefeated and made 21 defences of his IBF Super middleweight title. Again with this one it was more a tragedy that there was never a Calzaghe-Ottke fight. Sven would never fight out of Germany which meant a fight with Jones Jnr was always unlikely. Ottke only stopped 6 opponents from his 34 victories meaning he won 28 decisions. A number of them were considered highly controversial attributed to hometown decisions which is still considered prevalent in Germany today. I’m not surprised Roy didn’t want another poor decision against him like he received in the Olymic finals all those years ago.

Jones KO 10

Vassiliy Jirov 38-3-1 (32) (2003)

In this instance Roy decided to bypass Cruiserweight all together and challenge John Ruiz for his heavyweight crown. In hindsight this was probably the right thing to do. The fight was criticized at the time as Ruiz was far from exciting but looking back this was a momentous achievement. Ruiz won the title back after Jones relinquished it and defended it against some decent competition. In the Cruiser division it was James Toney who decided to take the plunge and move up to fight Jirov. In a fantastic fight Toney did just about enough to take Jirov’s IBF title. After that decision a fight with Jirov was pointless and he had already bested Toney years before.

Jones TKO 11

Heavyweight title defence (2003)

I think one of Roy’s major downfalls was going straight down from 199lbs v Ruiz back to 175lbs v Tarver. That weight loss was bound to have been a major strain on his body. Ruiz won the title straight away after Jones defection against Hasim Rahman, he made successful defences against Fres Oquendo and Andrew Galota before losing it again to giant Nikolay Valuev. Perhaps if Roy had defended his title against Rahman, Oquendo or Galota this would have been considered a bigger fight. Roy was clearly never a heavyweight but a 24lb drop was clearly too much, even a drop to cruiser may have been a better transition.

That magical night against Ruiz turned out to be last. Although he is still boxing today 11 years on he is a shell of his former self. After the Ruiz fight he was gifted a 12 round decision over Tarver then knocked out in 2 rounds against Antonio before being knocked out again by Glen Johnson. Roy’s career is still fantastic but a few different decisions and he really could have been Mr Untouchable.