Will there ever be another Roy Jones Jr?

I just got done watching Jones vs Toney. To this day I'm just blown away from his speed and style. Will we ever see another RJ in our life time?

 

Probably not. Stopped Virgil Hill with a body shot, y'all must've forgot!

In all seriousness.....

We have one now....his name is Floyd Mayweather Jnr. Enjoy watching him while he's still active.

 

Roy was a greater natural talent than Floyd. Floyd is a better pure boxer but in terms of greater natural ability he's not close to Roy.

With that said...there will be someone who comes along with the natural gifts Roy had...

"however"

That guy isn't currently fighting.

 

There has never been 'another' anyone. So no. But someone just as cool will come along at some point.

Hopefully.

 

I agree!

 

Agreed in part.

Roy was a freak of Nature (like a Michael Jordan, Michael Johnson, Usain Bolt, '64 Cassius Clay) athletically. Floyd certainly isn't as athletically gifted as Roy. Roy also had one punch power which Floyd doesn't have.

However it wasn't Roy's athletic gifts alone that made him great because Zab Judah has similar athleticism (speed and power), Tyson had that combination....Roy also had the "twitch" defensive and counterpunch reflexes..and that was the important thing. It was those, far moreso than just the raw speed, that enabled so many virtuoso performances.

Floyd has that. Floyd is also the smarter and more adaptable fighter. Roy relied too heavily on his gifts which were as if he was injected with "Super-Soldier" serum.

Overall Roy is better than Floyd...but in Floyd we do have a very similar overall fighter....certainly mirroring the talents that made Roy Great: defense, accuracy and counterpunching.

 

As though hes the most talented fighter of all-time. LOL.

 

No.

 

Who is?

 

My question too.

 

James Kirkland?

 

Let me guess:

Were you thinking Harry Greb? Barney Ross? Jimmy Wilde? Benny Leonard? Sam Langford?

 

To be fair, I don't think he is either. My vote goes to Sugar Ray Leonard.

 

Difficult to imagine there would ever be another guy who had the same talent and yet couldn't figure out a way to travel overseas

 

Leonard was pretty easy to hit for s speedy slickster...certainly far more easy to hit than a peak Roy was. Plus Leonard didn't have the power anywhere near what Jones had. At BEST...his handspeed was similar to Jones.

Jones was clearly more talented than Ray Leonard.

 

yup, the ability to travel overseas is definitely a reflection of talent.

Cdogg, sorry to tell ya...but you can't play that guitar!

 

Right, but Leonard fought better fighters. And he had a lot more courage in the ring (something I think you're born with - a talent)

He got hit more, IMO, because

a) He fought better fighters

b) He cared more about 'getting his' than Roy, cared less about getting hit back.

 

I think this is a key. If you define mental talent as talent too (which it is), then Leonard has the edge. If not, then Jones takes it.

 

That's not measurable talent. Those are X factors.

I've said this before:

NO FIGHTER likes to get hit. No fighter is deliberately hit. the art of boxing is hit and not get hit. If a fighter gets hit more than the other that doesn't make him braver that makes him less defensively sound. Is Gatti more courageous than Whitaker? Did Gatti fight better fighters?

 

I agree that Courage is a talent, but you cannot determine courage just by someone getting hit more or less than another. That's silly.

Courage as a talent in boxing is only relevant based on what happens in the ring. the negotiation table is irrelevant.

In the ring Roy showed plenty of courage (pre johnson) in fighting telesco with one hand, Hopkins with one hand, tarver when weight drained.

 

That's correct, but inside the ring Leonard was one of the most determined guys ever, his comebacks against Hearns, Lalonde etc., holding his early lead against Hagler, pulling out the draw against Hearns in the rematch and even the whipping he took from Terry Norris refusing to quit showed tremendous mental talent

 

Then let's rate Gatti up there too because of his "mental talent". this is silly.

Jones was clearly a more talented fighter than Leonard.

 

nothing alike

Floyd is a classic, technically sound boxer... he does everything RIGHT

Floyd will still be formidable even when he is slow

Jones was shit when he lost his speed

 

No two fighters are alike. So if we're going to look at it like this...the answer is easy:

No...there will never be ajnother Roy Jones.

But it terms of the spirit of the thread, Floyd is every bit the phenom that Jones was...relative to his peers.

 

Another mindset is that it's HURT AND NOT BE HURT. A fighting sport rather than a point scoring sport.

That was the original art of boxing and the sport grew up around that. Guys with that mindset will accept the need to take more risks to achieve their end and that isn't a deficiency in talent.

 

Man, Leonard was getting hit against guy like Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns. We'll just have to agree to disagree here, I really like Roy.

Keep in mind... Jones was hitting guy like Richard Hall with bolo punches. Ray Leonard was landing them against Roberto Duran and Marvin Hagler.

 

Gatti was indeed mentally talented, but not physically. Judah the other way around. Because of the clear lack in the other aspect, neither is close to Jones and Leonard.

Discussing strictly physical talent is OK too, but mental side is as much something you are born with. And also, shouldn't chin be a talent too because you can't develop it very much? Leonard had clearly the better chin

 

Does Ray Leonard do to James Toney (or Bernard Hopkins, with ONE HAND) what Roy did?

Does Roy beat Duran coming from two divisions below and chinny Hearns and 35 year old Hagler?

Tell me.

 

When Leonard was in his late thirties and early 40s he was getting dropped stopped and brutalized by Norris and Camacho (Lalonde too). Is this really significantly different to what happened to Jones?

 

Agreed. a Prime RJ has cat like reflexes. Truly amazing.