My views on Roy Jones Jr.

Here is my views on RJJ. Yes, this is what my friend and I felt was worth arguing over, stupid.

It is my belief that RJJ has a technically bad boxing style. This does not mean that I think RJJ to not be a good boxer, far from it as he is one of my favourite fighters of all time. I refuse to rank him all time, not because I don't think he's necessarily better than other guys, but because that sort of listing involves so much conjecture and supposition that it's really not worth it. Then there's also the fact that some fighters just seem to have a guys number, example Antonio Tarver and RJJ, I don't feel that Traver is necessarily a better fighter than RJJ, but he does seem to have his number. Yes they only fought twice and the record was 1 - 1, but Tarver wanted a 3rd and RJJ wanted nothing to do with him.... bad form on RJJ's part, every other great fighter after being stunned with a knockout has been burning to fight that guy again to prove it was luck, except RJJ.

RJJ's style:
RJJ's style has obviously been successful, that doesn't make it good. Likewise it is not necessary for a fighter to have a great style to be great, but it helps. When I say RJJ's style isn't good, I mean in the classical sense. He doesn't fight with his hands up and he puts his back to the ropes far too much for his boxing style to be considered good. However, RJJ is an extremely gifted athlete and with his speed has been able to slip punches and really, never take a straight punch most of his career. So is RJJ's style good for him? Yes and no. RJJ's style is good for young RJJ, old RJJ can't slip punches like he used to and now... he gets knocked out by Glencoffe Johnson. WHO? Exactly. It's too bad to because RJJ still has a hard snap to his punches. If you look at a fighter who does have a good style in the classical sense, Bernard Hopkins is an excellent example. He fights with his hands high in the center of the ring and his chin tucked down into his chest. No one will knock him out with one shot because he's just not vulnerable. The fact he hasn't been beat in 8 years, fights all comers, and is 39 attests to that.

So that's my view, RJJ just doesn't have a fundamentally sound stance. Does this make him bad? No, didn't say that. Do you need a technically great stance? No, there's tons of great fighters who didn't have a technically great stance. If RJJ did have a technically better stance though, he'd still be fighting and quite possibly could still be champ, as it is it appears his career is done , and on a bad note. Oh, in my opinion... and all of this is just my opinion, take it or leave it, a technically good stance is one that any fighter can use and be successful with. RJJ had a good stance of RJJ and that's it. Again, it's not required to be a great fighter, Ali really didn't necessarily have the best stance, but he was Ali.

Wow, what a silly thing to argue about... another good reason to cut down on my alcohol intake, it appears I do stupid things.