After Tarver got schooled by BHop, he probably said to himself, DAMN, NOW I SEE WHAT ROY JONES WAS TALKING ABOUT! (Losing all that weight, feeling drained and weak)...Tarver stated years later that he was "NOT HIMSELF" and was "LESS THAN 50%" during the fight. Roy was not making excuses as you seem to experience the same thing. I got one question for you Tarver, You got any excuses now?
It’s even crazier considering that Roy vacated all of the LHW title belts as well. He had no obligation to Tarver at all except for him being the only real challenger out there at the time. His only options at HW was either a rematch with Ruiz, a fight with either Lewis or Klitschko, or Tyson. Roy should’ve captured a cruiserweight title on his way down so he could’ve been a 5 division champion, and then come back down to LHW for Tarver.
Actually, (this is hindsight) Roy Jones should have retired after winning the Heavyweight Championship.. He would be the greatest boxer ever then.. Or, you're correct, he should have made Tarver move up in weight
All the respect to Tarver bit let's face it he fought RJJr when Roy was weight deprived after Ruiz and those multiple weight jumps is what made Roy look human....could u imagine what we all would be saying if he retired after beating Ruiz......he should have waited at least a year or two to fight a prime Tarver..... IMHO
I'm not Roy hater at all, but I don't think you can attribute the KO loss in the 2nd Tarver fight to the weight loss - the 2nd fight was over a year after the Ruiz fight, which was plenty of time to recover. I really don't think Roy was the unbeatable superhuman a lot of fans like to believe - he always had a poor defence, even in his prime, and I suspect his chin wasn't rock solid either, it's just he was so fast that those flaws were hidden. I'm not a huge Tarver fan by any stretch either, but I think he was the best opponent Roy had faced in a long time, several years in fact. All of Roy's opponents at 175 were average for years before he moved up to fight Ruiz, and Ruiz himself was seriously slow and ponderous. It was a great achievement for Roy to get the belt, but Ruiz was a ultimately a heavyweight that was beaten by two former middleweights - that's really not a good look for him. I think Tarver had prepared for Roy and studied his flaws, particularly his poor defence, especially when on the ropes, and openness to the big counter. Like I said, the flaws were always there, but no one had managed to capitalize before Tarver.
Lucas Maximus. How come James Toney and Bernard Hopkins couldn’t capitalize off of prime Roy Jones Jr’s flaws? Their fundamentals were clearly better than Antonio Tarver’s.
After the Tarver - Hopkins fight Tarver looked horrible against Clinton Woods and 2 lop side losses to Chad Dawson which he clearly looked weak. Just admit Tarver couldn’t beat a healthy prime Roy Jones Jr
antonio tarver u aint nothing man!!! you lost to roy you lost to bernard you never fought calzaghe...they both did and took their risks.face it! u are nott good fighter(roy schooled u in the first and then you were never better than roy.the point is that u sucked but roy sucked even worse at 2003)
Emilio Coldblooded Bronson of course he thinks that; thoughts are not facts; he’s not better than Jones jr. just like ken Norton isn’t better than Muhammad Ali, even though Norton got the best of Ali and was robbed in their third fight.
18:54 - Key to the fight. Tarver was fighting the scale rather getting ready to fight Hopkins. Tarver was distracted with his new found success and getting his weight down, rather then getting ready for a tougher,savvier opponent then either Jones or Johnson. You could sense the urgency and hunger in Hopkins that was missing from Tarver in this fight.
@@hushus3943 yep came up two weight classes, something sugar ray Robison tried to do and failed cuz of heat exhaustion in the 14th round sugar quit on the stool. Hop came up and beat that boy at 41 simply cuz he’s just the better fighter, nothing to do with tarvar weight. Bhop would’ve won regardless. He was coming off back to back losses against jermaine taylor, wasn’t gone lose 3 times in a row.
Lol this was right around the time Tarver was Mason The Line Dixon in Rocky Balboa I wonder what would've happened if Tarver didn't take that movie 🎦 role?
Tarver never dominated the LHW division. Both fights with johnson could've went against him. All he was was a big mouth. He was nearly stopped by Jones in the third fight when he ran out of gas. Fortunately for him, Jones couldn't take advantage of the opportunety.
Just imagine if Mackie hadn't worked with Michael Spinks before the Tyson fight just how fast that fight would have lasted. Ya gotta have a great trainer ya know.🤔
Hopkins is a future hall of fame Legend hands down period 🥊🥊. Roy won the first fight against tarver that's all that matters and he won more rounds in the third fight but now he knows how Roy Jones felt coming down from heavyweight fast to fight light heavyweight & Tony would have destroyed him, Hopkins won both Taylor fights period they gave Taylor a gift , Sylvester should have got Tyson, Ward, or Mayweather to play in that movie 🤦🤦
@@The_Ex_Boxing_Nerd The first is the only real time period! You can win all the trilogies world it doesn't mean your good unless can go from there to greatness!! Pac-man won his trilogies then he went on to greatness riddick bowe won his and he faded away fast and hoilyfield went on to greatness! Tarver faded like bowe and his only claim is Roy Jones that's it 🤦🤦🤦
Master J, What about losing trilogies and fading away? That’s literally what happened to Jones. He lost the trilogy, faded, and never won a title again. The only “real” time they fought according to you, Jones’ face was battered and he barely squeaked out a win. Sounds to me like a trilogy was in order to see who was better at that time...
Master J, That logic doesn’t work with the Morales Barrera trilogy, because Barrera lost the only “real” fight, beat Hamed and won the trilogy. Morales won the only “real” fight, lost the other two and beat Pacquiao in their only “real” fight.
@@The_Ex_Boxing_Nerd Ok I'll give you that one 👍. But Prince Naseem did not train and did not take the fight seriously at all even his trainer the legendary Emanuel Steward said himself that he did not watch tape & his sparring partners were beating his ass 🥊🥊🥊
He beat a way past his prime RJ. Who I feel should've retired after the Ruiz fight. Tony suffered the same fate. Trying to drop back to LHW and left the fight on the scale.
