I remember watching this in 1994. My grandfather and I would eat Oreo cookies and he would drink coffee when when we watched boxing. Grandpa was a huge Toney fan but he refused to bet any Oreos on him for this fight. When Toney got knocked down I remember grandpa shaking his head like he knew it was going to happen. He looked at me between rounds and said “you just can’t play games with a fighter like that”.
@BattleMuffin They are betting on the filling half after the oreo is split. Loser gets stuck with the chocolate cookie with no filling half. Full oreo buy in is to rich for most, but maybe grandpa got it like that
Roy Jones gets this stigma that he was only a freakish athlete that lacked fundamentals. Not true. You don't get robbed of the gold medal is Soul 1988 without knowing the fundamentals. He knew them very well, but knew how and when to break them to fit his style. His genius in the ring won't be appreciated by most people because they don't understand boxing and how the elite boxers all have a foundation of the fundamentals first.
Speaking of the four kings: would you mind doing the hagler vs duran fight to conclude the four kings saga before retiring? Just out of curiosity. I really enjoy your videos and your insight/breakdowns and will really miss them🙏
@@TheModernMartialArtist please;_; such technical war there, if anyone had doubts duran was a goat boxer, he probably removed any of those doubts in that fight
Please David don't Retire. I have a Playlist filled with nothing but your excellent Breakdowns. You're the Best in Business by a Country Mile. This Channel is pure GOLD. I understand you have other things in your life and this might not be your #1 Priority, but please give us a Video once or twice a year. If not it's been a pleasure enjoying your channel and best of luck in all your future endeavors.
Fuck that, he was beatable. He wasted too much time at night heavy knocking off old men & safe opponents. Matching him up with other All time great light heavy's doesn't help his case either. Bob Foster would beat the breaks off him.
@@eol6632 It's not his fault the competition was weak, only person he ''ducked'' was Dariusz and it was because he was scared of losing money and getting robbed if the fight went to distance That being said u just saw how Roy dismantled an arguably top 20 boxer of all time with ease
@@eol6632 Btw no Foster wouldn't, he 100% has the power to knock him out but Roy is simply too fast and intelligent for him He also had a bad habit of letting his hands go too much, similar to Roy when he fought Ron Amundsen, he will exploit that weakness and eat him up with counters (not sure if he could knock him out since that mf was tough tough as hell, but inside the ring everything is possible.)
Not true. Dude didn't have a chin, only that had yet to be exposed. Hearns, McCellan, Benn, Jackson all would have had a very good puncher's chance against him at 168.
Not a fan but Mayweather was far more complete. You take away a man's physical talent then you get to see the real man. Floyd remained undefeated. What happened to Jones?
@@johnaustin209Peak Roy was more then 10 years basically untouchable. He would had become a undisputed champion but Michalczevski was smart enough not to fight against Roy...end of Story.
James Toney and Bernard Hopkins both have a case for being better than Jones given their longevity, resume and superior chin, but Roy convincingly beat them when they were in their physical prime. People discrediting the win because Toney had a weight cut in the division he was currently residing over as champ also do not tend to give the same courtesy to Jones after he literally moved back down from heavyweight. No, he is being "exposed" as unskilled.
Bernard, As Great As He Was, Isn't Better Than "JT" Or "RJ" 🤷🏿♂️! Roy Should Have Fought Tarver A Year After Beating Ruiz. He Beats Tarver Easily In The Center Of The Ring. When You Drop 20 Plus Pounds In A Matter Of Weeks, Everything Down Regulates Hormonally. Testosterone, Thyroid Function Etc. Cortisol Levels (Stress Hormone) Shoot Way Up! In Other Words, You're Lethargic, Weak And Your Reflexes Are Dull. I Forgot To Mention You Have No Stamina. James Went Through The Aforementioned In This Fight With Roy. Roy Suffered The 1st Loss To Tarver And Actually Messed His Career Up Due To Extreme Short Term Weight Loss 👊🏿.
JT & Hopkins were better fighters. Also JT was not in his prime when he fought RJ. He was already in the downside. Both of those men were able to beat bigger men on toughness & skill. At higher weight classes, well past their prime. When RJ lost his speed he literally had to relearn how to fight to adjust. After that he was just hanging around being an opportunist. He took a fight were he could bully a ex smaller great like Tito. An became an opponent for guys like Joe over in Wales or that Too little to late rematch with Hopkins. RJ wasted his prime. So yeah Hopkins & Tony, better career.
I was in the 4th grade this fight..... That Roy Jones Era had me 🤣. I also loved Toney. Prince Hamed, Oscar, Sweet Pea were also some of my favorites. Good times 😢
I watch every single one of your fight breakdowns despite not having a massive interest in the science of boxing, you are so compelling as a storyteller as well as teaching people the art of boxing.
You should do Jirov vs Toney too, since you did Holyfield vs Qawi. It's maybe Toneys best performance and maybe the best cruiserweight fightaside from Holyfield/Qawi.
Toney didn’t have an offensive inside pressure game. He caught up to Roy multiple times and would just clinch him. Which is insane. Tarver in particular exploited this weakness as did others. Toney just wants to react and counter too much. Not gonna work.
Roy was superhumanly talented, and had solid basics. He just broke them all the time because for so long he was SO fast, and hit so hard that even when he screwed up and missed because he was being fast and loose on the techniques, guys just couldnt make him pay for it. Even Toney, the master of aggressive countering made Roy miss more than a few times, but as he came back to make him pay for it, Roy would often already be gone.
Tony never had a Philly shell, he shoulder rolled… He took a lot of punches to the head because of it. Tony didn’t have the patience for the Philly shell, but even the Philly wouldn’t have worked with Jones’s foot work, boxing IQ and speed.
Great vid! Watched Roy’s entire career starting with the Olympic travesty. This was really his best win. I wish he would’ve stayed at 168. At that weight, he was in the conversation of best of all time.
I think Roy was such an athletically gifted boxer and coupled with a very high fighting IQ made him almost unbeatable in his prime. You literally can train for such an unorthodox style with the speed, power and reflexes Jones had. Styles make fights and I always wondered what a Nunn vs Jones fight before Michael lost to Toney would have looked like. Nunn had a way of beating hard fighter and having harder times with the “easer” ones.
I was sad because Tony showed up in less than stellar condition and motivation. This could have been an even better fight. Two greats and Tony was one of the best but he wasn't one of the most motivated
Prime RJJ was something else! Certainly in the top 5 of all time. P4p implies the lighter men couldn't hang with heavier ones, but I think this rjj would have a shot against anyone!
How much do you reckon that weight cut affected Toney? Watching the fight, i can imagine it must've been grueling, but the poor choices in strategy seem to have mattered more, the weight cut seemed to have sapped his endurance but that came out later in the fight.
Excellent video 😎👍 Would've been nice to see a rematch between these two at light heavyweight. Also would've been nice to see how RJJ would've did against the likes of Benn, Eubanks, Collins, Frankie Liles, and Michael Nunn
You tell fight stories like it's a motion picture. Movie I'll tell you you make me want to become a fighter so that I can have fights narrated to me. Marinated for history delight
I have been asking for a couple of years now, on facebook, insta, youtube, mail, everywhere....an in depth breakdown of Bivol's style...or a video on How u see Bivol vs Beterbiev....that would be my cherry on top of your playlist.
I Love both these guys, two of the greatest ever,.. but that 3rd round wasn't a knockdown, if you watch, it didn't even phase Toney, Roy's bodyweight crashing into him knocked him off balance. I'm not trying to take anything away from Roy, but the ref shoulda caught that. Plus, I think this may have been the one fight in Toney's entire career where having to endure a ridiculous weight cut actually did hurt him.
It was unbelievable what roy did to james toney . Recently re watched the fight and the knockdown they scored on toney wasn't really a knockdown Toney arms catches himself on the bottom ropes lol
@@youngdwhiz6284 funny how Roy said James was his most talented opponent but was happy to give rematches to lesser talent...maybe that glass jaw would have went lights out the second time around.
How do you out-box such a speed demon like Roy Jones Jr with pure technique? Is it possible or you have to rely on relentless pressure and have a Thanos chin?
Normally you tank some shots to land harder ones or control the rhythm so they can't get set. Most can't combo if they can't plant down in place. But Jones hit super hard so you couldn't tank his shots and he could punch as he moved so getting him out of position didn't work. It's the same problem people had with Manny but Jones was comparatively (for his weight classes) even faster.
@@baseupp12 I think Hagler could pull it off because he had the chin, had no weaknesses, and could adapt but even then, Jones was so fast and quick I would still favor Roy. Roy wouldn't knock Hagler out but several guys gave Hagler a hard time and none of them were as talented as Roy.
I'm sorry but, I still think that knockdown was a slip. I remember at the time thinking that it was just another "ref Richard Steele episode" and even seeing it in slo-mo here, I still see it as a slip - even more apparent is Jones' literally tackling Toney to start his backpedaling to the corner. Neither boxer were faves of mine anyways and, honestly, I don't remember why I was even watching the fight that night. Toney was never impressive to me, the Middleweight Div had no Haglers or Robinsons or Monzons at the time, so it was a bit lackluster to me. Jones, no matter what he accomplished, to me at least, he was just another in a long line of clowns in the ring. He always seemed like the guy in a bar that would sucker punch you the second you blinked.
That’s how you beat the Philly Shell, Canelo. Turning it into weakness. This is why people thought Pacquiao would give Floyd trouble but Floyd slowed him down tho. I wonder how Roy would’ve done against Floyd if they met at the same weight class would have been interesting especially against Pretty Boy
Roy Jones Jr. is my favorite boxer of all time. And IMHO he was definitely one of the best boxers in history. Had he retired after defeating Ruiz, Roy would be on everyones tongue for GOAT>
Love when you cover Roy, and have been waiting for your insight into this fight, which I think is low key one of the best IQ fights I’ve seen. I love what Max Kellerman said about Roy, which was that Roy’s prime and Floyd’s prime overlapped a bit but Roy was SO much better than everyone when he was in his prime that nobody was asking “do you think Floyd is as good as Roy?” because it would’ve been a ridiculous question. I wish Roy had retired after the first Tarver fight, even he has said that his body was never the same after bulking up to heavyweight and then coming back down. If he’d retired after beating Tarver, he’d have been 49-1 with that 1 being the DQ loss. I think he’d be more people’s GOAT if he’d done that. But he’s mine. At his best, I’ve never seen a more unbeatable fighter. Not Ali, not Sugar Ray, not Hagler, nobody. Roy had it all.
I got the chance to meet and speak to both back in 2017 @Ft Bragg as well as take pictures with them. Great warriors 💯 I’ve met Holyfield as well and don’t know how James Toney beat him physically but styles makes fights 🤷🏾♂️
When Roy Jones steps inside of James Toney's counterpunching range, he knows how to jam Toney's mid-punch movements. Plus, Roy's too close for Toney to throw body shots, and Roy has his hands up to guard. All Toney could do was uppercut, but Roy bounched back out of range too quickly. I'm sure Roy Jones practiced this stuff, but it just seems like his instincts were so on point. More so than others.
Hey David, great breakdown as always. I'm bummed to hear that you will be retiring from this channel but I respect your decision very much too. Is it possible for us viewers to learn more about your life in fighting or otherwise? Thank you so much for the great years man
Jones in his prime was so fast and unorthodox with his punches and movement that even masters of the sport like Toney couldn't keep up with him. He was truly a once in a lifetime talent!
RJJ is one of my most favorite boxers ever, however if someone were to ask me who is my favorite fighter? I always reply "i dont want to give something thats so easy to point out, so i'd say, James Toney"
Prime Jones Jr was amazing. I’m not saying prime Jones Jr was the best ever, but he was incredibly dominant and made a lot of great fighters look ordinary.
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I think, and I don't say it lightly, that for a 2-3 year stretch of time in his prime - that RJJ was the greatest fighter I've ever seen in the 40+ years I've been a boxing fan.
9:37 look at the expression on his face. That’s saying “ I know I’m going to lose if you keep doing that but I can’t stop you from doing that so please stop doing that!
If Toney was fit and took the fight seriously it would have been a more competitive fight, but Jones would still win. Something like a 116-112 or a 115-113.
