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Ya'll Must've Forgot: Five times Roy Jones Jr. proved his greatness

Roy Jones

Jones is a former four-division world champion having won world titles at middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight and is regarded as the greatest of his generation.

It's easy for boxing fans of today to forget greatness, especially if the second column doesn't have a zero - you can thank Floyd Mayweather for that.
Prior to the final fight of his professional career in 2018 at the age of 48, Roy Jones Jr. dismissed the comparisons of himself and Mayweather - boxing's first to make a billion dollars in earnings - claiming he was the best fighter of his era.

"When me and Mike Tyson were around we played king of the hill. Whoever comes to the hill, you get your behind whooped. We don't pick and choose.

"Mayweather was TBE - The Best Ever - at making money, but look at his highlights and look at mine. You can't pretend it's the same.
People say 'oh he was the most talented boxer ever'. Bull crap."

Jones and Tyson fought last November in an eight-round exhibition which generated 1.6 million pay-per-view sales on Triller. With no judges scoring the fight, it ended as a draw.

Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr fought in an eight-round exhibition in November, 2020, which ended in a draw

When you look at the career of Jones, he possessed a 49-1 record in the first 14 years of his career.

That one defeat was to Montell Griffin via disqualification - a defeat he would avenge in his next bout with a devastating knockout in the opening round.
It doesn't take a genius to work out that he hung the gloves up way too late at the ripe age of 48 but at the same time, it shouldn't tarnish his legacy for fighting on too long because he gave us plenty of memories up until 2003.

Jones was as good as they come and in his prime could've given anyone from any era a run for their money. Speed kills, that's the name of the game and Roy had it all.
Until the 2000s, no one could win a round against him let alone win so to witness "Captain Hook" leave the sport with nine defeats (should only be eight), it hurts.
Especially when he knew himself that he should've called time winning a version of the heavyweight title.
But anyways, we're not here to feel sorry for ourselves and mourn about losses that should never have happened.

Instead, Planet Sport wants to celebrate the most exciting fighter of the 90s and one of the best of all time.

Maiden world title triumph

Fighting on the undercard of the heavyweight title fight between Riddick Bowe and Jesse Ferguson in 1993, Jones collided with fellow boxing legend Bernard Hopkins.
The pair went toe-to-toe for the vacant IBF middleweight title and Jones controlled the fight from the opening bell to record a unanimous decision victory.
All three scorecards read 116-112 in favour of Jones.
The pair eventually had a rematch in 2010, only for Hopkins to avenge his defeat.

Punch perfect performance over Toney

Challenging James Toney for the IBF super middleweight title, Jones was ranked as the outsider going into the contest and an underdog with bookmakers.

Going into the battle at 168-pounds - which generated 400,000 PPV buys at less than $30 with Oscar De La Hoya on the undercard - Toney dismissed his opponent's chances of winning and declared his interest in wiping out the heavyweight division which had Michael Moorer as champion at the time.

"Lights Out" wanted an early finish but within a couple of minutes of the first bell Jones was in control and that's how it mapped out during the 12 rounds, which included a knockdown and plenty of showboating along the way.
Despite beating Bernard Hopkins at middleweight, it was the birth of Jones, who had defeated a previously undefeated 46-0 and Pound for Pound No.1 rated Toney.

Winning heavyweight honours

After winning world titles at middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight, the dominant star opted to jump up two divisions to face WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz.
Guaranteed a $10million purse, Jones made no effort whatsoever to promote the fight which garnered criticism from Ruiz who said: "I guess he has made his money and couldn't care less about my end of it."
The first Latino heavyweight champion was probably right. On the night, more than 15,000 fans had attended to witness history in the making and Jones did not let them down.
The American - who was 43 pounds lighter on the night - outpointed the giant (116-112, 117-111, 118-110) to become the first man to win world titles at middleweight and heavyweight since Bob Fitzsimmons in 1897.

Overcoming Olympic robbery

In 1988, Jones was robbed of a gold medal in Seoul. Having won every contest going into the final without losing a round, RJ dominated home favourite Park Si-hun, with a standing eight-count in the second round and 86 punches landed to the South Korean's 32.
Despite dominating, all three judges controversially scored it 3-2 to Si-Hun on the scorecards.
It was one of the worst decisions to have graced the Olympics, and there's been a lot of them.
Even his opponent apologised about the bad decision. The aftermath saw all three judges suspended but no other punishment was served.
The reason it has been included is because he used it as motivation to succeed on the professional circuit.
His achievements in the sport include being named Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year in 1994, a three-time winner of the ESPY Fighter of the Year (1996, 2000 and 2003) and the Boxing Writers Association of America's Fighter of the Decade for the 1990s.

His music career

Whether it was holding the record for most unified light heavyweight title defences - 12 - or being the first fighter to start of his career at junior middleweight and win a heavyweight title, we had plenty of things to talk about in terms of accomplishments inside the ring.
To mix it up, we decided to look at his career as a rapper. Planet Sport loves his zero f**** mentality of coming to the ring with a microphone attached to his face and rapping to his own music.

Roy Jones Jr has released two albums, including Round One: The Album

2001 was the year he released his debut album titled Round One: The Album, with the lead track being "Y'All Must've Forgot" - quite a fitting title some would say.
Three years later he formed a group called Body Head Bangerz, collaborating with Magic. His most successful single was "That Was Then" which reached No.2 in the Hot Rap Singles chart in America.

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