Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr.

[master of read]

me and me dad had a talk about this one. so i'm curious what everyone else thinks.

standard boxing match. 15 rounds. no knockdown rule. prime versions of both.

[Beadle]

Jones is the better boxer by some distance, but he still loses here.

Prime Tyson used to wade through punches from guys who threw them a lot harder than Roy did, then returned it with interest in a relentless barrage. I don’t think Roy Jones Jr. can take that sort of punishment.

Weirdly, especially not Prime Roy, because I wouldn’t say Prime Roy was heavyweight Roy, so he would lack the body mass to absorb Tyson’s assault.

[The Arbiter]

Jones is the better boxer by some distance, but he still loses here.

Prime Tyson used to wade through punches from guys who threw them a lot harder than Roy did, then returned it with interest in a relentless barrage. I don’t think Roy Jones Jr. can take that sort of punishment.

Weirdly, especially not Prime Roy, because I wouldn’t say Prime Roy was heavyweight Roy, so he would lack the body mass to absorb Tyson’s assault.

Pretty much in agreement with all of this.

[frankiedetroit]

Yeah, I can't see any way Roy could beat Prime Mike, who was a voracious student of the game and very quick.

[big_adventure]

Pretty much the same story.

I'll differ on "better boxer" though: Roy is a flashier boxer with a bigger toolkit, but Prime Tyson (say, 20 year old Mike) was a relentless destruction machine. Tight defense, direct approach, then super quick, precise and potent jabs and crosses to set up the damaging strikes from inside the always-larger opponent's guard.

Prime Tyson would do what he did to everyone else: he'd walk directly to Jones and put him on his heals, defend against Jones' tests, then start pounding him. Jones was technically skilled enough to to try to wrap and clinch and frustrate, but in his prime, he was a 200lb guy soaking wet, and that's simply not going to be big enough to take the pounding, no matter what he does.

[grampagen]

Jones is the better boxer by some distance, but he still loses here.

Prime Tyson used to wade through punches from guys who threw them a lot harder than Roy did, then returned it with interest in a relentless barrage. I don’t think Roy Jones Jr. can take that sort of punishment.

Weirdly, especially not Prime Roy, because I wouldn’t say Prime Roy was heavyweight Roy, so he would lack the body mass to absorb Tyson’s assault.

Hmm...so for this rumble would Roy have to move up, or are we putting a super-middleweight in the ring with a heavyweight?

Roy may have had a deeper tank than Tyson for what that's worth, though if he's the gets clipped in the body - especially with the weight discrepancy - he's going to lose the legs to use it.

[MichaelC]

Roy simply isn't a natural heavyweight. It's a stretch to call him a natural light-heavy. Tyson would simply smash him. I don't see this lasting even one full round, as Tyson has zero reason to respect even Roy's best powershot.

[k von doom]

So whatever difference there is in size can't be mitigated by the difference in skill?

[The Arbiter]

So whatever difference there is in size can't be mitigated by the difference in skill?

It can.

Problem here is that the skill gap is not huge. It's minor.

I agree Roy has technical advantages, but Tyson is still an elite boxer.

Like Roy could beat on dudes much larger than Tyson if they had crap fighting skills

[wjowski]

Jones. Tyson's so vastly overrated it's not even funny.

[The Arbiter]

Jones. Tyson's so vastly overrated it's not even funny.

Aaaand there it is. Can't have a Tyson discussion without at least one comment like this :P

Look, I agree Jones has an edge in technique. But Tyson is a bigger tougher dude who was deceptively fast and not CRAP at boxing. Regardless of if you think he was overrated or not, I doubt anyone thinks he was a BAD boxer. He was quite talented.

[mburns]

Jones. Tyson's so vastly overrated it's not even funny.

Yes Tyson was overrated but its still a heavyweight against a guy who was a middle weight/light heavy weight. Tyson would walk right through him because Jones can't hot hard enough to even bother Tyson. He is also the same height as Tyson which was Tyson's biggest disadvantage when he fought other heavyweights. The majority of them were so much bigger and taller than him (6'3 or over to his 5'10-5'11).

[frankiedetroit]

Yes Tyson was overrated but its still a heavyweight against a guy who was a middle weight/light weight. Tyson would walk right through him because Jones can't hot hard enough to even bother Tyson. He is also the same height as Tyson which was Tyson's biggest disadvantage when he fought other heavyweights. The majority of them were so much bigger and taller than him (6'3 or over to his 5'10-5'11).

I think Tyson's biggest problem was that he stopped taking training seriously. Prior to Buster Douglas, he beat heavyweights good enough to hold the championship belt who were much bigger than him. Please note, I am NOT saying guys like Pinklon Thomas, Tony Tucker and Trevor Berbick were the second coming of Ali and Frazier. But they WERE big guys and good enough to hold a title in the post-Holmes, pre-Mike days.

I also think Tyson was a better boxer in his prime than Frazier and certainly Foreman in theirs. He was also so popular that he likely could've taken a decision from Rope-a-Dope Ali, who, obviously, was not prime Ali.

[Marvel-Studios Rep]

Prime Roy is too light. At the world champion level pesky thing like weight classes make a huge difference. Especially whenbit's between heavyweight and a lowee class. Itd be like expecting Prime Manny Pacquio to beat Sugar Ray...

[T51R]

Going with Tyson here.

Even with weights equalized, what D'amato put in Tyson was the nightmare of any boxer or boxer-puncher and has never been seen since.

Mike didn't just walk through shots. Look at this fights, and slow down the video when he gets into his opponent's range but can't let his own hands go yet. Usually this is a very tricky spot(check out Garcia VS Easter, where Mikey needs to work) but Tyson gets in there cleaner than Garcia does. There's very few punches that land when he'sin that range thanks to his awkward head and torso movement(if at the time he cbf to use his feet...if he can, D'amato shift, BANG.)

On the face of it Roy needs more room to work, and he won't get that with Mike who destroys range and lateral movement(sometimes both at the same time...) as well as he destroys his opponent's bodies.

Roy can't keep running forever, IMHO this is the biggest factor working against him.