This is the next in my blog series ‘Mythical Matchups’. The bout is between Roy Jones and Bob Foster. My imaginary bouts all take place in Las Vegas at the Caesar’s Palace Outdoor Arena, with the great Mills Lane as the referee.
Roy Jones Jr. was born on January 16, 1969 in Pensacola, Florida. He had an outstanding amateur record of 121-13, including what should have been a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea. Crooked scoring robbed Roy of his medal, but he returned to the States a hero, and began his professional career.
He had his first first pro bout on May 6, 1989 by knocking out Ricky Randall in two rounds. After building up a record of 15-0, Jones gradually stepped up his competition, and won his first title on May 23, 1993 with an impressive victory over Bernard Hopkins to capture the IBF Middleweight Championship. 18 months later, me moved up the super-middleweight division, and defeated James Toney to take that title as well. He added the light-heavyweight belt to his trophy case, and reigned on top of that division until 2003.
At his best, Jones was a spectacular fighter, with blazing hand speed, incredible power, and lightning reflexes. For a 10 year period from 1993 until 2003, he was the best there was, before losing to Antonio Tarver in 2004. At his peak, he was a good a fighter as I ever saw.
Bob Foster was born on December 15, 1938 and was a tremendous light heavyweight champion for 6 years. He won the title from Dick Tiger with a 4th round knockout in 1968, and defended his championship until 1974. He retired with a record of 56-8-1, with 46 knockouts. He had a long reach and tremendous punching power in either hand, and at 6 feet, 3 inches tall, was difficult to reach.
A fight between the two great light heavyweight champions would have interesting to watch. Roy Jones often fought “scared’, as if he was afraid to get hit, and I think this bout would have been no different. Roy also didn’t pack the punch at 175 pounds that he did at 168, and could have struggled with Foster. As much as I think Roy’s speed would have been too much for Foster, I also could see Foster sneaking in a huge shot and taking Roy out.
Having to pick a winner, I pick Jones by a narrow decision, and in a rematch, see Foster knocking him out like Antonio Tarver did. It certainly would have been a great one for boxing fans, that is for certain.
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