This journalist seemed to hit the nail on the head, in my mind...
from Boston Globe:
For too many years, people who should have known better kept mentioning the four-time world champion as the heir to the throne Robinson held as the best boxer ever. This seemed ridiculous to some because Robinson fought and defeated everyone while Jones fought and defeated no one. Yet the more Jones beat up on second-tier fighters, the more his advocates tried to make him out as the next Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, or Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
Among his victims were a schoolteacher, a fireman, a policeman, and a sanitation worker. He even did something that hadn't been done in 100 years when, as a former middleweight champion, he moved up to heavyweight and won a form of that title when he beat John Ruiz.
It was a carefully picked opponent who allowed Jones to avoid the true champion, Lennox Lewis, and still get credit for the feat. As skilled as Jones was as a fighter, he was even more skilled as a mass marketer and con man. He could fight, no question, but his opponents were carefully picked.
Many observers, like his opponents, were blinded by his speed and reflexes, never noticing that technically he was not sound in many areas and would one day pay a severe price if he ever got in the ring with the kind of opponents Robinson regularly faced during his long career. Writers voted him fighter of the decade in the 1990s, taking the award away from Evander Holyfield and making themselves look foolish.
The point here is not to denigrate Jones after he was knocked cold for the second straight time Saturday night, but to point out that the greatest of fighters don't end up the way he did against Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson -- regardless of advancing years. Losing is not the issue. The issue is, how did anyone ever compare Jones to Ray Robinson, who was the most beautiful boxer and most dangerous fighter ever? What were Jones's greatest victories? Ruiz? A decision over an out-of-shape James Toney? A lackluster win against Bernard Hopkins 11 years ago on a night when both seemed unwilling to take a risk?
Why was there never a rematch with Hopkins, who has not lost since that decision and who pursued Jones for years? Why was there never a rematch with Toney, who chased Jones up in weight several times without being able to get a second shot?
Whereas Robinson fought Jake LaMotta five times, Jones never gave any challenger a second chance except for Montell Griffin, and that was only because Griffin beat him by disqualification in their first fight, and Tarver, who knocked him cold in their rematch after a controversial decision in the first fight. Continued...
http://www.boston.com/sports/other_s...nce_for_jones/