Roy Jones jr has the fastest hands in boxing, being capable of lighting fast combinations. Seeing as the arms and legs are interconnected for sprinting, does anyone here think that Roy Jones would be capable of a sub 10.5 second, 100 metre sprint?
I remember reading in Thomas Hauser’s biography of Muhammad Ali, that everyone thought that Ali would be a good sprinter because of the hand and foot speed he showed in the ring. He had a race against other sportsmen, and did really bad. With Ali though you never knew if he was just clowning though.
Roy Jones does lift weights though in addition to his training. I have heard he is capable of 180kg for reps in the bench press and equivalent performances in the squat etc. I think he should be capable of sprinting quite fast, as his fibre type is evident for all to see.
don’t think you’ll get much of a response so i’ll kick in my 2 cents. If Roy’s father had been a former sprinter, instead of a former boxer (he fought Marvin Hagler, early in Hagler’s career) then Roy would have dominated sprinting over the last 15 years and names like Michael Johnson and Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis would be remembered as great silver medalists.
Roy’s father began training Roy before he was in kindergarden, to the point of child abuse, and kept it up until Roy became a man and said enough is enough. But by that time, the foundation had been built. Roy is the most under appreciated athlete of the last 100 years. Have you EVER seen him in a fight where there was ANY doubt who was going to win. He makes guys who have trained all their lives look silly. Most people have no appreciation for the work that goes into that sport. In the 100 M sprint, on an off day, you don’t medal. Or if your training, you simply slow up, or if your lifting weights you do less reps. In boxing, on an off day…you get your ass kicked…literally.
Yeah, Roy could have kicked ass in the sprints if he’d given to that sport what he has given to boxing.
im a huge RJ jr. fan, and i completely agree about him being so underappriciated as an athlete and competitor.
i was fortunate to meet him once, he was playing basketball for a semi-pro team in my hometown (about 1.5 years ago). Two things struck me immediately 1. he is really short (he’s listed at 5’10-im here to tell you no way in hell) 2. on the court he is lightning quick! you guys talk about his runnning speed, but he is the most agile person ive ever seen!
also, he was super cool. a really nice guy…
Quick hands does not equate to general fiber type. Fiber type varies from muscle to muscle within an individual. At a seminar given by a now ‘famous guru’ in strength training, he claimed that the East Germans looked for young athletes with fast twitch characteristics in the upper body and slow twitch characteristics in the legs and turned them into boxers. Quick hands and the endurance to last. Fact or fiction? I don’t know, but it has been shown that muscle fiber type is NOT a one shot deal through the whole body.
Punching speed is as much the result of training as it is fibre type.
Bruce Lee had faster hands than Roy Jones though I doubt he could outsprint Roy Jones.
As it goes, Carl Lewis was running and jumping into a sandpit when he was 4 years old, plus Carl’s parents were track and field coaches. So
Carl is track’s equivalent to Roy Jones.
One day I read that Roy Jones doesn’t lift weights, then I read here that he does. He certainly looks like he does.
TD you are absolutely right, people do not appreciate the work that goes into the sport of boxing. It is thee toughest sport by a mile. I have boxed myself on an amateur level and it is really hard to juggle all the training elements such as speed, power, strength, endurance, technique, etc. Many of these elements are somewhat contradictory, so progress can be slow and hard. Not only that but much of this has to be carried out when one is bruised and battered from sparring. Roy Jones is the ultimate athlete, as he makes tough, world class athletes look like pure novices. This is very hard to do.
I am aware of Roy’s life story, but i didn’t know his dad fought Marvin Hagler. I checked this on boxrec.com and came up with Roy’s father’s record. 4wins (0 kos) and 10 losses.
Dave, i’m not sure Roy has got spindly legs you know. Most black guys have skinny ankles and calves but this helps them run faster and jump higher (“nature does not act without aim and purpose”). Boxing trunks tend to go down to the knee, so you can never see the muscles of the thigh. My friends used to think Tyson had skinny legs for this same reason, until i showed them some footage of him skipping in swimming trunks and they were literally shocked at the sight of his 27" thighs. I have never seen Roy’s thighs, but seeing as he is well under 6 foot and can slam dunk a basketball, they must be pretty powerful. Also punching power comes from the legs, and Roy has shown that he is a terrific puncher when he sets his feet. However, he may have skinny thighs, i don’t know.
Goose2, there is no way that Bruce Lee had faster hands than Roy Jones. That has to be a joke. Don’t get me wrong, i am a fan of Bruce Lee also and have seen a lot of training footage of him, but don’t get screen idols who have competed in some minor karate tournaments (Ed Parker’s etc) confused with the genuine article in fighting sports. When you watch Roy fight he is in a live situation, not a controlled one. If Roy demonstrated his speed out of the ring and just for the camera as Bruce did, you would literally be amazed at how fast Roy is. And remember, Roy’s punches in the ring are proper boxing punches that use the legs, if he was just to solely snap his arm out like Bruce did, you would be even more amazed. Bruce Lee in a boxing ring would not look anything in terms of speed compared to RJ, or many other elite boxers for that matter. I saw a ‘contenders’ documentary on ITV(UK) a few years ago in which Roy Jones was shown in the gym on a floor-to-ceiling ball, and he threw a six punch combination of hooks and uppercuts inside of 1 second. Now that is speed!
in proportion to his upper body rj’s thighs are skinny, but watching him in action(in person) he is still unbelievably explosive,hands and feet.
you should watch this guy run around!
I will bet that Roy trains like a sprinter. I have always thought that about him. The guy is amazing. Always fresh when he fights, never overtrained. His core/midsection is impressive!
Adding to the “different fibers in different body parts” concept mentioned above, I cite Brett Hull. He’s got about the fastest hands in hockey, with amazing power on his shots and a super-quick release. Skating, though, is a different story entirely. He’s pretty slow, and not real quick with his feet either.
Hold on, this just occurred to me: there are plenty of baseball players who run slow, but(by definition) there are none with slow hands.
Roy Jones Senior fought Marvin Hagler on June 10th, 1977 and was out by the third round. Marvin was a badass. He had piegon legs too i guess, came from doin 5 miles a morning on the Maine beach in army boots before the days real training started (the beach don’t hit back).
Roy’s father use to take a 6 foot length of PVC piping and swing it at Roy, and we’re not talkin about play swinging either. It explains why Roy can stand there in the ring, hands at his waist, while world class fighters swing away and don’t usually hit a thing. I don’t think Carl Lewis’s parents were quite as “demanding”
But Dave is right, if Roy had gone into sprinting and just blew everyone out by 15-20 meters for years and years…he would be banned.
I’m not sure but i think Dave might be reffering to the fact that Jones tested positive for steroids in his fight with Rich Hall in 2000. If he was an athlete he would have been banned. Boxing just turned a blind eye. Jones claims it was supplement related.
