Roy Jones Jr is a four-weight champion, who once knocked a man out with hands behind his back, fought Mike Tyson, was faster than Floyd Mayweather and now trying to make Chris Eubank Jr a champion

There is a point in the boxing career of Roy Jones Jr where, if he had retired at the perfect time, he may have gone down as the greatest pound-for-pound fighter of all time – above even Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson and his contemporary, Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Jones, the trainer of Chris Eubank Jr, who danced past Liam Williams in Cardiff on Saturday, is still acclaimed as the best boxer of the 1990s and the most naturally gifted athlete to enter a boxing ring. Unconventional, rarely bothering with a jab or a traditional defence, Jones relied on his lightning reflexes, speed, balance and astonishing hand-eye coordination.

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He was a boxer who, like Mayweather, could make an opponent miss with feints and head movement alone. But he was also a master of offensive innovation, leading with rapid-fire treble hooksi and showboating to the point that he once stopped an opponent (poor Glen Kelly) with a one-punch KO that began with Jones having both hands behind his back.

The knock on Jones in his early career was that he was cautious with his matchmaking, a result perhaps of the daylight robbery he received in his 1988 Olympic final in Seoul against home fighter Park Si-hun (widely viewed as the worst decision in boxing history). Burned by that, Jones was unwilling to leave the USA to seek out challenges – but few could complain when he shockingly leapt up to heavyweight in 2003 to fight for a world championship.

The boxer nicknamed ‘Superman’ had won world titles at middleweight, super-middleweight and light-heavyweight – but looked relatively small even at 175lb. In a move basically equivalent to Canelo Alvarez jumping up to heavyweight today and, without any tune-up, fighting for a major world title belt. Admittedly, ‘The Quiet Man’ John Ruiz – a tough, awkward but limited spoiler – will not go down as an all-time great heavyweight champion (Jones was not about to fight, say, Lennox Lewis). But the sheer size difference made it hugely intriguing.

After a boxing masterclass, Jones won a unanimous decision over Ruiz in Las Vegas to become the first former middleweight world champion to claim a heavyweight title in 106 years. At the time Jones’s record was an astonishing 48-1 (38 KOs) and his only defeat had been a DQ loss to Montell Griffin for hitting an opponent while he was down (Griffin was blitzed in one round in an immediate rematch). Griffin, incidentally, sparred Mayweather and claimed there was no comparison between the pair’s speed. “I’ve never been in the ring with anyone in my life as fast as Roy Jones,” Griffin told Ring magazine after he retired. “I sparred Floyd Mayweather and he’s 25 pounds lighter than Roy and nobody could compare.”

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Boxing Special – Eubank Jr to win 6/1 or Williams 20/1

Jones had won gold from 160lb to heavyweight, handily beaten fellow greats Bernard Hopkins and James Toney, and wowed with his audacious skills. If he had retired at this point, many boxing pundits and fight fans would still be acclaiming his GOAT status to this day.

Instead, Jones disastrously decided to drop back down to light-heavyweight and whether it was yo-yoing in weight or the years catching up with him, he never looked the same again. The 34-year-old escaped with a close decision win over Antonio Tarver in his very next fight, then was shockingly knocked out in the rematch. His later career went on far too long and featured horrible KO defeats to fighters (such as Danny Green, Denis Lebedev and Enzo Maccarinelli) who would not have laid a glove on Jones in his prime.

Jones’ unique style and athletic gifts meant he arguably never truly mastered all the basics of boxing, so could not fall back on the rock-solid technique and smarts Mayweather utilised as he aged. Nor did Jones have the concrete chin and endurance that Ali displayed when his own amazing reflexes slowed. By the time Jones belatedly retired in 2018 – ignoring his fun, semi-redemptive exhibition against Mike Tyson in 2020 – a boxer who had once looked unbeatable had suffered nine pro losses.

The dazzling brilliance of his prime, however, make it understandable why Eubank Jr – whose dad was a contemporary of Jones Jr – is enamoured by his trainer. Even a boxer with the sizable ego of the ‘Next Gen’ must be awed by an all-time great tutoring him. If winning the respect of the headstrong 32-year-old is half the battle, then Jones is ahead of the game as a trainer. But there are understandable doubts.

Clearly, great fighters don’t necessarily make great trainers. And there are questions over whether Jones Jr, who relied on his one-in-a-lifetime athleticism, can even teach the things he was able to do. In his first two fights with Jones in the corner, Eubank Jr has looked a bit stuck between two styles; trying to imitate Jones’ hit-and-not-get-hit genius and pressing his own physical advantages of strength and stamina. At least Eubank Jr, who has cut his own path in the boxing game, respects and listens to Jones.

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He ended up staying on Jones’s farm in Pensacola, Florida, during the pandemic: cooped up (if not literally) with the hens, roosters and peacocks. He had nothing to do but train and was effusive when he spoke to this writer last year, claiming: “Roy Jones is the best coach I’ve had in my career, I wish I had met him years ago… I’ve learned so much. So, purely in that sense, the pandemic has been positive for my career. Because if it wasn’t for 2020 I wouldn’t have come into contact with Roy.”

One thing that links both men is having fathers who’ve left a strong impression. Jones was trained by his father early in his career (and at various points later) but it was a troubled dynamic: Roy Sr was a brutally strict disciplinarian who would reportedly rap his son on the thighs with a piece of pipe if he made an error during a workout. The training bordered on abuse. “I was in pain all day, every day, I was so scared of my father,” Jones told Sports Illustrated.

By contrast, the eccentric Chris Eubank Sr must seem like a cakewalk. But Eubank Jr and Roy Jones both know what it’s like to grow up in the shadow of their father. Whether Jones – who apparently does not oversee all of Eubank’s training camp in the UK in person, but flew in earlier this year for the end of it – can be a better in-corner influence than Eubank Sr remains to be seen. But if RJJ can pass on even some of the magic that made him such a breathtaking in-ring sorcerer for over a decade at the pinnacle of the sport, Eubank Jr has indeed found the perfect coach just as he suggests.

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Chris Eubank Jr vs Liam Williams is live and exclusive on talkSPORT at 10pm on Saturday 5 February

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