Joe Rogan on Roy Jones Jr. & Bernard Hopkins

I've never seen anything like him. Maybe a prime Roy. Yeah. You know, maybe. But Roy was different too because- Roy was technically awful. He just had such reflexes. When they went, that's when he got melted. Because he never- He didn't jab. No, he didn't do anything right bro. Through a left hook. A lead left hook. A lead left hook. Right from weird angles. And it worked because his reflexes were superhuman. He was Superman. And then as soon as they deteriorated a little bit, and in fighting, you can deteriorate a little bit in baseball. You can deteriorate- Well, I think what got Roy, what really got Roy, in my opinion, I'm a giant Roy Jones Jr. fan. He's maybe one of my all time favorite fighters. What really got Roy's woman went up to fight John Ruiz. And then he went back down to fight Tarver. He was depleted. Depleted. And I think when he went up to fight Ruiz, he might've had some Mexican supplements in the system. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Yeah, I mean he was like 200 plus pounds. 208 or something. Jack looked good. I think he should've retired after that win. Well, he definitely should've consulted with an endocrinologist and tried to figure out how his system was. And then the weight cut down to 175 must've been brutal. Because he was smooth. He looked like shit. He lost all his muscle tone. He just didn't, he looked like a guy- And he was shredded in the 90s. Exactly. He looked like a guy whose system had been shut down. The thing that these guys maybe don't recognize if they take some shit, or if they, even if you just cut too much weight, your body stops producing hormones. Sure. Your body's all fucked up. Yeah. You're on your way to dying. Your body's telling you what the fuck are you doing to me. So if he was 200 plus pounds when he fought Ruiz, then he has to cut down to 175. Yeah, almost, yeah, 30. Yeah, and who knows how sophisticated his methods were. I mean, some fighters today are amazing at doing that. I mean, they know how to do it correctly. They know how to rehydrate correctly. And boxing at least has the benefit of not having USADA in place like the UFC does. The UFC has a real problem with the lack of IVs, and these guys can't rehydrate correctly, or the way that they want to. It's dangerous. It is dangerous, but in their defense, it's also a way that they can detect whether or not someone's cheating. Okay. Because when they're using IVs, you can mask a lot of shit. Right, yeah, I didn't think about that. Yeah, that's why they do it. Yeah, they just won't let you do it. So when, I don't know what happened with Roy, when he did it, but then you can't take anything away from Tarver either, because Tarver almost beat Roy the first time they fought, but then fucked him up for the second fight. Oh, he fucking flew his head. Yeah. And in the famous words, any excuses tonight, Roy? Right before they fight, he said that's him. I never saw anything like that. He was so confident. Yeah, yeah. I don't think he gets his due either. No, he doesn't, he doesn't. He had some great wins. He had some great wins. He still had it too, right? Yeah, at heavyweight. He was like 45 or something like that? At 46, 47. And he still had- But he got popped. For steroids. Yeah. Yeah. So- Well, duh. If you're 45 and you're still looking good, there's something going on. The only person I truly believe in, I realize you'll think I'm biased because of where I'm from, but I don't think Bernard ever did anything. I don't think you did anything either. Bernard just lives clean. I've seen him order grilled chicken and get chicken that was fried by accident and peel the fry off of it rather than just go, oh, just once I'll do it. Right. Watched him take it off. Yeah. To just, you know what I mean? To not eat just insane dietary in the gym. I agree. But the Joe Smith fight was sad to watch. Of course. That was- The Kovalev fight was sad to watch. I was there, man. I was ringside, man. I love Kovalev. Yeah. But it's a Philly legend. Like, ah, man, this is rough. It's crazy to see how deep into his career he was still successful. I wrote a blog article about the Kelly Pavlik fight because I'm like, I don't remember how old he was at the time, but everybody had already written him off. Oh, my brother and I were there like, Pavlik's gonna beat the dog shit out of Bernard. And he gave him a fucking lesson. He put on a clinic. Well, people have to realize he was technically past his prime when he fucked up Tito Trengev. He was 36. Yes, 36. It was 36 in 2001. That was two weeks after 9-11, that fight. And he was 36 then. How crazy is that? Yeah. What was he when he fought Joe Smith? 50? 50. Maybe 51, definitely 50. Crazy. So he was, he, I'd say he lasted 15 years longer than the average guy, you know? Well, how about when he came back and boxed Roy Jr.? Yeah. Well, when Roy beat him the first time, was beating him with all those reflexes, and then when the reflexes slid off, he clearly outboxed Roy in a second. With just fundamentals, perfect mechanics. Because Roy didn't have them. He didn't have them. Yeah, he was relying on what was once there. But it wasn't, he was a shell of his former self. Well, it was also the Glenn Johnson fight. It was a scary knockout. He was on Queer Street. Well, he was just flatlined in astral traveling. After he got knocked out by Tarver, then there was not that much time in between those two fights. No, no, it was the next fight. Yeah. And those knockouts where you're out on your feet before you hit the ground, then your head hits the canvas, which is two shots, man. And he was stiffened up. It was sad to watch. It was, it was. I thought that was gonna be the end. Me too. And then he started fighting like in Russia, sanctioned over there. He's a Russian citizen. Yes, man. Bizarro world. Russian pussy involved. Has to be. He's gotta have some toto over there, man, to do that. When you were talking about Larry Holmes, his last fight was in 2002 against Butterbean. He was 51 or so. And he put it on Butterbean. 10-round fight. That's crazy. Butterbean can crack. That big motherfucker hit hard. Hard. But Larry just, that snake, that snake in the jab. You're not getting through that. Yeah, pop. Every time he tries to come in, bong, bong. Remember that when dude who wear those golden palace dot com things in the back. Yes, Bernard was the first person, he did a Nintendo fight, man. Was that the first? Yeah. That was so weird. Someone did it in the UFC too. They wore that shit on their back. It's odd. Yeah. Just put it on your trunks and you're gonna do it, I guess. Wow, you don't get as much money. But it is. I know Bernard got 50K to put it on his back and he bet it on himself against Tito. Really? Yeah. And you know he was a huge underdog. Everyone thought Tito was gonna whoop his ass. Everyone. Everyone. I was jumping off my brother's couch when that happened. Yeah, he fucked him up. Yeah, man. Yeah, Bernard was a special athlete. He really was. Absolutely special fight, all time great. For sure. Yeah. Definitely, yeah. And it was interesting because I used to watch him when he was in his 30s and he would complain about crooked promoters and all these things. And my thought was, man, it's too bad this guy missed his prime. Right. And then he did what he did. And then he did what he did after that. After that, yeah. Because he was in jail for strong armed robbery and got out and kind of like wallowed in obscurity. And then his shot was that Roy fight. Yeah. And so we were like, ah, you got your shot. I guess that's it. Right. They just got better. Better with age, show, man. It's like the rarest thing in anything.