Andre Ward vs Roy Jones Junior at SMW - who wins

Two of the most gifted fighters of the last 20 years and two fighters who in their pomp never looked like losing (in Ward's case still doesn't look like losing). It would be an intriguing clash of styles with Jones' sublime reflexes against Ward's ring skills. Sometimes we forget how tough Ward can be and his low KO% doesn't tell the full story of his strength and power.

I personally don't know how it would go and it would be interesting to see who could force their style of fight early on. But there are far better people on this board to answer the question so how do you think it would go?

Sorry not a massive fan of Jones jnr but have to admit the 93 to 98 Jones was too good for anyone.

Not sure i'd be 100% confident answering this until ward's career is over.

But if a defensive 'master' (yes chris i did say that!) like toney, and a slippery so and so like bhop can both get hit and not unravel the mystery than i'd have to question ward's ability to do much better. Ward is very hard to nail cleanly but when booth did it he was in real trouble, so he's not indestructable either. We know from his later career that neither was jones, but RJJ wins this for me.

Jones was big jump from anyone Hopkins had faced earlier, so I don't know if that didn't maybe exacerbate the difference in quality between the two.

Jones was a freak talent, but he was mortal, and could be got at if you were brave enough. I'd back Jones to do the business more often than not, but in a one-off, I think Ward has the skills to pull off a win.

Don't see how Ward could overcome Jones' speed advantage. Jones comfortable UD for me.

Along the lines of what milky said..

I'd put toney and hopkins (plus mccallum) in one bracket with jones junior a level above them.

Posed this one myself in an article a little while back, inspired by the fact that Jones told ESPN a couple of years back that he thought that Ward would be the toughest challenge for him amongst any fighter in history from 160 to 175. Bold statement!

Jones' first fight against Montell Griffin fight is worth reading in to here. Nobody caused a peak Jones as much trouble as Griffin did there for eight rounds and Ward's got the kind of style which could replicate and maybe even improve Griffin's game plan from that one. Griffin struck the perfect balance for the most part, playing it cagey and setting himself up out of range so that Jones couldn't land a jab for love nor money or jump in with that leaping left hook. He looked a bit unsure what to do and Griffin was sharp enough to take advantage of that indecisiveness on Jones' part, playing the role of counter-puncher nicely.

He also managed to back Jones to the ropes a few times, sometimes setting his shots up with sneaky fouls and rough stuff. McCallum had made Jones look a bit uneasy on the ropes the year before, as did Tarver a few years later. Griffin just broke up his pattern well enough to keep Jones second-guessing himself; he never seemed to be on the attack or defence for more than a few seconds at a time and it worked a treat.

Ward's sound defensively and has shown that he's no shrinking violet when it comes to handling himself on the inside. He's got a bit of everything about him so I don't think it'd be impossible for him to cause Jones all sorts of problems.

But here's the rub - Jones did get to Griffin eventually, and when he got him, he got him big. If there's been a slight criticism of Ward it's that he can trail off slightly or plateau out in the home stretch, and I don't think he can afford to do that here. Jones had exceptional stamina when he was at 168 and his power always remained dangerous even in the late stages.

I think Ward's good enough to give Jones a seriously tough fight, maybe even beat him once in a while if they fought a few times, but in general I see Jones stopping him late after a pretty even fight beforehand. Maybe somewhere around the 10th round. Ward's chin seems to be ok after that early-career scare against Boone, but safe to say I'm not really convinced it could stand up to the sort of power Jones dished out at Super-Middle.

I agree with most but I'm not convinced Jones' low punch connect percentage was due to griffens cageyness. In my opinion it was more to do with Jones' cageyness. He threw a lot of jabs while out of range because he was wary of the natural light heavyweights power (jones was just moving up at the time) hence missed alot.

so you did chris... remember that now!  Griffin was an awkward customer, had toney's number, touch of the whittaker's about him defensively, under-rated and largely forgotten fighter of his era. Definitely made jones think in the first fight.

Strange fight though, jones kept flicking out a half jab, and backed himself into the corners voluntarily.... presumably to try and counter which he was unable to do.  Griffin just seemed to switch off to get caught by a big right hand. Roy lays into him, griffin takes a knee and roy thinks about it for a bit and then lamps him another couple of times! Bizarre.

Jones was a better fighter than Ward. Too much in his locker to be neutralised by Ward's grappling.

Jones for sure. When he was switched on he was outstanding and incredibly difficult to get to grips with. He had a habit of switching off and going through the motions which I think was down to lack of motivation at times against fighters not in his class. He looked disinterested in some fights. Ward has little chance if Jones shows up with a point to prove.