Past the peak of his career, Roy Jones Jr endured multiple hard nights in the ring where he didn’t hear the final bell.
Emphatic losses to Antonio Tarver, Glen Johnson, and Denis Lebedev cast serious doubts on Jones Jr’s ability to take a punch at that stage of his life, but who was the heaviest hitter that Jones opposed?
Despite succumbing to the shots of the aforementioned boxers, Jones Jr also shared the ring with many skilled boxers in his prime.
Bernard Hopkins and James Toney were two outstanding talents that Jones defeated, but the most dangerous puncher he ever took on was Merqui Sosa who he stopped in two rounds in 1996.
“Merqui missed me with a shot that almost buckled my knees. If that had landed it would have been different,” said Jones Jr when speaking to The Ring
“I was like, ‘Wow, this guy’s trying to kill you!’ I went to work on him after that and got the fight over. Tarver had good punching power, but he didn’t punch harder than Merqui Sosa.”