By Cliff Rold
It’s déjà vu all over again.
Beginning with the decline of Pernell Whitaker in the second half of the 1990s, and through the first few years of the 00’s, the pound-for-pound debate revolved around Roy Jones Jr. To the naked eye, Jones was king. He was the fastest, the most athletic, the hardest to hit, in a word the most talented.
He wasn’t always the most challenged. Accused, rightfully sometimes and wrongfully others, of cherry picking his foes for highlight reel affect, many in the boxing world looked for an alternative. Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, Shane Mosley, and Bernard Hopkins all were cited as challenges to his supremacy for the mythical idea of best in the world if the world was all the same size.
They all appeared to challenge themselves more often while Jones managed, for a lengthy stretch at Light Heavyweight, never to fight the next best man in his class. Inevitably, most of the men noted lost while Jones did not. De La Hoya lost to Trinidad and Mosley, Trinidad to Hopkins, Mosley to Vernon Forrest. Jones was winning against what could be argued as too many men like Glen Kelly, Derrick Harmon, and Richard Hall so alternatives remained sought. No one could have known, but by the time he got to a Heavyweight clash with John Ruiz and seemed to stamp the debates over for good, it was really Jones time which was all but over.
There are striking similarities between the Jones arguments and arguments in recent years about Floyd Mayweather. Some of the criticism has been fair, some of it unfair. Now that Mayweather is officially back, their volume will increase. Since at least 2005, Mayweather has been the center of all pound for pound debate; the measuring stick for the game. Like Jones, the eye test indicates superiority over most of the field.
Unlike Jones, Mayweather’s primary challenge to the throne has never felt as forced as Jones mythical foes. Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad just never felt like they belonged in the same sentence as Jones. Manny Pacquiao is a different matter. Pacquiao passes the eye test too. His speed is comparable to Mayweather’s and his journey from Flyweight to Jr. Welterweight champion is historically unprecedented. That Mayweather and Pacquiao are currently only seven pounds apart makes a match between the two feel inevitable, an answer pending to a worthy question.
They are the best offensive and defensive fighters of their time. With Mayweather fully active again after a dominant victory over Lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez on September 19, does he merit the top spot or does it remain with Pacquiao?