IMHO, the 90's were Roy Jones Junior years. Mike Tyson was still a huge attraction, but side lined for most of that decade, and I picked RJJ Over Trinidad because Tito never faced Terry Norris, and took on Sweet Pea a little too late. Mayweather is great.....
But one CAN NOT place anyone above SUGAR RAY ROBINSON as the best pound-for-pound fighter to ever lace em up. Louis (Joe), Armstrong, Duran, Leonard, Hagler, Hearns....these guys left it all in the ring.
In terms of me never seeing anyone as good as him in the ring, yes I would have to agree, that in his prime he was the best I've seen, but not the greatest of all time, as he didn't accomplish what a lot of others did.
No he isn't...Floyd is!!!!!
And to all the idiots on the forum...when someone says p4p that means disregard the weight class the fighters fought in. People on here are saying that RJJ would have got knocked out against a heavy weight. p4p means that "hypothetically" if both fighters could fight in a match were skills were just matched up and weight was irrelevant who would win.
His career really won't be appreciated until he's gone but what people don't understand about Mayweather is that he really should be fighting at Junior Welterweight. (And that's why I don't buy Hatton's excuse of him having to move up in weight as an excuse). Most fighters in the welterweight division (Cotto, Margarito, Williams) weigh in at 147 during the official weigh in but then jump up 10-15 pounds on the night of the fight. Mayweather is really the only fighter who is really 147. The rest of them bums should be fighting at 154 and 160. That's why Mayweather could fight at 140 if he wanted to. He would weigh in at 140 and then jump up to about 147 or 148 during the fight.
Mayweather is simply the greatest.
my take on roy is this. Great boxer who made average fighters look like complete losers. He looked superhuman compared to them. he never fought anyone in their prime, toney was a fat slob who lost about 30 lbs in a day and hopkins wasn`t at his best. Thats two decent fighters he has fought in a very long career. Then add Johnson and Tarver and the steroid scandle into the mix and suddenly roys career looks anything but spectacular.
Good fighter, with great reflexes and technique but never really proved it against the best, question mark over doping. ATG no way.
and this is why i will never give you credit for a decent argument and claim that your posts as well as many other's on here lack and type of substance because you cannot give any logical reasoning as to why, like i gave. i gave credible reasoning to argue my points, not just make an assumption as you did with no facts behind it. i mean, claiming that floyd would come off worse is silly, seeing how he defeated everyman he has fought in 5 different weight classes in 10 years. and note i put in skillwise, as you cannot take his skills away from him whether you want to or not. i actually have every roy jones jr and floyd mayweather jr fight in the pros, so if you would like to to break down every fight the both of them had and show you why i feel the way i do, then i'll do it. i have no problem typing all night to prove my points on just how better skilled floyd was than roy, because he damn sure was, and this is taking nothing away from roy, as he is naturally gifted to the core, but the reason he lost his fights against someone like a tarver who he should have beaten easily is not only because of his lack of dedication to his training but because of his style which was figured out, he couldn't find the fundamentals he had when he was a younger. floyd, on the other hand, is so fundamentally sound, that he could go out and make 100 music videos, and become a part time fighter, yet, have the mindset to come back and dominate unlike roy. this was roy's downfall more than his opponents, his unorthodox style that made him special and should have been too hard to damn near impossible for any fighter to figure out, seeing how his style was unpredictable, but once it was figured out he had nothing else to fall back on. floyd is a master boxer. roy was a gifted/talented boxer with limited fundamentals in hi style which is why he is not the greatest p4p fighter ever. he was not better than a leonard, robinson, mayweather jr, ali, or even sweet pea. these guys are all better p4p than roy and others are too, but roy was something special with his skills, but that's where it ends.
yet another thread of yours where you talk alot and say little!
jones lost against tarver because he was getting old, he still looked quick but his reflexs were gone.
jones' unorthodoxy was his genius. boxers are tld not to throw a lead right, so what do boxers least expect in the ring? a straight right of corse!
roy jones was unpredictable that was what made him so effective.
roy jones holds a good claim for p4p king, just look how he completely dominated the best boxers i the world! hopkins, toney both looked amatuerish against jones.
mayweather on the other hand is largely untested and you cannot name an untested fighter as p4p champ. i have a feeling we may learn something from the hatton fight one way or the other.
oh FYI your 'logical reasoning' is based on a bias so its not entirely objective is it?
dont try to compar mayweather to jones, mayweather will always come off worse. i can' be bothered to explain whybut i'm sure someone else will.
and this is why i will never give you credit for a decent argument and claim that your posts as well as many other's on here lack and type of substance because you cannot give any logical reasoning as to why, like i gave. i gave credible reasoning to argue my points, not just make an assumption as you did with no facts behind it. i mean, claiming that floyd would come off worse is silly, seeing how he defeated everyman he has fought in 5 different weight classes in 10 years. and note i put in skillwise, as you cannot take his skills away from him whether you want to or not. i actually have every roy jones jr and floyd mayweather jr fight in the pros, so if you would like to to break down every fight the both of them had and show you why i feel the way i do, then i'll do it. i have no problem typing all night to prove my points on just how better skilled floyd was than roy, because he damn sure was, and this is taking nothing away from roy, as he is naturally gifted to the core, but the reason he lost his fights against someone like a tarver who he should have beaten easily is not only because of his lack of dedication to his training but because of his style which was figured out, he couldn't find the fundamentals he had when he was a younger. floyd, on the other hand, is so fundamentally sound, that he could go out and make 100 music videos, and become a part time fighter, yet, have the mindset to come back and dominate unlike roy. this was roy's downfall more than his opponents, his unorthodox style that made him special and should have been too hard to damn near impossible for any fighter to figure out, seeing how his style was unpredictable, but once it was figured out he had nothing else to fall back on. floyd is a master boxer. roy was a gifted/talented boxer with limited fundamentals in hi style which is why he is not the greatest p4p fighter ever. he was not better than a leonard, robinson, mayweather jr, ali, or even sweet pea. these guys are all better p4p than roy and others are too, but roy was something special with his skills, but that's where it ends.
roy is too big for the fab 4, except maybe hagler. roy fought at 160 early on and was big there, in the day before weigh-in era. leonard peaked at 147, hearns at 154, duran at 135. hagler was @ 160.
the only guy i see having a fair chance against roy is hagler. skill can overcome size in some regards, but this is roy jones we're talking about, but donny lalonde or dennis andries.
i see your point but we're discussing p4p here so we assue that they weight the same
I can't belive half of you people think Roy Jones in his prime was best P4P ever, that is pure rediculuosness & anybody who thinks so really needs to touch up on there boxing history. You guys dissapoint me sometimes, really.
Roy formidable in his prime. My complaint about Roy is that he wasted alot of time fighting tomato cans. Am I wrong? Why didn't Hopkins ever get a rematch? I never figured that out except for that one time in which Roy made an offer that was so insulting that Bernard wouldn't accept. What was it, a 60/40 split in favor of Jones? I remember Bernard complaining about it because he was the champ at the time. Again, I've not researched this issue and going strictly off memory which is admittedly foggy. What are the details of the never to materialize Hopkins-Jones rematch?
Hopkins priced himself out of the Jones rematch. Jones was recognized as "The Man" in boxing & had been a star for much longer. Not to mention he already holds a W over Hopkins. Hopkins had just defeated Trinidad & was trying to demand parity with Jones which to me was the easiest way of getting out of the fight.
i can certainly see your points. how would jones have done in the time of the fabulous four? we can't realy make a good assumption because he never faced anyone of that caliber.
jones vs eubank would have been a good fight. jones himself said he would find eubank difficult. unfortuantely eubank was past his prime when he was viable opposition for jones
roy is too big for the fab 4, except maybe hagler. roy fought at 160 early on and was big there, in the day before weigh-in era. leonard peaked at 147, hearns at 154, duran at 135. hagler was @ 160.
the only guy i see having a fair chance against roy is hagler. skill can overcome size in some regards, but this is roy jones we're talking about, but donny lalonde or dennis andries.
Exactly..
He was great to watch and looked masterful. But so did Tyson.
Yes Jones beat Toney and Hopkins. And would have been a had more than a chance of beating the ATG's.
BUT...he would often let himself get backed up into a corner and cover up and counter, taking body shots.
You think he could have done that against the great p4p punchers ever???
He was great, but he had flaws that were never exposed by his average level of opposition.
Leonard would rank higher for me personally. As would Robinson. Based on who they fought and their success.
i can certainly see your points. how would jones have done in the time of the fabulous four? we can't realy make a good assumption because he never faced anyone of that caliber.
jones vs eubank would have been a good fight. jones himself said he would find eubank difficult. unfortuantely eubank was past his prime when he was viable opposition for jones
SRR is the greatest of all time and certainly the best of his era, but Roy makes SRR look slow, has more power, faster hands and is smart in the ring himself. I say he KO's Sugar Ray Robinson, believe it. Now all the Roy beats all the heavies except Lewis and Tyson is just crazy talk. Roy is 5-10 and naturally an ectomorph with smallish hands.
SRR fought everyone he possibly could, and was NEVER stopped.
He was a welterweight who moved up to light heavy and no one could stop him.
Even at 40 years old he wasnt stopped.
People seem to forget RJJ called all HW ABC belt holders out for almost half a decade and most of the opposition he'd been "ducking" turned out to eventually be nobodies, frauds (who were later exposed), or guys he'd already beaten (Hopkins, Toney etc.)
Are u saying Holyfield and Lewis ducked Jones??
Jones should of fought Eubank, Benn, Calzaghe, Collins, and of course Dariusz Michalczewski.
Exactly..
He was great to watch and looked masterful. But so did Tyson.
Yes Jones beat Toney and Hopkins. And would have been a had more than a chance of beating the ATG's.
BUT...he would often let himself get backed up into a corner and cover up and counter, taking body shots.
You think he could have done that against the great p4p punchers ever???
He was great, but he had flaws that were never exposed by his average level of opposition.
Leonard would rank higher for me personally. As would Robinson. Based on who they fought and their success.
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spot on as much as i like RJJ he is not the best p4p fighter ever cause he never proved that against top quality oposition other than Toney ,Hopkins & u could make a case Hopkins was not in his prime he was in age but no in development & Toney was weight drained he still deserves credit for the victory but just putting them into context
i dont know if anyone realizes but Ray Leonard happens to have beaten Prime Tommy Hearns & Roberto Duran ,Bentiez ,and he has a win over Marvin Hagler & he was multiple weight world champion ,leonard beat 4 count em 4 ATG
Pure comedy.
Can someone point out Roy's career defining fights please.
Exactly..
He was great to watch and looked masterful. But so did Tyson.
Yes Jones beat Toney and Hopkins. And would have been a had more than a chance of beating the ATG's.
BUT...he would often let himself get backed up into a corner and cover up and counter, taking body shots.
You think he could have done that against the great p4p punchers ever???
He was great, but he had flaws that were never exposed by his average level of opposition.
Leonard would rank higher for me personally. As would Robinson. Based on who they fought and their success.