Is Joe Calzaghe the best fighter Roy Jones will have fought?

If it is a question of how good opponents have been at the time they fought Jones I would place Calzaghe second. I still rate Toney over Joe at that point in time. People say Toney was weight-drained etc but if you watch the fight you will realise that they could have put Roy in against a truck that night and he wouldn't have been beat.

I'd consider Ruiz to be the better opponent considering the circumstances with him having to move up two weight classes and outclassing him. Tarver, Hill and Harding aren't as good as Calzaghe but Ruiz was a great win. Say if Calzaghe, Tarver, Toney etc were Heavyweights with Roy then Ruiz would be far behind but the task of moving from 175 to over 200 and go against a top guy (boring as he may be) is pretty great.

Interesting question. Will he be the best opponent he's ever faced in terms of how good he was at the time of the fight? Nah. Calzaghe's past his peak now. Still P4P top 2 or 3, but past his peak. Will he be the best name on his resume - probably no again. You have to admire what Toney's done, albeit with a criminal lack of desire and application when it comes to training. Top 3 in both categories though. Great post, greatly received. I think that's what's key and has been mis interpreted by a few folk, it's asking in terms of how good they were at the time. And to be fair, Hopkins was a little green, Toney well weight things been said...and Calzaghe's not far out of his prime. So it's fairly close when you think about it, which I think most hadn't before.

By the way I'm picking Calzaghe to win the fight, hes just not the best fighter that Jones has faced. Interesting question. Will he be the best opponent he's ever faced in terms of how good he was at the time of the fight? Nah. Calzaghe's past his peak now. Still P4P top 2 or 3, but past his peak. Will he be the best name on his resume - probably no again. You have to admire what Toney's done, albeit with a criminal lack of desire and application when it comes to training. Top 3 in both categories though.

Biased would be posting that Mike Mccallum beats Calzaghe. LOL! Fucking dumbass retarded hater. :wank: I feel bad for you dude, your owning yourself up and down this board. LOL! I don't normally go into flame wars but i must admit that you are owning yourself. Terrible is stating facts and anaylizing fights while you are calling him names and just saying things like ''Oh no you are wrong, Calzaghe is better than that bum''. When you haven't even seen them fight.

what is who you fight got to do with your ability and skills nothing. Because you are proving your skills against higher opposition and not just bums. A guy can look like George Foreman against one guy and when he steps up the cometition and face a fighter that actually has heart, chin skill and is not there just to be an opponent, then the out come could be different. Look at Pancheto Bahado and Jeffy Lacy. They looked like worlds beaters when they were blowing out bums when they were coming up on sho-box. It turned out that neither had that much power and were exposed when they had a step up in class.

calzaghe will be the third best roy has fought after hopkins and toney. It will be his most difficult challenge because when he fought hopkins he was too green to deal with roys speed. when he fought toney, he was in his prime and toney was a bit weight drained. now roys skills have seriously deteriorated and calzaghe is probably just exiting his prime, so it will be close. I think Calzags will most likely prevail but RJ's my fave of all time, so I'm pullin for the old man!!!!! No question RJ would have destroyed him if Joe had had a serious interest in coming to America to test his skills against the best (which he certainly did not) in the 90's or even early 2000's .... Best all time at 168- not Calzaghe, but the unstoppable Roy Jones circa 1996!!!!

A) Your explaining how Joe wouldnt of gotten into position to have that punch landed on him... Im explaining how if that punch DID land on Joe's jaw... things would be quite similar... It'd be unlikely Tarver could land his hard left hand, on Joe. There stances are different and Joe just isn't so open to lefts. Second, Joe rarely ducks losing his vision like that, and defend on the ropes. At most he'd do a swinging duck and move away from the ropes, keeping an eye on what's coming. Or he'd throw as many punches back, reckless I know but hey, it works for him. He was open to a right which was a flash knockdown from Hopkins in kinda a clinch, but never that again, and not really open to lefts so much, and not in the scenario of on the ropes. So it's hypothetical that Tarver would catch Joe like this, unlikely, that's what counts. B) Roy never had a chin... So being that in the first round against a 3 time HW champ, roy took about 3 flush right hands to the face, shook it off and came right back with his own, only to 8 months later fight in Tarver I and have his worst looking performance EVER.. is not, somewhat coincidental And another thing... Joe got knocked down by Bernard who fought at 160 his entire career... Roy took flush shots from a heavyweight... theres two ways to look at everything. I didn't say he never had a chin, I said for various reasons his chin is not all that solid compared to some others. He gained weight better than he lost it, that's for sure, as his chin has troubled him most since losing the weight. He has been KO'd a few times I'm sure your aware, and Joes never been knocked down and not up within 5 seconds, let alone knocked out or TKO'd. I'm not saying Joe wouldn't be effected in similar ways he probably would, but that's how they are today. He's never even been in trouble from pretty decent shots of Mitchell, Eubank, Kessler and Hopkins on his chin. So beyond point A of Tarver being unlikely to land his hard left so hard on Joe the way he did Roy, the backup of B right here is; it's also unlikely to seriously put him in trouble in such similar ways. C) Your trying to compare power of punches, its almost impossible, the right power, the right angle, the right time... Tarvers punch came in fast, he didnt see it... and it clipped his jaw... and thats AFTER keeping all that heavy - weight off... its a bad recipe... but I wont sit here and tell u how Roy has a granite chin... only that its a little hard to compare. Totally it is tricky to compare. But based on Joes history of receiving solid shots on his chin and never looking like he was in that much trouble. I just can't credit that, that single lucky left shot from Tarver, even if he did get it in, would trouble Joe in the way it did Roy. I don't want to debate power too much either, but I'm sorry, from the names mentioned, there not weak punchers, some of them thru they're hardest shots and they didn't really trouble Joe that much in the grand scheme of things. If Hops shot left Calzaghe down for 6 seconds and hazey there on, or Kesslers uppercuts seriously shook him, I'd credit that maybe a slightly harder shot from Tarver might KO him or really put him in trouble. But that isn't the case. Based on prior events as they actually happened, I could credit at most Joe would be down for 8 seconds. But when he's even remotely hurt he's often TKO'd the same round with Mitchell, or adapted perfectly with Kessler. So it's almost even helped him, he's most dangerous when he's hurt or faced with danger.

Is this a joke? The American fighters are way overrated. The only good boxers that ever fight there are Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, they're all frauds. hahahahaha yeah fuk that fat yanks

Look it up dumbass. http://motleykrew.net/forum/images/smilies/rof.gif Dont you know what "big difference" means? yeah yeah ,go and watch some fights casual fans make me sick they know eff all

Big difference aint there...Clown. He picked Hopkins to win the fight. What is that supposed to mean

Your not comparing Herol to those guys are you? LMAO! no im not but the way u are talking u would think Calzaghe is the best fighter that ever lived when in reallity he barely got by an old man and that is his best oponent Where did Duke say this then? I wont dispute he said it because i know he picked Nard to win the fight so what your saying about him being a Calzaghe nuthugger makes you the fucking idiot...We established that earlier though. LOL! i never said he was a Calzaghe nuthugger i said he was a Calzaghe fan so whats your point dipshit ,u keep making things up that i aint said Hopkins is an old man and he made him look complete garbage thats how overated he is and dont give me that no one looks good against Hopkins lame excuse Jones looked pretty decent with one hand aswell and Tarver had just come down in weight, Joe had no excuse apart form the fact he is overated

man shut the fuck up prime calzaghe hit hard how would hopkins deal with that i suppose you think he would just take those shots easy. Hopkins has a great chin, he would of handled Calzaghes power.

Hopkins that fought Tito would of beaten Calz with ease he would have crusied past Joe if he could of sustain his activity, Joe is all about Workrate when he comes foward and he has never faced a defensively sound fighter like Hopkins in his life and when he did he was getting showed how good he actually is and Toney makes him look worse man shut the fuck up prime calzaghe hit hard how would hopkins deal with that i suppose you think he would just take those shots easy.

dont take it the wrong way... it basically means that i agreed with ur entire post, except that part Nah s'all good bro didn't take it bad, I often do the same and only comment on wha I possibly don't agree with. Rushed that as I'm off out, will get to ya other response laters...:burnout:

Right I agree with you... Joe > Roy as a SMW champion... but ROY > JOE in a SMW fight... thats my only point. I agree, I'd pick Jones prime for prime over Calzaghe at 168.

Probably not but longevity and resume at the division has to come into the equation as well. It's like Hopkins got beat by Jones at middleweight and would lose probably 9 out of 10 times if they fought but he's ranked higher in middleweight history because of his longevity and resume at the weight. Right I agree with you... Joe > Roy as a SMW champion... but ROY > JOE in a SMW fight... thats my only point.

I think that was a reasonable post with several reasonable points, compliments, criticisms on both sides. Picking out the one remotely unfavourable on Roy is a little harsh. Tarvers a big big puncher no doubt, it was a good shot, but a) it was a somewhat lucky shot and scenario Tarver got on Roy, as it was a competitive fight and not a roll of punches. Roy didn't even see it coming and was kinda out of position. Also, Joe doesn't duck and move back to the ropes like Roy did. That same scenario doesn't equal a Joe KO because firstly, Joes noway near as open to a big over hand left. His stance is different. Joes more open to over hand rights, and Tarvers not so strong on that side, and it wouldnt have been such a hard shot to spot coming. b) I'm sorry but Roy does not have a tough chin, and that's nothing new to be said. Even he was up by 8. Even if Tarver did land such a good shot on Joe (which per a I don't think is likely anyhow), Joe with a much tougher chin woulda been much less phazed, up by 5, clear headed by 8, and ready to go on. Plus, even at best, if Tarver landed that shot on Joe (which again I don't think likely, or as hard) it's not gona be much harder than the shots a) Not saying Mitchell a tougher puncher, but he landed the hardest shot he's ever landed on a man, gotta be close to what Tarver landed which wasn't his. b) Kesslers lethal upper cuts which caught Joe perfectly on the jaw, with vicious pace totally knocking his head and making his face look like jelly. He carried on. So were talking about 1 punch needing to be at least 20% harder than the one Tarver landed on Roy, or several of equal pace, which as I've outlined, I don't think likely. :) A) Your explaining how Joe wouldnt of gotten into position to have that punch landed on him... Im explaining how if that punch DID land on Joe's jaw... things would be quite similar... B) Roy never had a chin... So being that in the first round against a 3 time HW champ, roy took about 3 flush right hands to the face, shook it off and came right back with his own, only to 8 months later fight in Tarver I and have his worst looking performance EVER.. is not, somewhat coincidental? And another thing... Joe got knocked down by Bernard who fought at 160 his entire career... Roy took flush shots from a heavyweight... theres two ways to look at everything. C) Your trying to compare power of punches, its almost impossible, the right power, the right angle, the right time... Tarvers punch came in fast, he didnt see it... and it clipped his jaw... and thats AFTER keeping all that heavy - weight off... its a bad recipe... but I wont sit here and tell u how Roy has a granite chin... only that its a little hard to compare.

as far as longevity, of course calzaghe.... but do u think the best joe at SMW can beat the best roy at SMW? Probably not but longevity and resume at the division has to come into the equation as well. It's like Hopkins got beat by Jones at middleweight and would lose probably 9 out of 10 times if they fought but he's ranked higher in middleweight history because of his longevity and resume at the weight.

Duke never even called the fight it was Woodhall and Rawlings. LMAO! where on earth did i say Duke called the fight u idiot