was prime roy jones the most perfect fighter ever?

may have been some better but was he the most perfect fighter all round, handspeed, power, footwork etc? No, he could not handle the Southpaw stance, and he could be thrown off by similar fighters to himself .....counter punchers. His speed could be neutralized (Montell Griffin) He looked greater than he was, because he was beating up B/C class opposition. If Mosley/DLH spent their careers fighting B/C class fighters they would have great highlight reels too.

may have been some better but was he the most perfect fighter all round, handspeed, power, footwork etc? Maybe, but we'll never know; he was too selective in picking his opposition. Same with Floyd, great skill but never really verified his "credentials" against the very best in the sport over a sustained period during his career. This is something Oscar did, he fought everyone. If Oscar was as selective as Roy and Floyd, we'd be discussing the same on NSB, Was Oscar the most perfect GOAT fighter ever?

What I meant was even if Mayweather beats those three fightres, he won't be ranked above Hagler/Leonard/Whitaker because they all fought a higher level of opposition. I mean, Leonard beat four ATGs. Floyd, even if he has the heart to face elite competition any more, doesn't have the fortunate of being in an era where there's so much ATG talent to fight. that is true but sometimes all you need is that one adversary to bring out the best in a fighter...remember ali had frazier...lol

No, roy jones was always dodgy around those ropes, prime or not.

I'm a bit unsure of Bert Sugar's ratings of boxers because when he published his Top 50 ATGs he had Leonard at #25 and Hagler about #48. How the hell is Ray Leonard at #25??? I agree Bert is not the best boxing expert and his lists can sometimes make you scratch your head. However when it comes to just evaluating talent like this, I tend to respect his opinion. You're right though his top 100 is not great.

Floyd won't surpass those in opposition faced, mainly because he seems to be selective on who he fights and secondly there was a higher level of opposition during Hagler/Leonard/Whitakers time. Beating Pacman/Mosley/Cotto is not nearly as impressive as beating Benitez/Hearns/Duran etc. he hasn't beat pac/mosley or cotto with his perfect acumen yet...thats why i'm not giving him any passes until then...

Bert Sugar says there are a few fighters who have ever come along that he would consider "brilliant". Having to do with just amazing unmatched skill level. There are only 3 I believe that he said were "brilliant". Ray Robinson, Ali, and Henry Armstrong. But at one time he believed that Roy Jones could be the next. That says a lot.

maybe physically....perfect fighters don't have glass jaws and no fundamental ability.

no. theres only 1 fighter who represents the word perfection. floyd mayweather jr. hes the best. in terms of completeness i rate hagler, srl and sweet pea whitaker above floyd when you look at opposition faced...floyd still has time to surpass them though...

The most athletic fighter ever, perhaps the fastest ever at the higher weights. Not nearly perfect, he was fundamentally flawed.

may have been some better but was he the most perfect fighter all round, handspeed, power, footwork etc? no. theres only 1 fighter who represents the word perfection. floyd mayweather jr. hes the best.

The blend of speed, power and reflexes was probably never matched and most likely never will be. In terms of skills/technique I could fill a page with more well rounded fighters.

No, he was perhaps the most athletically gifted fighter of all time but not the most perfect fighter ever, his flaws were always there, his physical gifts just masked them really well, once those physical gifts left, those flaws became more and more visible.

Roy had the exact same flaws and holes in his games when he was prime as he does now. It's just that his super human speed and reflexes allowed him to get away with things regular fighters would not.

If not, pretty close.

may have been some better but was he the most perfect fighter all round, handspeed, power, footwork etc? Roy was just very gifted with speed and power, absurdly so. But he was very unorthodox and his defense just relied on his speed. He was always bothered when pressured and driven to the ropes, that can be seen as early as the Hopkins fight when he dropped rounds when hopkins backed him to the ropes. He was just usually so dominate against his opposition that that flaw didnt really show much until it can be seen in the Tarver I fight as well. Amazing speed and reflexes but that doesnt make him well rounded. No, I think Sugar Ray Leonard was more complete. Agreed. SRL could box or brawl, he was a far more complete fighter than Roy. There are actually a lot of fighters more well rounded than Roy, someone like Barrera who could box defensively using footwork and counterpunching to avoid hamed and counter him when hes off balance or brawl in an all out war like in Morales I. He just isnt as physically gifted as Roy. SRL is a good example because he has the athleticism comparable to Roy but he also was more rounded.

the james toney against jirov was closest to perfection a fighter can be IMO... offense, defense, footwork, counterpunching accuracy, chin ang ring generalship... toney had it all that night...

Well I think you can credit Ray more because he had a serious eye injury that should have ended his career but it didnt. Also look at the ATG's Ray beat and compare that to RJJ who beat Hop arguably before his mental prime and he beat Toney who clearly wasnt in his physical prime for that fight. RJJ has 1 maybe 2 HOF guys on his resume Ray has 4. I'm sorry, I must've missed the part where we began discussing who was greater? I was referring to the technical boxer part. But carry on.

Do you have proof of this? Or just a guess? Complete guess. But an educated one. Leonard was as unorthodox as he was textbook. But like any other true great, he did both well. And like most other truly talented fighters, he slipped once his speed dipped. That, as well as inactivity. Ironically, he began slipping even earlier than Jones.

On a side note if the question was is RJJ the most naturally talented fighter of his generation the answer is yes in a landslide. But like I've said once Roy started losing his natural gifts the lack of boxing fundamentals was exposed. by who - hes been knocked out twice he aint been exposed as a fraud, just coz some1 gets knocked out dont mean they got a glass jaw either.. you dont see roy doing a little dance when he gets hit with a jab