Best I’ve Faced: Julian Jackson

[Ringlife]

Cool interview on the Hawk.

[Guest]

Biggest srprise for me was McClellan as best defence

Agree completely. My biggest issue with McLellan was he fell in love with his power and just abandoned his defense.

I almost wish McLellan had some slick defense...but he didn't. at all.

[Underboss]

P4P the hardest hitter of all times.

I was watching some fights of JJ last night, that KO against Herol Graham was pure sickening.

[Sweet Pea 50]

Pretty cool.

When I hear Knock you dead type of punching power, The Hawk rates.

[RichCCFC]

McCallum>McClellan

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Biggest srprise for me was McClellan as best defence

Me too,,, I was like wtf,, would have never guessed that

After Hagler, I don't think there's been an as accomplished MW as McCallum, maybe Toney (just because he beat Mike convincingly in the rematch and had the upset over Nunn). Personally I rate Julian as the 11th best MW in the post-Hagler era. Had a good run there, which is more impressive given he was a small (skinny) MW.

Hopkins?.. I think he is THE mw champ post hagler

McCallum>McClellan

Yeah, totally agree

[IIG]

I love the Best I Faced column. There's always a lot of interesting information to be learned.

[hugh grant]

Thought he was going to say Mike McCallum how he was bigging him up?
But I thought he also might mention Herol Graham as being the best at something but no.
Wow Nigel Benn beat McCellan he should be proud of that victory, but also sad because of the outcome obviously.

[#1Assassin]

Agree completely. My biggest issue with McLellan was he fell in love with his power and just abandoned his defense.

I almost wish McLellan had some slick defense...but he didn't. at all.

well, mcclellan could box. all kronk fighters could box and i dont think you could win a decision over RJJ in the amateurs without being able to box.

slick may not be the way to describe him but to say he didnt have any defense at all is insane. like you say he would abandon it at times, but not against jackson. JJ clipped him in the very first round and gerald was very respectful of his power after that, showing some damn good defense as a result.

im still somewhat surprised he picked gerald for defense. how about graham? i mean jackson couldnt touch him until he damn near killed him. i guess its hard to say someone had this great defense when you knocked him out cold for 5 minutes.

mccallum is quite evidently the best defensive fighter he faced, but the way that fight went mike didnt really show his defensive prowess much. so i can somewhat understand jackson overlooking him.

[Eastcoast]

Hopkins?.. I think he is THE mw champ post hagler

Depends on your criteria on how you rate fighters. Hopkins defended his title 20x (one of which was a NC to Allen), but out of those 20 defense, only Trinidad was considered a contemporary great. In fact if you look at the top 5 MW fights Bernard fought in: Roy Jones, Felix Trindiad, Jermain Taylor 2x, Keith Holmes - he lost 3 of them, two of those clearly. As for the rest, he fought good MW's, but not great.

Judging how Bernard looked in his first fights with Allen & Echols, I think he would've took some L's had he fought in the generation before him (Nunn, McCallum, Toney, Kalambay).

I rate McCallum, Toney, and Nunn all well ahead of Bernard, because they all had multiple wins over serious talent at MW.

• Toney beat a peak Nunn, Reggie Johnson, and McCallum (with a draw)
• McCallum beat Graham, Watson, Kalambay (traveled to Europe to do it), Collins (in Boston), and the draw with Toney.
• Nunn beat Kalambay, Tate, Barkley (a prime version), and Curry.