Greater fighter: Roy Jones Jr or Floyd Mayweather?

[IMDAZED]

you can do the same but i will call you on it you can best believe that

Thank goodness I haven't had to excuse any wins.

[phallus]

Roy Jones is greater... Not just a greater athlete, but a greater representative of the sport. Roy Jones in his prime like you said, struggled against no one. Floyd is a one in a million athlete, but Roy was is an even rarer specimen. Rigo and Floyd are closer, athletic wise, IMO, then Floyd and Roy. Roy, when he lets his hands go, is something to behold, like a big cat tearing apart kill... Floyd just isn't THAT intense, even in his prime...

Floyd avoided a difficult fight that he would probably would of won against Lara... Roy would never avoid a guy like that

Mayweather's best prime win fighter is a weight drained corrales. His best foe was 2 inches shorter and has about 6 inches less reach in manny and has already been koed.

Floyd is the more "accomplished" fighter, but Roy Jones is the "better" one... If that makes any sense.

Who would you rather be forced to fight in a dark alley or something? RJJ or $$$$$ Mayweather? Weight classes aside, I'd have greater optimism that I could eventually catch Floyd than I would that I could withstand Jones' onslaught.

Floyd's resume isn't far superior. Not when you break it down.

Roy won a title at HW and was was outweighed by over 30 pounds, even after he'd bulked up to just under 200. He then burnt muscle in a short space of time, to become only the 2nd man ever to have won titles at MW, LHW and HW, before then going on to reclaim the LHW titles.

Although Ruiz and Tarver weren't ATG's, you have to note Roy's age, his number of fights, the weight loss, and where he'd come from. Those 2 wins were truly great. Because he beat Ruiz with absolute ease, but he had to dig deep to beat Tarver, as he was absolutely exhausted in the last 3rd of the fight. And to do that after fighting as a JMW in the Olympics, was absolutely amazing. People forget that when Roy was at LHW, he was in his 3rd weight class, giving away lots of natural weight.

Floyd also had an extraordinary career, but he didn't take the risks Roy did, and although he was often outweighed, he was hardly ever outsized, enjoying a reach advantage over almost all of his opponents. He has the longevity, and he's never lost to B class guys like Roy, and he's never been knocked out. But Roy's accomplishments definitely match up.

RJJ and floyd are two completely different kinds of fighters, floyd is a safety first guy who never takes risks and depends on his technical skill, where roy used to depend on his incredible speed and reflexes and fought much bigger men than himself. i can't even imagine mayweather landing a triple left hook to someone's head or giving up any kind of advantage to an opponent.
i wish roy would have fought calzaghe when they were both prime, but he had already moved up in weight. roy and nigel benn would have been a great fight, but even nigel benn says roy would have beaten him. seeing what happened at the end of roy's career, he should have fought DM, he would have beaten him and got robbed by the ze german judges just like everyone who fought sven ottke but everybody who saw the fight would have known who really won

[djtmal]

Thank goodness I haven't had to excuse any wins.

there an excuse for all those guys that floyd got around to late, there's an excuse for not fighting margarito, and it always the other dudes...nobody is that teflon

[robertzimmerman]

RJJ and floyd are two completely different kinds of fighters, floyd is a safety first guy who never takes risks and depends on his technical skill, where roy used to depend on his incredible speed and reflexes and fought much bigger men than himself. i can't even imagine mayweather landing a triple left hook to someone's head or giving up any kind of advantage to an opponent.
i wish roy would have fought calzaghe when they were both prime, but he had already moved up in weight. roy and nigel benn would have been a great fight, but even nigel benn says roy would have beaten him. seeing what happened at the end of roy's career, he should have fought DM, he would have beaten him and got robbed by the ze german judges just like everyone who fought sven ottke but everybody who saw the fight would have known who really won

Roy could never have fought Calzaghe when he was prime. Calzaghe was completely insignificant back then, and there's no way he'd have taken the fight. He was a scavenger. He waited Roy out. He hid away with his WBO belt until the final few years of his career.

Benn wanted to fight Roy, but Roy's handlers - The Levin's, couldn't deal with Don King back then. King and the Levin's had a deep dislike and distrust of one another. Also, King's fighters fought on Showtime. They could never reach a compromise.

It's a shame the fight with Dariusz never came off, but I think Dariusz was overrated.

[hugh grant]

Yes, only in the Floyd era where wins over highly rated fighters are taken away because of the excuse that they were old even though Floyd was older.

When BH fought rjj they were booth old. But rjj depended a lot on his athlketic abilities.
Floyd did what BH did. Waited for their athletic abilities to drained.

[IMDAZED]

there an excuse for all those guys that floyd got around to late, there's an excuse for not fighting margarito, and it always the other dudes...nobody is that teflon

And excuses when he beats them, and why, and...

[JoeKidd]

Roy Jones. I could wait 7-9 rounds for Roy Jones to do one little bit that will stick in memory forever. I don't rank Floyd period. Floyd's the greatest Olympic boxer ever. Go home already.

[TonyGe]

I get your point, but there's no comparison between Oscar and Tito.

Although he was past his best, Oscar was still a top level fighter in 2007. That was a very good win for Floyd.

Roy's win over Tito was completely meaningless. Tito hadn't fought in 3 years, and he couldn't even make the agreed upon C-W of 170 pounds.

Mosley and Cotto were also faded, but they have to be better wins than Roy's wins over Tito and Lacy.


This is a great thread, with so many variables to consider.

What if Floyd had fought 50 times but in the timeframe that Roy did, going up in weight like Roy did, but then burning muscle to go back down in just a few months like Roy did? How would that have affected him?

What if Roy had've been comfortable, just fighting once per year over a prolonged period like Floyd did, without putting his body through as much?

What if Roy had adapted his style to compensate for his age?

All good questions..

[djtmal]

And excuses when he beats them, and why, and...

Not when its 2 guys in their prime

[A-Wolf]

Jones went from JMW to Heavy while defeating prime Hopkins, Toney, top 10 Light Heavy of all time in Virgil Hill, mulagni, Johnson, Paz, McCallum, Harding, Sosa, Castro, Vaca, Tarver, Woods, Gonzales, Griffin, Ruiz for the HW title, Lacy, Trinidad, etc....

Maywether went from 130 to 154 while defeating prime Corrales, Hernandez, Gatti, Mosley, DLH, Hatton, Cotto, Pac, Marquez, Canelo, Castillo, Maidana, Ortiz.

Here's where it gets tricky. Prime RJJ was never really contested while prime FMJ has a few asterisks next to his name against Castillo, DLH. Floyd wasnt prime against Maidana.

Secondly, if you're going to include Mosley/Cotto/DLH on Mayweathers resume then you have to include Trinidad/Lacy because all of the aforementioned were past prime.

So what do you say? RJJ went from Junior middle to heavy winning titles and Floyd went from super feather to JMW.

Floyd has more champs and HOF'ers, but Roy has more prime ATGs. It's tricky.

I would also say that Roy was more dominant in his prime since his only close fight was against Griffin in a fight he was en route to stopping Griffin. Floyd arguably lost to Castillo in his prime.

Has Floyd ever unified or been undisputed champ of a division?

Anyway, enough of my take, what you got?

That was a "young" Hopkins. Definitely not a "prime" Hopkins.