Well? On a scale of 1-10. What kind of companys were sponsoring him? Did he crossover to the general public like Tyson did?
In the South? Extremely popular. Everywhere else, not so much. He was starting to cross over everywhere though. His fight against Telesco was the first sporting event in Radio City Music Hall.
in the us (not so much) in europe (barely none knew him, except boxing fanatics which aren't much in europe) had he fought the big names back than, like prime cal, X II, dariusz, even a showdown vs either tyson or holyfield, he would have been big everywhere, like pac today, he had more talent than pac, thats why in my oppinion he couldve achieved a lot more than what he did, crossover super star. I know his fights where often boring because his opponents had no chance at all, but thats why people were so eager so him vs the better fights out there, same for mayweather vs pacman today.
Calzaghe did'nt become a big name until he beat Jeff Lacy in 2006, no casual people had a clue who he was, so stop being a revisionist historian.
Wasnt very well known. People didnt really pay attention to anything outside of heavyweight in the 90s
Well, Roy Jones was a lot more popular in my area than those two guys. Overall, in the U.S. Roy Jones was probably the most popular fighter of that time period. People who try to downplay his popularity either don't know or are being less than truthful.