Are Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank Hall Of Fame Worthy?

So if he was the better boxer, why did he end both fights rolling around on the canvas? If he was the better boxer, why didn't he put those superior skills to work in the second fight? If he was the better boxer, why didn't he get up in the first fight and outbox Jones further? You do realize that was the second time he was down right? He was clearly hurt, and on his way out. He was actually knocked down by Roy 4 times in 10 rounds.. And he was the better boxer?atsch

 

Your examples are a 19 year old version of Roy, and a 35 year old version.

Also, Tarver was a rangy southpaw, who fought nothing like Barkley.

I still don't know where you're going with all this.

 

Ok, now you are going to compare what happened in an amateur fight, to what happend when Roy was in his 30's and clearly past his best...

Insightful as always.:good

 

Brawler Jones had frightening power, admittedly - ask Montell himself.....and many others.

 

You're exposing Jones yourself dude

I say exactly!-between the age of 19 and 35, how many particularly heavy punchers did Jones face? Considering he could have faced Julian Jackson, Iran, Lamar Parks, Gerald again, Nigel Benn, Frank Liles (who dropped Jones in '88 ), Chris Eubank (95-98 ), Joe Calzaghe (98-01) or Dariusz Michalczewski......... I wonder why he didn't push for any of those matches, huh.

 

How could he have faced Jackson exactly? I'm having the same debate on another thread. Roy fought nobodies at 160 because his father held him back. Fred Levin offered Roy title shots, but Roy's father never even made Roy aware of them. Roy was wasting away fighting in Pensacola fairgrounds for peanuts unti he split with his father in 1992. At that point he signed with HBO and started to fight better opponents such as Castro, culminating in a shot against Hopkins for a vacant title. But by the time that came around, he could no longer make the weight. After Hopkins, he was boxing as high as 167. So he vacated the belt and moved up.


That also took Gerald out of the equation. In the early 90's he and Roy were just bright prospects. When Roy moved up, Gerald remained at 160 until the following year when he fought Benn.


Roy never had the opportunity of facing Barkley at 160, and by the time Roy had moved up to fight Toney at 168, in 94, Barkley was at 175.


I thought you were Eubank's biggest fan?

If so, then you know that Eubank didn't want to fight Roy.


DM and his promoter turned down the opportunity of appearing on a double header, and DM turned down $5M from HBO, even though he was only making $1-1.5M per WBO title defence in Germany. Go and look at his resume. It speaks volumes.


Benn and Liles were Don King fighters. The Levin's who handled Roy at the time, were extremely reluctant to deal with him, and Roy has said that Don wanted future options on him, and wouldn't agree to just a one fight deal.


Why are you even mentioning Calzaghe?

Roy fought in America at 175, while Joe fought in Europe at 168. Joe was a great fighter, but he was relatively unknown outside of Europe when Roy was prime. There was no demand for the fight. A few of Joe's fights had been shown in the U.S. but he hadn't really impressed as a whole. His fights with Starie and Thornberry didn't catch the eye. A fight with Roy was never viable.

 

You are the only one exposing yourself... And had Jones not moved up in weight and destroyed James Toney, or dominated Hopkins, they would be on your list too.. Oh wait, you still think Toney was better.atsch Toney was the BIGGEST fight for Roy at the time, and he rose to the occasion.. Why didn't Eubank and Benn push for a fight with Toney? I think they were in doubt. As well as they including Calzaghe have made statements about Roy's greatness, which makes me wonder if they actually thought they would win.

History will be so kind as well to Roy, as Toney and Hopkins are bigger names than anyone you just mentioned.. Roy was better, get over it.

 

Don King offered Jones a Julian Jackson shot numerous times in '92 and '93. Jones did fight for King later on (Ruiz etc), so kind of hypocritical.

Jones and McClellan were IBF and WBC champs respectively, simultaneously, for 18 months at 160.

In '92 there was small talk of Jones fighting Barkley.

Never been a fan of Eubank, personally. But he did want to fight Jones in '96-'97, and Jones went nowhere near him.

Why would Jones want to fight in front of 1,500 fans when he could've fought Calzaghe in front of 15,000+ in the UK? Because the opponents were easier....is your answer.

 

Toney and Hopkins are bigger names than Eubank?! Amongst the hardcore American boxing fans, yes, but outside of that - not even in the same stratosphere.

 

Yeah of course your not :roll::roll:

 

Of course their bigger than Eubank, Hopkins is a top 10 all time MW, and Toney is a multiple weight world champion and an atg, whereas Eubank is "merely" very good.

 

If that's your definition of 'big name'. Mine is how well-known they are, and Eubank was boxing for a while (to general population outside USA).

Eubank 'merely very good'? Even the word legend doesn't do that guy justice, let alone 'great'.

 

youtube.com/watch?v=PydXSPyUvvE (9m12s)

youtube.com/watch?v=V3HEu3ilspw (2m40s)

 

Why would they need to go to America, when they beat the **** out of Yanks at home?

 

You are one nationalistic ****.:deal