Toney wasn't prime at 168.....but still I agree it's a better opponent than GGG ever beat. He needs to demolish Canelo IMO to start placing him with RJJ. Nothing else will fo...not a UD or a split decision.
Everyone agrees Roy got blatantly robbed of an Olympic gold. That was diabolical BUT It actually helped Roy's career He refused to fight abroad & some of his "title defences"were actually laughable. Schoolteachers , Postmen & even a garbage collector got a shot LOL
This matchup is more complicated than people are making it. The problem with “prime Jones at 160” is that he didn’t spend his prime years there. Either you evaluate this as the Hopkins/Tate 160 version of Jones or else hypothesize that he could have stayed at the weight without suffering dininished returns. He would be favored against GGG, regardless. The issue would be whether you think it’s an 8-4 Hopkins type win, a 12-0 Toney shutout or possibly a late knockout.
I respect that, but I think the speed factor would have just be too great. Canelo kept him in the centre of the ring for large parts of their fight. Roy would have pot shotted him and then jumped out of range.
He possesses the power. He possesses the pressure. It's whether or not he could have utilised them. It's no good possessing those attributes, if you can't utilise them, because you're significantly slower and easy to hit with a smaller reach. It's a bad stylistic match up for GG, more so than vice versa.
Why? Look who he did get in the ring with. Look who he tried to get in the ring with. Why would he have been bothered about fighting a slower guy, who's very easy to hit with a smaller reach?
It doesn't really matter that he didn't stay at MW for a prolonged period of time. Because he easily beat credible fighters in the weight classes above, whilst possessing the exact same attributes that he'd displayed earlier.
He didn't duck him. He just didn't want to take 3 belts to Germany for the money that he was offered.