Yeah, he's more accomplished. If you look at absolutely every piece of criteria, then Joe is out there on his own. But personally, I think it's more than reasonable to rate guys based upon their ability. It wouldn't matter to me if Joe was 70-0. He wasn't a better fighter than Roy was at his peak. He didn't have more ability and he doesn't have any singular win better than Roy's win over Toney. He never fought any better SMW's than Toney. He simply just fought more fights at the weight. Whilst Roy was clearing out the LHW division, Joe made more defences of his title. That's the only difference. Roy easily beat guys like Malinga and Lucas, and Joe just amassed more of those level of fighters on his resume. He never proved that he was a better fighter than Roy, he just simply stayed in the division for considerably longer. That's it. For those same reasons, I personally wouldn't say that Joe was a better SMW than Andre Ward either. I rate Ward on par with Joe, despite Joe having more title defences etc. Many people also rate on a H2H basis. Whenever these threads appear, there's not many people who rate Sven Ottke in the top 2 positions along with Joe. Most people on here wouldn't put Ottke in their top 5.
Oh please, you have a massive hard on for Calzaghe I now remember your biased ass when it comes to Calzaghe and Ward. I mean, sure, you could break down the resumes. IMO it´s close, not that I would really argue with anyone having Calzaghe over Ward.
Yeah, exactly what I said. They spent the majority of their careers outside of 168 even though they could have easily stayed and dominated there. Pit stops
Yeah, I remember how amazed we all were at calzaghes string of achievements. The world stopped when he fought, it was an event.
Damn straight. Remember when people expected him to finally get murked in this one against a dangerous killer: This content is protected
who doesnt? lacy was considered a once in a generation talent and was set to destroy calz, but the dragon was not to be denied. legendary stuff. right up there with ali-foreman.
Maybe, but being the greatest super middleweight of all time is like being the greatest midget wrestler ever
He didn’t fight any greats. I never said that. But he fought very good fighters. Fighters who were better than most of Joe’s opponents at SMW. And he beat most of them them emphatically with consummate ease. All of which proved that Roy had more overall ability in his prime. Yes, it was in a different division, but it’s relevant to this thread when you’re rating on ability, on a H2H basis. Whilst Joe struggled with and scraped by a guy like Robin Reid, Roy destroyed Montel Griffin and Virgil Hill. Whilst Joe sometimes looked poor against low level opposition, Roy embarrassed guys like Reggie Johnson. The only reason Joe is considered a better SMW than Roy, is because he stayed at the weight for 14 years, whereas Roy only stayed there for 2.
