Greatest light heavyweight of the last 25 years?

Voted Jones though he declined in 2003-2004 so he wasn't dominant in the last 25 years but I think at his peak on his best night which is within the 25 year timeline he beats or could beat anyone on that list.

Bivol should also be near the top due to consistency and ability

Dawson had the talent to be up there but I just don't think he quite fulfilled his promise. He looked very good beating Hopkins and took out the old guard of Johnson and Tarver with a nice win over Adamek

Ward had the ability but not enough fights

Stevenson had a great punch but I felt was limited and lacked signature wins after Dawson

Hopkins had a great run but was clearly better at 160

Kovalev was dominant but did not have great wins minus the first Ward fight that he should have gotten. I think he is another one that should be ranked highly

Beterbiev has an argument too. It is a shame the Bivol fight happened so late

 

Beterbiev:

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/facts-about-beterbiev.698578/

Jones's LHW record was 21-6, 12 stoppage wins.

 

Of that list,,I don't see a greatest..they are all on a similar level

 

Great question lots of good fighters prime for prime I got Roy then beterbiev.. a tournament of these guys in their prime would be insane

 

It's interesting Roy goes over Bivol in most people's minds. What you accomplish in the ring doesn't seem to matter much to most fans if you have the "it" factor, sadly.

Roy Jones arguably didn't even fight the other two best light heavies of his day- Maske and, of course, Michalczewski.

No disrespect to RJJ, a truly great and extremely talented/skilled fighter. It's just that I can't see how he was a greater LHW than Bivol.

 

Bivol.

RJJs resume from 01 to 05 consists of 3 losses to Tarver & Johnson.

 

To be fair, Jones lost a lot of his LHW fights later, and an early one by DQ in a fight he was winning and had just dropped one opponent.

I think Beterbiev/Canelo/Zurdo/Pascal/Barrera/JSJ has to be a better resume than Bivol/Gvozdyk/Smith/Browne/JSJ surely. (Although, it's best to discuss that without their wins against each other) I get the argument for Beterbiev though- he did what he did in old age. Definitely adds a different dimension to his greatness.

 

Given Beterbiev beat a 33 year old Bivol just 3 months removed from his 40th birthday, he has to rate higher. Beterbiev also has the 2nd best win in Gvozdyk for the Ring title, and he's a KO threat as well as an equally good or better pointfighting threat, and possibly harder to stop than Bivol too. They've both beaten a lot of 2nd tier guys. It would have suited Beterbiev to get the Bivol fight several years prior and he still won anyway.

 

Beterbiev, followed closely by Kovalev who was widely ducked in his prime and subsequently robbed of an all time great victory.

 

I’ve gone for Kovalev

 

People really don’t appreciate how elite Kovalev was in his prime. That jab to the body was one of the best punches in boxing at that time along with his right hand.

 

Throwing no shade at the others but going strictly by what they did post-1999 it seems like it has to be Beterbiev, Bivol or Kovalev. Although Kovalev may have been the most dominant of the three, his four title fight losses put him behind the others. Although Bivol and Beterbiev's signature wins came against each other I'm giving the nod to Beterbiev based on his power.

 

Kovalev is my favourite, and I think at his peak he showed the highest level, but unfortunately he doesn't have the signature win that his talent commands.

 

Beterbiev.