The first fight of his that I saw was at 122lbs, Barrera-Morales I. Marco should have won that fight, IMO. I was in awe of those two, and it was a great fight. This was a time when Pac was still fighting at 112 but planning to jump to 122. And I honestly thought he had little chance against "lesser" guys like Paulie Ayala, Tim Austin and Johnny Tapia. So in my mind, Barrera was the king of the little men fighters. I loved the way he used his left hook all night long against Morales in their third fight. It was beautiful and inspiring. He seems to be a bit of a douche outside the ring, but he'll always be remembered as a smart, technically sound boxer who could slug it out if needed.
its simple Jones has better wins than Barrera and MAB is my second all time fav fighter so im no hater.
Truly an alltime great,dont know where you could put him p4p alltime but a great warrior.Hope he ends his career with a victory.
i'm no hater, i have the upmost respect for roy jones but you just have got to admit that one critisism is that he does not have the names that he should have on his resume. throughout his prime he wanted way to much money for a fight, imagine how big a fight between him and bernard hopkins would have been during their prime, he is fighting today because he does not have the names on his resume, the only reason he fought trinidad is because its a name everybody recognises.
Barrera's top twi wins are over Morales and Hamed. Jones's top two wins are over Hopkins and Toney, so he gets the edge on top wins. Jones was also far more dominant than Barrera in his prime and hands down the #1 P4P fighter in the world, easily the best around his weight, not the case with Barrera. He was also dominant in 3 weight classes and won belts in 4, including HW. Quite remarkable for someone who started at 154. Jones also never legitimately ost in his prime, whereas Barrera did. Barrera does not match up, and even if he did, resume(as in wins) is not all that counts. Jones: Hopkins, Toney, Hill, Tarver, Ruiz, Griffin, Woods, Gonzalez, McCallum, Johnson, Trinidad, Sosa, Malinga, Pazienza, etc. Barrera: Morales X2, Hamed, Juarez X2, Peden, Kelley, Ayala, Tapia, McKinney, etc. Both fighters beat guys when past their prime as well, but when you compare Jones still has the clear edge even on paper. And definitely in the ring.
In my opinion, he definitely does have to be top 100, no arguments from me there, and I agree with your opinion of Whitaker too. And I agree with your feelings on Barrera's resume and career, as you'll see if you read my 1st entry on this thread. But I find your paragraph there on RJJ's resume very depressing. If we went through anyone's resume we could pick it apart with non-sensical circumstances and excuses. Hopkins was 'early in his career'? So what. So was RJJ. It was a clash of 2 young unbeaten middleweights stars. And Jones won. Please don't degrade that. Toney was weight-drained? Oh well, scrap that win as well then. But if you do then scrap half of the wins all great fighters have ever had then, as everyone has an excuse about why they lost, or anyone who doesn't like them has mitigating circumstances about how they won. 'Corrales was weight-drained v Mayweather', 'Calzaghe's hands hurt', 'he had a sore ear', 'he was going through a divorce', 'he really needed a **** all through the fight' and on and on and on... Hopkins and Toney were both great middleweights. If they weren't fit to fight they would've pushed it back. They got beat on the night and that's that. Of course Ruiz wasn't a great heavyweight, but it was the size difference that made it special achievement. Jones was giving away 33lbs on the weigh-in weights, definitely more than that by fight time. That's the difference between minimum/strawweight and light-welterweight. Think of Ricardo Lopez fighting Aaron Pryor! In his career RJJ also knocked out Virgil Hill, Montell Griffin, and beat Mike McCallum, all good opposition.
I remember on Barrera-Morales III, Jim Lampley told Roy Jones that with all due respect to him (Jones), he thought Barrera was the smartest active fighter in Boxing. Just wanted to share that.
i don't want to sound like a hater, but you have to admit that his win over hopkins was against a green hopkins and his win against toney, was agaisnt a weight drained james toney. Barrera's wins over hamed and morales were against two fighters in their prime. and you've filled roy jones resume with nobodies, hills fought just as many people with losing records as winning. he did great to beat ruiz but he was a poor heavyweight. woods is a decent fighter at best. sosa, malinga and pazienza are nothing great, they were lucky to be in the same ring as roy jones. Barrera has defeated far better opposition, that is why roy jones has far more critics than barrera. Barrera has a record to back up everything wheras roy jones doesn't.
The Hopkins Roy faced was green in terms of experience, not in terms of skills. You have but to watch him fight around that time to see he was at the peak of his career physically. And either way, Roy was green too in that sense, so it's basically an even matchup. As for Toney, he may have been weight-drained, that doesn't change the fact that Jones utterly dominated him and would've always beaten him given the styles. Toney knew he had a huge fight coming up, if he's too fat and lazy to get in shape that's his fault. And Hamed was not at his best for the Barrera fight, he was passing his physical prime by that point, and Barrera also lost to Morales. Hill was the LHW champion and undefeated for 7 years. And please name the people in his reign with losing records. To call Hill a nobody is the height of ignorance. True, still a shut out victory over a HW titlist, coming from a man who started his career nearly 50 pounds lighter. Perhaps, but he's a name win, just like the ones I gave on Barrera's resume. You seem to **** on all of Jones's wins but none of Barrera's, despite the fact that guys like Kelley were way past prime, as well as a guy like Tapia. Sosa was known for his brute strength, toughness, and power in close, and Jones beat him up at hiw own game and stopped him early. Malinga outboxed Nigel Benn, and Jones made him look like an amateur. He may not have been at his best either, but again, that goes for Barrera's opposition as well. I just gave you their records and completely proved you wrong. Try again.
Barrera is a lock in the top 100. His losses to Junior Jones in his prime is what really pulled him back from being a top 50 atg.