What does this prove? Floyd capped out at 154 and Jones later competed at heavyweight. they are not even close to being the same size
I struggle to see how Jones was making $2m a fight, Where's the money coming from? He wasn't a draw. No PPV. Didn't sell tickets unless underpriced. Awful viewing figures compared to Hamed and Lewis on HBO. Must be the most overpaid, risk-free fighter in history $2M back then was hideous money. I don't see it. It wasn't as if he was sponsored by Jordan, he just wore it
He was awarded a HBO contract after he beat Toney. It paid him a 3m license fee per fight. That money of course was not all for him he had to divide it with his opponent and pay for the undercard. It's the reason he behaved the way he did. Blowing off interviews and press conferences all the time because he knew even if the fight flopped he was still going to get his HBO money. Why fight Nunn when you can fight Frazier or Grant for the same money
At his prime in 2007..Maywheather barely beaten a past prime De la Hoya. A prime Jones at 154 Jones would have played with both..
I know, but Floyd fought at 154 three times, while he was considered in his prime. I'm just pointing out that Jones Jr., the green Jones Jr. would have at the least beat Floyd via comfortable, probably wide decision. Too fast, too active, too powerful, too much reach, too much athleticism. Floyd would be on defense all night. It's an interesting hypothetical is all man.
Once Roy made the jump to LHW, I couldn't place him above Floyd (P4P) or any of his peers given his strength of opposition. Or the lack thereof.
Roy was only 19 in the Olympics. When he fought as a JMW, he’d sparred Lindell Holmes and was on the verge of fighting a world class fighter in Jorge Castro. The versions of Roy who’d been a pro for 2-3 years, who’d fought Stackhouse, Vaca and Castro etc, would have beaten the version of Floyd who beat Canelo.
Skill wise Floyd has always been better than Roy. Roy just has that immense power to go along with his speed, and p4p, Roy was even faster than Floyd. Not inconceivable to say Mayweather was better than Roy in 2001.
Dariusz was stripped, but I’m of the opinion that he wouldn’t have been if he’d have relinquished his WBO belt. But I’ve never found out the specifics. Regarding King, I know that he definitely wanted future options, but not a 10 fight deal. I’ve not heard of that before. That seems excessive even by King’s standards. Those guys weren’t offered $8m.
He didn’t have all of the belts. Most of your arguments are based upon statistics. Again, it doesn’t matter if Floyd was the consensus P4P no.1 fighter in the world, whereas Roy was green. It’s how they’d have matched up stylistically. A 36 year old, 150 pound version of Floyd Mayweather, would not have beaten a 22 year old version of Roy Jones, who fought the likes of Ricky Stackhouse, Jorge Vaca and Art Serwano, just prior to fighting Jorge Castro. Apply some logic. Even though Roy was young with little experience, he was clearly a world class fighter. He was sparring with Lindell Holmes and there was no difference between the versions of Roy from 1991-1992. He was the same fighter with the exact same attributes. You’d have to be a fool to think that Floyd would have beaten those versions of Roy.
Why don’t you see it? Roy’s last official fight at JMW, was just 5 months before he fought Vaca, and less than a year before he fought Castro. What on earth would Floyd have done with him?? Floyd was 36 years old and he weighed in at 150 pounds. He was a safety first fighter with hand issues. Roy was 5’10, with a 74” reach, and he was just as fast, but with huge one shot knockout power in either hand, along with significant advantages in strength and weight. You’re kidding yourself. Again, it would basically have been a aged WW against a young MW. There’s no way Floyd was beating a 22 year old version of Roy, despite him being inexperienced. Common sense is all that’s needed here.
To answer the thread... Until Roy's decline in 2004 no one, and I mean NO ONE rated Floyd as equal to him. Jones was considered by bar the best fighter in the world p4p at that time, and he looked untouchable and unbeatable in the ring. While Floyd's performances vs J Chavez, JL Castillo and Victoriano Sosa were far from great. If you look at p4p at that time, most people had Roy at #1 (that was consesus), followed by Tito and Mosley, then Tito and Mosley lost (2001 and 2002, respectively), and Oscar, Floyd and others moved up in p4p rankings. In retrospective, Roy's extremely fast decline hurt his previous image badly, he started to lose to anyone and people thought 'Oh Roy wasn't as good as it's been said'. Floyd, on the contrary, made great career decisions, fought right guys and beat them, and thus got his p4p#1 ranking, it happened a while AFTER Roy's decline had started.
It’s been an awful long time since we debated Roy’s career. Do we believe Liles’ version of events? I’m not sure. HBO says that Liles was offered a 7 figure sum in 1996. Remember when you posted up an interview with Jack O’Halloran, who was Frankie’s ex manager? He said that they had a great fight lined up but Frankie blew it by going back and asking for more money. And O’Halloran was very angry with that, as he was absolutely convinced that Frankie had the tools to beat Roy. Those 2 sources seem pretty strong to me. I don’t believe that Frankie was only offered $400,000.
