Best Fighter That RJJ Beat?

Toney, Hopkins or McCallum.

 

Antonio Tarver
Montell Griffin
Mike McCallum
Vinny Pazienca (good record but mismatched against Roy Jones Jr!)
James Toney

 

Probably Hopkins, Toney was so irresponsible he came in as a weight drained corpse and lost before he entered the ring

 

Hopkins, Toney, Ruiz (for the * of winning a share of a heavyweight title), McCallum, Tarver probably in that order.

You can take away all the credit you want for Toney not training properly … but are we only going to count Toney’s wins and say all his losses are due to OD-ing on cookies and cupcakes? I guess he’s invincible if so, lol.

 

If the goal is just one name, it's Bernard Hopkins.
Their story (RJJ and Bernard Hopkins) is also interesting.
RJJ wins and 17 years later Bernard Hopkins wins.
And
can someone explain to me the difference in the questions:
Best Fighter That RJJ Beat?
Best Boxer That RJJ Beat?

 

Hopkins
Toney
McCallum

 

Toney, McCallum, Hill, Hopkins, Tarver. Ruiz sucked, but, given the size differential, it was still impressive.

 

These are definitely his top three, at least in name

 

Reggie Johnson and he dominated a damn good fighter.

Thulane Maligna who LATTER became a Two time champion and Roy is the only one to ever stop Maligna when Maligna was in his prime. Eubank and Benn didn't.

Stephan Johnson - the late Johnson latter became a pretty soild contender who had wins over Pettway who latter became a champion and Wise who would go on to beat Chavez. Also beat Kronk Anthony Jones and had two good fights with Kevin Pompey.
Jones stopped him on his SECOND fight.

 

John Ruiz

 

Good call on Virgil Hill. Best one-punch body shot stoppage I’ve ever seen. My ribs ache thinking about it.

 

For me it means the following:

In very general terms...

A fighter is who they are as a person. A fighter is someone who doesn't give up, doesn't get easily discouraged and is willing to do whatever is needed to win. Being a fighter is inside you and isn't something that can be taught.

Micky Ward is a fighter, so is Shawn Porter. Their main strengths were their determination and toughness. Fighters can take a punch and often are willing to trade punches to get the job done. Fighters can have talent like boxers but it's not the biggest strength they possess.

A boxer is someone who has learned the skillset of boxing. They may look at the sport as a business to make money. Maybe they like to fight, maybe they don't. A boxer knows proper techniques, both defensive and offensive, doesn't mind boxing tweleve rounds if required. They do not want to trade punches. They view boxing as the art of "Hit and don't get hit" Their main strengths are technique and usually one other above average attribute like speed or power.

Mike Tyson is a boxer. Rigondeaux is a boxer. When the going got tough for Tyson he tended to get frustrated and not work in the clinch. Tyson rarely overcame those who stood up to him or provided any real resistance. Rigo quit in his corner when Loma ate his soul.

Fighters can be boxers. Boxers can be fighters. The true greats in the sport are both.

Think Ali.

Ali fought the Supreme court. Ali fought the draft. Ali fought against racism. Ali fought monsters he was supposed to lose to like Liston and Foreman. Ali was a fighter inside, he wouldn't quit against Larry Holmes even though he lost every round. His corner had to save him as fighters don't usually have any quit in them.

Ali could also box and did so beautifully. For examples of this watch Ali versus Folley, Terrell, Liston, Foreman, etc.

 

At the time he beat them? Blimey that’s tricky. Hopkins, Toney, McCallum, Hill and R.Johnson nowhere near their best, all 10 years away from their best or in Toney’s case a walking zombie.

Griffin of course didn’t have time to warm up prior etc, no Futch etc.

Maybe Tarver is the answer.

 

Bernard Hopkins is the front runner. James Toney and Mike McCallum are next in line and it’d depend on who you rank higher. They are followed by Tarver, Trinidad (if you wanna discount weight jumps and quality decline) and Virgil Hil