Is it Controversial to Rank Roy Jones above Mayweather ?

It's a niche opinion. Roy's and Mayweather's careers went in opposite directions as they ended their runs. Floyd never reached the absolute highs of Roy but he also didn't remotely touch the lows of Roy's career.

 

As someone who watched both of their careers carefully as they unfolded (including 10+ fights in person) it is insanity to argue Mayweather is better. Jones was MUCH better prime for prime. And would destroy Mayweather pound-for Pound.

 

That’s probably the best way I’ve ever heard it summed up when comparing these two

 

Not controversial because most people here would probably agree (mostly cause they love Jones and hate Mayweather) but objectively speaking Mayweather had a much better career. Beat better opponents, beat more good opponents, and had longevity that Jones never did.

 

As others are touching upon, a lot will hinge on how you rate your fighters. I judge exclusively on career achievements (head-to-head is a separate thing for me, in the hypothetical category & thus distinct, as it isn’t a real-world accomplishment). From that end, yes I do feel it’s somewhat controversial to place Jones above Mayweather. You can’t ignore the way their careers ended, the gulf is colossal.

As for who was better on his best night, I don’t think that’s as one-sided in Jones’ favour as some here are suggesting, either.

 

You’re right about opponent quality. Did everyone here live through Jones’ era as it happened? He was constantly criticised for his choice of competition.

 

Yes.

 

P4P is an arbitrary thing that depends how you weight acheivements at different weight classes. I can think of a lot of different criteria that'd give either the nod over the other.


But yeah Roy might be the most popular American non HW boxer ever and Floyd might be the least. People will twist themselves into knots to put Roy over someone else just like they twist themselves into knots to give Jones the lineal LHW belt in the 90s(there were good reasons for it but I question whether someone else would have gotten the same treatment).

While you can put Roy above Floyd, Floyd has a better argument for being the P4P GOAT of boxing and you can argue putting him higher than you can argue putting Roy. H2H Roy would have been a HW in most eras and hed obviously have won an encounter between the 2.

Note-Roy fought at HW once you know what I mean when I say "non HW boxer".

 

No controversy in my mind. Roy matches up well in most mythical head to head match ups with other ATGs at 160 to 175. I can’t think of any fighter who I’d confidently say beats Roy 10 out of 10 times. Meanwhile, Hitman Hearns is THAT GUY who immediately comes to mind as Floyd’s kryptonite. I’m saying 10 out of 10. The only questions are (1) How many times does Floyd lose by decision? (2) Would Floyd swerve Hearns to protect his “0”?

I’d love to read the rationale behind any dissenting opinions.

 

The first time I've watched Floyd fight was his bout vs Jesus Chavez. I was completely unimpressed. Why this guy is even mentioned in top-5 p4p discussion? Then the fight vs Castillo followed. Floyd was unimpressive once again and should've lost that fight. So my first opinion on Floyd wasn't too high.

Granted, he had very impressive performances earlier and obviously had a great career later. But Floyd was never considered as some indestructible force with unhuman abilities like Roy in his prime.

Roy's career on the other hand suffered badly after he turned 35. It was a disastrous turnaround

I rate Floyd higher overall (Jones had many bad losses and quickly went from extremely special to mediocre) but at their peak Roy was on another level

 

He has two wins but overall Floyd has more good wins and was more consistent

 

H2H is subjective while career accomplishments are not. Joe Louis could fight at light heavyweight with early weigh ins and rehydration as could many other classical heavyweights like Marciano, Patterson, etc so unless you have Roy beating all of them that argument doesn't seem to hold much weight