ATG: Who Ranks Higher? Roy Jones Jr or Evander Holyfield?

'greats of the past' is a term I hear on commentary a couple of times in 80s fights

 

Okay.

I’ve been hearing it for years, along with P4P.

 

No specific criteria, just a consensus great fighter.

Floyd and Manny etc.

 

Holyfield is far greater than Jones in terms of the standards of history, being a true warrior and fighting in the pocket with the best. It's not up for debate. One would've been laughed out of Yankee Stadium or Chicago for trying to hop around the ring like a bunny, the Blue Horizon or Spectrum in the 70s would've emptied in protest at a supposed fake in that right lead stance

 

Hahahahaah

Why not concentrate on what actually happened instead of mixing eras and weights in some fantasy

 

I don't consider Mayweather a great fighter, an extremely effective one at winning but not proven great based on past standards of all the times

 

Jones is possibly a 'modern great' so to speak for his fights and wins against Castro and Toney, and avenging defeat against a fighter for the revered WBC green belt (although it was initially a vacant title!) and scoring a body shot knockout against a top ten contender

That's at a massive push. He didn't rematch Toney or unify any division he hopped about in, then was knocked out cold many times?

Modern times he was really cool, basketball and roosters, cool stuff. But would he survive fighting every two weeks against Langford, Burley, LaMotta, Moore, Robinson, Armstrong, Charles and dozens and dozens of others near that class, who are Montell Griffin x10 with tactical nouse, parries and shoulder rolls and not on an IV drip before the fight

 

He couldn't lace the horse hair gloves of Bob Fitzsimmons or Billy Conn

 

Think what fighting marine Gene Tunney would do to him! Or Bennie Briscoe on a same-day weigh-in at the bitterly hostile Horizon, he was a 90s Hopkins x5

 

You can’t really compare a guy who only fought in one weight class to a guy who fought and won titles in 4. It wouldn’t be fair. But Roy obviously achieved more.

Their resumes are pretty close I think.

Evander obviously had 6 huge fights against Tyson, Lewis and Bowe. But he lost to Bowe 2-1, and he didn’t beat Lennox. So his best wins were 2 great wins against a still very good, but faded version of Mike, and 1 over Bowe.

Obviously, the Tyson win was huge. It’s one of the biggest wins and upsets in the sports history. But in terms of quality, is it any higher than Roy’s win over Toney? We have to look at this on a P4P basis, without just immediately saying Tyson, just because it was Tyson and it was a mega fight with huge PPV.

Evander’s best wins are:

Qawi
Foreman
Holmes
Bowe
Moorer
Mercer
Tyson x 2


Roy’s best wins are:


Hopkins
Toney
Griffin
Hill
Reggie
Ruiz
Tarver

I think it’s very close.

 

Roy is the best you've seen in an 'eye test'? Were you blind watching his first fight with unheralded Futch-tactic'd Montell Griffin?

Or the knockdown suffered against novice Lou Del Valle in which he turned his head away from a jab like an amateur?

 

On a highlight reel, Jones Jr has the best speed, reflexes, knockouts and stoppages.

That's bull**** though, that's not what the old timers revered as great.

 

Ranking them is very subjective, but I think most people can agree on whether someone was a great fighter or not.

 

Of course it’s up for debate.

Roy started out at MW and then ended up at HW, beating very good fighters along the way, where most of those opponents were dominated with ease.

 

I can’t stand Floyd as a person, but nobody can argue that he wasn’t great.