Best of the this Era???- ESPN

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/columns/story?columnist=raskin_eric&id=3485164


Calzaghe-Jones and an era in judgment




When future civilizations look back upon boxing in the 1990s and 2000s, it's a near certainty that this will be recalled as the Oscar De La Hoya Era. "The Golden Boy" has been the defining fighter of his generation.
But with five losses accumulated and little (if any) time spent atop the pound-for-pound lists, De La Hoya has not been the best fighter of his generation.
The question of who has been the premier pugilist of the past 15 years is very much up for debate. There are probably 10 different fighters for whom you can make a case.
And two of them just signed to fight each other at Madison Square Garden on Sept. 20.
Among the many subplots fueling interest in Joe Calzaghe vs. Roy Jones, perhaps the most compelling is how the outcome of the fight could affect the debate over who has ruled the ring for the past 15 years.
If defending light heavyweight champion Calzaghe wins, as he's generally expected to, he will have extended his record to 46-0 while defeating two fighters in the best-of-the-era debate, Bernard Hopkins and Jones, back-to-back.
The obvious counterpoint: Hopkins was 43 when they fought and Jones will be four months shy of 40, so the name value of the victories would far exceed the actual merit.
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If Jones pulls off the upset, it would undo some of the damage done by his losses to Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson. It would mark Jones' first win over a championship-caliber opponent (no, an undersized, comeback-attempting Felix Trinidad doesn't count) since his reflexes began to dull, and would prove that he can compensate for his shortcomings and positively respond to adversity the way most of boxing's great champions have.
And don't forget -- Jones ruled the pound-for-pound list for the bulk of a decade, from 1994 to 2004. At his best, he was the closest thing to unbeatable that we have seen in recent years.
The underlying question, however, is whether he would have looked so unbeatable against tougher opposition.

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The matter of wasting prime years fighting fringe contenders is one that haunts Calzaghe as well.
Since 2006, the Welshman has faced the ultimate challenges and risen to them, becoming undisputed super middleweight champ by whipping Jeff Lacy and taming Mikkel Kessler, then rising to light heavyweight to knock off the division's best in Hopkins.
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For nearly the whole decade before that, however, Calzaghe was content to defend his alphabet belt against Bum Of The Month Club types (though Calzaghe's un-Joe-Louis-like schedule made it more of a "Bum Every Six Months Club").

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Roach has his inherent biases in favor of Pacquiao and Hopkins, so he's reluctant to issue his own ranking -- especially at this juncture.
"I don't think Bernard has fought for the last time, there's a good chance he'll fight again," Roach revealed. "And that's what makes it tough to judge all of these guys -- a lot of them aren't done yet. You can't really decide who was the best of the era until they're retired and everything is said and done."
Whenever that time comes, however, the events of Sept. 20, 2008, are sure to affect the positioning.
If you like fighters with perfect records whose careers ended on a series of high notes, then maybe Calzaghe is king.
If you like unparalleled athletic gifts and perhaps a late-career, poor man's Ali-over-Foreman triumph to provide an exclamation point, then maybe it is Roy who has reigned supreme.
Either way, Calzaghe vs. Jones isn't likely to settle the debate.
But it should at least narrow the field of candidates by one.

 

Bernstein said it best. Pacquiao & Lewis are the two who fought the best. You can argue as much as you want but no denying what Pac has done. Pac has more to go and will be clearly ahead of Lewis once he beat Hatton. I have claimed it in the Past and now Boxing writers are acknowledging it now. If Pac is the best in the era where RJJ, PBF, DLH, Calzghe & Lewis reign, Then I'm not that far off in my Claim that Pac is already a Top 10 ATG.

 

This is new. Just came of ESPN. Check the link!!!

 

Whitaker is not part of the equation. He belongs to the 80-90s era.

 

Tell that to Bernstein!!! He rated Pac over your Favorites.