Better Legacy: Hopkins or RJJ

Hahaha!!

 

I am fairly certain Ugly is waiting until he retires before coming out. lol

 

It highlights his character.

He made incredible sacrifices to spend 12/13 years in a weak division.

It needs to be taken into account when an*lysing his career.

Roy could probably have spent over a decade at SMW had he wanted. But he didn't, because he was more ambitious.

 

Interesting article/interview:

http://thelab.bleacherreport.com/roy-jones-jr-s-br-long-goodbye/

 

I like how he looks up a couple of times to make sure no one was watching him, then immediately puts his eyes back on the man ass.:rofl

 

bailey,

Fair enough. At that specific point in time, Bernard biding his time for another opportunity wasn't a lack of ambition. But staying in a generally weak division for years was.

His options were obviously to move up to either SMW or LHW to pursue bigger fights.

I agree. There's no way he could have expected 50/50. Roy had beaten him and he'd have had to move down in weight.

Bernard obviously didn't want the fight. According to reports, he turned down $6m and demanded $10m. After negotiations had broken down, he didn't go on to fight again for another 13 months.

Fair enough, but in my opinion, that was through a lack of ambition. Roy could have made many defences of his IBF, SMW belt, and waited for other title opportunities in the future. But he didn't. He took on new challeges. Again, in my opinion, that was more impressive than Bernard's long reign which eventually lead to a fight with Tito. It took him almost 8 years.

They were both dominant, but Roy hardly lost rounds to most of his competition.

I agree on all counts, but I was looking at height, reach and natural weight.

I agree that Bernard showed ambition, but again, in my opinion, only from 2006 onwards.

Toney deserves a lot of credit for his HW exploits.

Good points. I wasn't talking about all of Roy's competition.

Again, that doesn't impress me that much. Because any world class fighter who stays in a division for 8 years, should be able to clear it out, unless there's any circumstances involved that prevent it.

Most definitely. Bernard's longevity is a huge achievment. I have a great deal of respect for it.

I agree. And I think had Bernard been really confident, he'd have taken the fight. His refusal to take it speaks volumes.

He was happy to fight him in 2010, and Steve Bunce told the BoxNation viewers a few years ago, that Bernard had told him that the 93 loss had been on his mind literally every day. Which means that in 2002, he'd lived it with it for 9 years at that point, yet he didn't do anything about it when he had the chance.

Fighting guys like Kovalev at 50, is remarkable. But I don't think Bernard would have ever have taken a fight like that in his 30's.

Bernard was taller than a lot of his MW opposition and had advantages in reach. This is what a lot of people are overlooking, and that Roy fought a few fights as a JMW.

I think Bernard's got a great overall resume, and again his longevity is unrivalled. But I don't think he should be ranked higher than Roy.


:good

 

You already got me last month with your joke about Enzo.

I'm not falling for it again.

 

An absolutely fantastic article by Brin-Jonathan Butler. I read it just before Christmas.


What are your thoughts regarding Serge's post? (post no. 225, on page 15)

Read it, and then come back and tell me it's embarrassing to compare the two fighters.


:good

 

:good

 

You've made some great points, especially regarding Bernard's antics. I never believed he was injured against Dawson. In my opinion, he was definitely looking for a way out of the fight.

 

The Enzo thing was me joking, which I thought you would have got when I wrote about spicing the thread up.

With Erdei it is completely different. Erdei was very talented, with a will to win, undefeated and went on to become a very good LHW that had several title defences and had other fighters who you rate fighting Erdeis leftovers.

Erdei was a top LHW and once again I cant think of a better LHW that Roy beat at the time Roy beat them