H2H best SMW's ever

It's astonishing to think Jones somehow missed Benn, Collins, Liles, Brewer, and earlier, Parks, McClellan, and later, Nunn. Collins, Nigel, Nunn and McClellan had all headlined Vegas before the Jones-Toney fight. Lamar Parks, Liles and Brewer were US-based. Surely all of those fights weren't impossible to make?

 

H2H the best SMW ever is Roy Jones and by some distance. Anyone who says otherwise is either lying to themselves or hasn't got a clue about boxing.

 

jones and ward.

after that benn and toney and lilles.

then take your pick from eubank, froch, Kessler, Mitchell, reid and calwardzaghe

 

Both HBO and Liles's own manager have confirmed that he turned down his biggest payday to fight Roy.

 

I really enjoy reading your posts, because you have an awful lot of knowledge regarding the MW's and SMW's of the 90's.

However, at times, you make some silly comments.

Now why on earth would Roy have made an effort to fight Charles Brewer?? He'd beaten nobody of note at MW, and had lost two fights there. Then in 1994, the same year that Roy beat Toney, Brewer lost three out of four fights, two of which were by stoppage. Then shortly afterwards, Roy moved up to LHW, while Brewer remained at SMW where he ended up fighting Joe.

Roy didn't fight lots of great fighters at the weight, due to circumstances. He only stayed there a few years. But we saw his capabilities. We also saw his capabilities as a MW and a LHW. So head to head, even though Roy only had about 7 fights at the weight, I don't honestly know who would rank above him. IMHO, nobody in the history of the division would have beaten Roy at 26, if he'd have been fully fit and fighting to his full capabilities. He has to be the greatest fighter who's ever fought at the weight.

 

It's a great debate, but I think Joe and Collins are too high.

 

No.

 

We've discussed this before. It's just circumstances.

Name me any fighter, and I'll give you a list of names who he didn't fight for whatever reason.

Everyone who knows anything about Roy, knows that he did nothing at MW, until he split from his father in 92, because Big Roy had stifled his progress.

Most of those fights weren't really viable at MW, and then they didn't happen at SMW for various reasons.

Again, HBO and Jack O'Halloran (Liles's manager) have both spoke of how Frankie turned down the fight at SMW. Liles had beaten Nunn at that point.

Again, Brewer had done nothing. It's just ridiculous to even mention his name.

Lamar Parks only had a five career, and he retired in 1993, which was Roy's break out year when he beat Hopkins for the vacant IBF belt.

According to the Levin brothers, King wanted options on Roy in 95 for a Benn fight.

Gerald obviously never fought again after the tragic Benn fight.

Collins got left behind when Roy decided to move up to LHW. Collins was tough, but he was limited and held the lightly regarded WBO belt.

 

I know, I'll get a lot of hate, but don't you think that Ottke needs to be mentioned?

 

:deal

 

its the opposite, he shouldn't be mentioned ever.

except in fakery threads.

 

Interesting.

Where would you rank him though?

It's a tough one.

I'd be absolutely amazed if anyone ranked him in their top 5.

 

1 Jones
2 Toney
3 Calzaghe
4 Ward/Benn/Eubank
5 Collins/Kessler/Froch

It's not a given that Toney would have defeated Calzaghe, or that Calzaghe would have triumphed against Ward/Benn/Eubank. But Ward has only put in a couple of good performences during S6 and Calzaghe defeated Eubank while he was still game and dangerous. I honestly haven't watched enough of Benn to predict his chanses against Calzaghe, I just make an assumption from over all accomplishments. So I think my rating of him is fairly resonable.

The option would be to put Slappy together with Ward, Benn and Eubank, but like I wrote, Ward shouldn't be overrated and Eubank wasn't able to deal with Calzaghe in the real world, and even on ESB reality needs to be paid at least some amount of respect.