Hearns v Roy Jones at either 160, 168 or 175 eras for eras who wins?

I disagree he opened guys up better than Roy. Marvin did use the jab more than Roy. And yes Duran was far better than Paz. But here's a question, how does Roberto Duran even begin to handle Roy. Roy is bigger, stronger and faster than Sugar Ray who sucessfully hit and ran Duran back in 81'. Is there any possible gameplan that Roberto could implement to beat Roy? I don't see one. Roy would dominate him,far more convincingly than Hagler did. Though I don't think Roy could do what Hagler did to Hearns.

 

Give Roy some credit.

He was a very smart fighter.

He would never have signed for the fight and then fought negatively.

Neither Ray, Marvin, Benitez or Hill could outbox Hearns.

Why would Roy have tried to?

You needed aggression in order to beat him.

Roy had a badly injured hand against Bernard, and no, Bernard didn't turn into a genius.

The higher up in weight you go, the less chance Hearns would have had. He was already past his best against Ray at SMW.

 

Roy did not duck the best competition for years.

Yes, he didn't fight the greats that Tommy did. But there weren't any guys of that calibre to fight were there?

 

How can the Ruiz win have been a joke?

Again, he didn't avoid tough competition.

It is a complete and utter myth that has been debunked time and again.

 

Everyone would have loved Roy to have fought those guys. But you can't just name drop guys he missed and then accuse him of ducking them.

It's a joke that you've mentioned Eubank. A guy who admitted that he didn't go out of his way to fight the top U.S. MW's and SMW's of his era, as he was more than content to just defend his WBO belt.

You tell us who Roy ducked, and give us some sort of evidence.

 

Great post.

The rematch with Hopkins never happened, as old Bernie demanded $10m or no fight, before going on to call out JMW's.

Calzaghe was happy at SMW defending his lightly regarded WBO belt, and he had no U.S. regognition until he hammered Lacy in 2006.

 

That was awesome by Tommy, but it was just a horrible stylistic match up for Duran.

According to Duran, he wasn't fully prepared for the fight. And he was probably telling the truth. Although I don't think it would have made a difference either way.

Roy didn't beat a Duran level fighter at the higher weights, but he still put in some great performances.

 

You're all over the place here.

You can't compare all of these different stylistic match ups.

By all accounts, James was drained at SMW against a peak version of Roy Jones. Yes, Duran looked better against other opponents, than what Toney did against Roy. But was does that mean? That doesn't mean that Duran would have beaten Toney at MW/SMW.

Reggie Johnson was an elusive southpaw who was much bigger than Duran. They're just completely different fights.

Hearns may have landed more shots on Griffin than Roy did in their first fight. But what does that mean? Roy would have had a birthday against Barkley, a guy who beat Hearns.

 

So how would he have beaten Roy at those higher weights?

 

It was said at the time. All the time. It isn't just now years later.

 

You can do this with anyone's resume.

John Ruiz was never considered a great HW. And he never will be. He was horrible to watch with a really ugly style. But he was a top 10 ranked HW. And any former MW who beats any top 10 ranked HW from any era, deserves credit. Especially if they beat said fighter with consummate ease.

What about looking at how the other LHW's of Roy's era may have done against him?

 

Roy wanted to fight Frankie Liles, Dariusz (in the U.S.) and a 2002 rematch with Hopkins.

He would also have fought King's other fighters, if they could have reached a compromise.

 

Nunn was a great talent who suffered issues outside the ring.

The Tiberi fight shouldn't really be taken into account here. The exact version of Toney who fought Tiberi could never have beaten McCallum, Nunn or Johnson.

You'd have to assume that Toney would have been in the best shape possible for a MW bout against Hearns.

 

We know why he was only there for 2 years.

 

Was trying to fight Liles not taking a chance?

Roy didn't have a Fab Four calibre guy to fight.

Tommy is a legend and he deserves huge plaudits. But you cannot punish Roy for not fighting a Leonard or a Hagler type opponent.