The three major pound-for-pound number 1s since the careers of Pernell Whitaker and Julio Cesar Chavez began to wind down in the mid-1990s. Who do you think is the greatest of the three pound-for-pound and why?
I still say RJJ. At his peak he was simply the greatest fighter of the three. Beat Hopkins and Toney convincingly, 1993-2003 he was unstoppable. B-Hop 2nd, PBF 3rd.
spot on :good I might add that RJJ was also beating fighters like Pavlik and making them look like nobodies, the same thing BHOP did last night. The only difference is that he never got much credit for those wins.
If resume, it's Hopkins, not even close. If talent, Roy all the way. Overall... wow that's tought. But I prefer resume in ATG lists... Can very green Hopkins, P4P#2 Toney (!), Griffin (1: LDQ, 2: WKO1), McCallum, Hill (already beat by the Tiger), LHW mismatches, hand-picked Ruiz, steroid beat of Hall, close win and lossed to Tarver, over-the-hill-and-inactive Tito and a lot of missed chances (Dariusz, Calzaghe, SMW match-ups) beat undefeated, green Johnson, P4P top5 Tito, Holmes, Echols, P4Per DLH (okay, Hop was too big - but special win there as well: one-punch body punch KO), (Taylor if you score any of them for Hopkins), P4Per Tarver at LHW, P4P#2 Winky, (close loss to Calzaghe, maybe you scored that for Bernard) and P4P top5 Pavlik? No way... Mayweather? Don't get me wrong, but he fought only one actual P4Per... and that's Hatton moving up in weight which everybody knew would favour Floyd.... Based on resume and recent performances, BHop over Jones... I've never imagined I'd say such a thing. But I've never imagined a performance like that even if I expected BHop to win on points.
Jones would rank top 25, perhaps top 20 for me. Mayweather around 35. Hopkins could of launched himself in the top 35 now aswell, though probably more likely to be around 40.
Hopkin's resume has far more substance than the other two. Jones and Floyd both avoided too many challengers and took the easy routes.