Simply because of the quality of opposition, Pea is better by miles. It's not close. I'm not a fan, but for Jones fights, check out the Toney and Pazienza outings. The guy had serious skills.
Jones' level of dominance was something scary and his speed was unheard of for a guy his size. It was simply incredible. He didn't have a champion's heart imo, but he didn't need it to wipe the floor with guys like Toney and Hopkins.
Which several ATGs? Hopkins was no atg when Jones faced him. Far from it. He improved tremendously, and the Jones fight played a big role in that IMO. The Hopkins who Jones fought was still 4 years removed from his prime. It´s still a good win because Hopkins was a decent contender back then. At the time Jones was seen as the next big thing while Hopkins wasn´t thought of as anything. Toney? Well, that was a very good win indeed. But for one Toney was as weight drained as a figter can be, highlighted by the fact that he never again came near the smw limit. Everybody can see that and it can´t be ignored. Another thing is that Jones had a great style advantage. Toney was awesome, one of the best fighters against pressure fighters but against mobile fighters with fast feet he has no chance. Kalambay would have made Toney look as bad as Jones did IMO. I disagree. I pick most atg mws and lhws to beat him. He has the ability but lacks the mindset and will to beat them.
Once you take away the great reflexes, hand speed, overall athleticism, two-fisted power, ring generalship and instincts, he was rather mediocre.
In his prime he was in a realm of his own. He was like Mayweather, Zab Judah and Julian Jackson combined.
Jones was probably the most naturally gifted athelete in boxing ever. His style was very unorthodox though, and I dont know how anyone could question his heart. He was realistically a super middleweight at best sizewise, and his style was coming forward and throwing a lot of power shots. He was not a defensive survival type fighter, he got in there and took chances, but his speed allowed him to do it. To me fighting a guy like John Ruiz is far more of a risk than fighting any version of Bernard Hopkins, especially the older one that picked his spots and fought at a slower pace. Jones would have boxed circles around him at LH or super middle.
:rofl So true, but it's hard to measure punch resistance when no one really landed on him. Hard to measure heart when conditioning and skills had dominated the pace in his fights. His fight against an old Mike McCallum wasn't overlly impressive. When it seemed there was a window of opportunity to turn up the heat he usually preferred to take safety first which is probably a fair criticism of Roy Jones as a fighter.
It is. And the same can be said of Mayweather, another fighter of supreme skill. They are safety first, spectacular fights fifth. That's why you can't help but love a guy like Pac.
To be fair, Jones really liked Mcallum as a friend, and said after the fight he took it easy on him out of respect. I think he could have knocked him out if he wanted to.
it does seem accurate to say roy was alot like Ali wth his reflexes and speed, and lacking somewhat in technical ability getting by on their physical advantages.the main difference of course is heart as has already been pointed out and possibly chin.