Is it Controversial to Rank Roy Jones above Mayweather ?

It takes a lot of polish off of that first MW to win the HW title since Fitz when you realise Roy beat Thomas Tate and John Ruiz to accomplish that, never holding the lineal title in either division and never being ranked as the no. 1 fighter at either weight.

 

"To be the man you have to beat the man" - Roy Jones Jr himself.

It sounds weird looking at his career, doesn't it? He never beat the man at any division he campaigned. I can live with Ruiz gimmick - you beat a paper title holder and made a lot of noise, ok. But I never got over The Ring Magazine crowning him the champion at light heavy when he wasn't the lineal champion and he basically held 3 belts to which Michalczewski had the claim also. And to two of these he had even bigger claim, winning them of the lineal champion in the division being stripped for RIDICULOUS reasons. IBF stripped him cause he couldn't fight a mandatory a month after his Hill fight, and WBA stripped him because he also held the WBO belt. LOL.

To be fair tho, Michalczewski was fighting a much worse competition than Jones did after he became the man, so it's possible that Dariusz could lose the recognition. In my eyes tho Jones got solidified as the champ when Gonzales beat Dariusz. Jones already beat this guy. Sort of like a Holmes coronation by The Ring after Weaver beat Tate.

 

Roy's good enough you can put him any place high and I won't whine. Roy on the lower end of ratings it an affront to talent though.

 

Tate went 12 rounds with Julian Jackson and gave him a close fight in a war. That is some achievement considering P4P Jackson is one of the hardest hitting fighters of all time.

Jones stopped Tate easily in only 2 rounds and was the only fighter to ever legitimately stop him in 48 fights it's an underrated win.

 

Tate never even had an annual top 5 finish at 160.

 

Beat more good opponents and had longevity is true, but Jones absolutely beat the better fighters. Mayweather has noone as good as prime Toney or Hopkins.

 

IMO now it is controversial, but if RJJ ended his career after the fight with John Ruiz - then it would not be controversial.
Of course, our opinions do not have to match.

 

And what has that got anything to do with what I said in regards to Tate going the distance with Julian Jackson and Jones being the only man to stop him legitimately in 48 fights ?

I never said he was an amazing fighter I said Tate was very durable and the way Jones stopped him in 2 rounds was impressive hence it's an "underrated win" as I said.

I hope that clears it up for you.

 

Debatable especially since Jones didn't beat them at their best. Canelo, Pacquiao and Oscar are arguably better

 

Mayweather beat none of them at their best, either. And there's no universe that Canelo or DLH is a better win than James Toney.

 

At their best all time maybe not but when they fought them, Toney was dehydrated and looked awful in the fight whereas both DLH and Canelo looked much better but its debatable don't have a strong position either way. Overall though I think his amount of wins and lack of losses make up if you consider Toney and Hopkins way better wins then any of Mayweather's

 

Kind of like talking about shooting par when the other guy on the course is Tiger Woods.

Even Robert Guerrero, a mid tier win for Mayweather, was entering pfp lists.

 

A lot considering RJJ fought most of his career at 168. But if you're not convinced, how about beating Tony, Pazienza, Hopkins, Tito, Clinton Woods (underrated UK Lt Ivy with 32-1 record at the time) Tarver, Virgil Hill (liver shot no less), & 1st middleweight to fight for a hey title in 50 years and first 1 to win it in 106 years. Give me Floyd's list of notable wins and accomplishments. I think it pales IMO.

 

Disagree. He did it because he had already cleaned out 3 weight classes. He won in 4 / 5 total weight classes / Floyd 5. Furthermore, hard to hear RJJ getting knocked for his opposition after jumping 2 weight classes to meet it while Floyd dragged his feet until almost all of his best opposition aged out. One guy ducked, another guy searched for the next challenge. My opinion.

 

Ruiz lost multiple times to blown up cruisers and once to Toney, who was a middleweight+obesity and an arm injury.

It speaks volumes that you had to wheel out Pazienza, the ghost of Tito, Clinton Woods with parentheses to pretend he wasn’t mediocre, and Tarver who destroyed his legacy.

I also think you have a lot of work to do since you omitted some of his actual decent wins while inserting trash.