Is Roy Jones the best fighter ever?

One of the best fighters I've ever seen, so, sure.

 

Stop. Just stop it. You're making too much damn sense.

 

Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. On a head to head basis, you could say he was. But not if you use the criteria that most historians and fans use.

 

theres no doubt that jones was freakishly good and would have dealt with guys like lebedev and calzaghe in a few rounds each easily. no wonder calzaghe hid gibbering in fear faking a fear of flying to hide from jones until jones was shot2shyte and then calzaghe suddenly found a magical cure for his fear of faking I mean flying.

but his drug cheat thing for one fight stains his career and keeps him oout of the top echelon of atgs.

for me he can never be a top five atg at any weight or in the top 25 general pantheon of atgs.

 

You thought Tarver was as good as Roy, if not better?

Tarver wasn't a year older. He's only about 7 weeks older than Roy. Also, he didn't turn pro while he was 28, and he'd only had 22 fights when he first fought Roy. Whereas Roy had fought 49 times across 5 divisions, that included going upto HW and back.

Your post is a joke.

 

So what if Del Valle dropped him at 29? It's boxing it happens. Apart from the silly DQ, that's basically the only bad thing that happened to Roy in 50 fights.

Rick Frazier was a mandatory, and then he unified against Reggie Johnson. He wasn't fed anyone.

He avenged his defeat to Griffin in spectacular fashion in under three mins.

But it's a little unfair comparing his career to SRR, because nobody from Roy's era fought as often as they did in the 40's.

Why on earth would he have gotten back in the ring with Lebedev etc? He was in his 40's, and past his best. Guys like Lebedev and Green would have been a cake walk for Roy at his best. It's just a shame that he's carried on too long.

You called Marciano a crude slugger a few days ago, and look what happened to Joe Louis when they met? It happens. The only difference between Joe and Roy, is that Roy carried on getting into the ring, whereas Joe gave up boxing to pursue wrestling.

 

A completely irrelevant post. You falsely claimed Jones showed no chin problems until he was in his mid 30's either you were mistaken, or more likely you lied because you are a Jones fan boy.
You can mention all the fighters you like, but you will never ever come up with a credible list of great fighters who were comatosed by journeymen fighter in the way Jones was.

Good on top fighter when over matched, but a **** chin, and no fundamentals to protect it when the reflex defence started to disintegrate.

 

:deal

I seriously love debating with Foxy. But he hates Roy.

:good

 

That is merely your opinion Loudon. Anyone who could hit that chin could knock him over.

You remind me of the kid who only wants the bits of his dinner he likes, but his parents have to tell him if he doesn't eat his greens he won't get his dessert.

You can't pick the parts of Jones you like but ignore the rest. His chin was sh it, as PROVEN by the way he was put to sleep. Whether you or any other of his fan boys like that or not, is of no consequence.

You just keep convincing yourself he was the greatest thing since Wrigley's. The rest of the world will just sit happy in the knowledge that chin disqualifies him from ever being top 10 p4p all time. Possibly not even top 20.

 

Joe Calzaghe was a scavenger.

Funny how he only moved to LHW when Roy was almost 40.

Where was he when Roy was prime? He was defending the WBO against mainly subpar opposition in one of the weakest divisions in boxing.

I'm a huge fan of SRL, and of course he fought better competition. That was just circumstances though. Ray was one of the greatest ever. But I wouldn't say that he was quicker or more athletic.

 

Come on, we all know a guy like Lebedev would have been a walk in the park for Roy at his best. Did you see the fight? It was a close fight up until the knockout. That was a 42 year old, 200 pound version of Roy, who'd been out of the ring for a year, and who'd had a bad knee. He was a shell of the fighter he'd been. If that version of Roy could take Lebedev 10 rounds, the Ruiz version of Roy would have beat him like he was an amateur.

I LOVE your dinner an*logy. :good

I would never expect Roy to be listed as the GOAT, or even in the top 10, if you apply the criteria that most historians and knowledgeable fans apply. You have to look at many factors when ranking a fighter such as looking at: who they fought, at what point, their losses, their accomplishments, and their longevity etc. Roy didn't have the opposition that a guy like SRL had. So his best wins aren't as good.

But despite what I've written above, I can say that at his absolute peak, Roy was the greatest fighter that I've ever seen on film. I think that the best version of Roy, COULD have beaten any fighter in history, from MW-CW.


:good

 

I have not been a fan of Roy, the person or the fighter. I hate his style but he was talented enough to get away with it. Just as Ali did so many fundamental things wrong but was so immensely talented as to get away with it.

Your chin argument is just specious and targeted. The clearest evidence of an agendized argument is one of shifting criteria... i.e. if you applied the criteria you are using for Jones to other fighters, there would be few greats... and some very odd greats at that.

Again, consensus Pound for Pound fighter candidate for 10 years... that's about 8% of the history of the sport under Marquis de Queensbury rules. If that doesn't qualify as greatness, I'm not sure where that bar should be set.

 

When he started out, I thought he had the talent to be one of the best ever. Speed, power, class, everything. Somehow it just never panned out for him. I think what happened to his friend Gerald Mcclellan really affected him. He never seemed to love boxing after that. And getting ko'd by guys like Tarver and Johnson like he did ended the best ever talk. But still an incredible talent

 

No he wasn't.. but he was still pretty damn great.

 

:good