Roy Jones Jr: “Mayweather never came close to what I did”

If he means not getting ktfo several times and then still not getting the message to retire and quit sullying the golden reputation he had built previously, then yes.

Jones and Floyd had similar ATG ability and I worried Floyd would stay on too long and eventually get destroyed like Roy v. Tarver and Johnson, but it didn't happen.

 

if you're putting 1992-2000 roy jones jr .. in against the max prime Floyd.. I dunno I remember people thinking Floyds opp could beat him .. till the fight was over then it was "oh well of course it's Floyd of course he'd win".. well with roy I don't remember any of that .. I remember people thinking oh here we go .. roy is gonna be roy .. what is he gonna do this time ..

 

I'd take issue with anyone saying that Floyd has a vastly superior CV. Even without taking into account Roy's wins over Hopkins, Toney and Ruiz - all of which are superior to any single win of Mayweather's - he still has Tarver, Griffin x2, Hill, Castro, Malinga, Sosa, Thornton, Tate, Reggie Johnson, old McCallum, Woods, González, Harding and others on his ledger. That stacks up just fine with Mayweathers record imo even if it doesn't give Greb or Charles something to worry about.

 

we have to be fair to Roy. He was not knocked out much in his prime. I think Roy was greater.. More impressive. FLoyd was more of a handpicker at the right time. Floyd knows who to pick and when to make money and to stay undefeated.

 

I agree Roy had a great career. But Mayweather did, too. It seems trivial of Roy to try to denigrate what Mayweather accomplished.

 

they are compared to each other. neither guy looked for the tough competition at all and neither guy really has great fights, so they had great skills. Floyd more fundamental. Roy just fast...

 

Roy had the higher peak and stayed there for quite a while. Floyd had the greater longevity.

It's about what you like. I think peak ability, if sufficiently proven, is the most important.

 

Probably the two greatest talents of the last 25 years. But I find both of their careers slightly underwhelming.

 

Btw, does anyone dispute that prime Roy was a better fighter than prime Floyd?

 

I feel that about Roy's career. Not really about Floyd's. Sure no one's career is perfect, but there's too much whining about Floyd's.

He waited out DLH and Mosley? Really? Was it an imperative for him to jump three divisions and face them while they were still in their primes? Well, if that's the standard tell me which fighters' careers that don't look bad. Are we going to rag on Robinson that he never faced Charles and Moore too, never mind Burley?

Canelo green? With 40+ fights, including seven title fights. Seriously? And the the catch weight... annoying, yes, but how much difference can 2 lbs realistically make for someone who would go on at 154 lbs for years.

Yes, he should have faced Pac earlier, but beating the nr 2 p4p (nr 1 not counting himself) when you're 38 isn't really to be sneezed at.

Roy on the other hand shared divisions with peak versions of McClellan, Benn, Eubank, Collins and, especially, DM - and didn't face any of them. I'm not saying it's all his fault, but those were all very logical fights.

As for Floyd, Kostya is the one I mainly miss on his resume. The window for them to fight wasn't large, but it was there.

 

Yeah, I actually give Floyd credit for his win over DLH. Sure, Oscar was 34 but he was still live, naturally bigger and had height and reach advantages over Mayweather. I thought Floyd paced himself perfectly in that fight. Oscar tended to run out of steam and Floyd won the last couple of rounds to pull out the victory.

I hear your point about beating Pac at 38 but there's really no excuse for the stalling that went on over the previous 4-5 years. I think the blame is squarely at Floyd's door on that one.

Other than that though, he fought pretty much everyone that was out there to fight. I never thought he was unbeatable and it was only after he came back in 2009 that the unbeaten streak started to become a thing.

Roy, on the other hand, did at times look completely untouchable. But his opposition was often lacking. He did have opportunities to take on tougher, more meaningful opposition but he rarely did.

I don't know that we ever saw him pushed to his absolute best because he faced opposition that couldn't take him there. And I'd have still like to have seem him take on some better challenges at 168 (when he was at his absolute best) and meet Michalczewski at light heavy.