Anyway, I was inspired to see how many ranked contenders other fighters faced and made some interesting discoveries--Floyd Mayweather seems to have beaten 17 or 18 guys rated in the top 10-Angel Manfredy, Genaro Hernandez, Diego Corrales, Jesus Chavez, Jose Luis Castillo, DeMarcus Corley, Arturo Gatti, Zab Judah, Carlos Baldomir, Oscar De LaHoya, Shane Mosley, Victor Ortiz, Miguel Cotto, Robert Guerrero, Saul Alvarez, Marcos Maidiana, and Manny Pacquiao. I wasn't sure if Juan Manuel Marquez should be counted because although he was subsequently rated at welterweight in 2009 he had not yet scored any wins at that weight. But it shows you can have a relatively low number of fights and still fit in many elite opponents.
When I made a Count for RJJ, I ended up with 17-18 for him as well. Didn't write it down or anything, though, so don't have the exact names.
17 or 18 ranked contenders in their entire career? My fingers would start to bleed if I typed all of the ranked contenders guys like SRR and Greb fought in a career. And keep in mind that during RJJ and Floyds careers there were a possible 40 fighters in the top ten at any one time in each division across not only the traditional 8 divisions but all of the junior divisions as well. To put that into perspective: during the old days if you consider fighting up or down a division from where you comfortable you have a possible 30 top ten contenders to face. The same move in Jones and Mayweathers era gives you not a division up or down but two up and two down with 40 potential top ten guys in each division meaning at any one time you had a potential 200 fighters in the top ten to choose from for comparable drop or jump in weight that the old timers had 30 for. And you are impressed that Jones and Mayweather managed 17 or 18 compared to the volumnous list of contenders the old timers fought?
That is one thing we didn't see in Roy Jones career. A bulldog, iron chined, pressure fighter who didn't allow him to rest for minute. Guys like Jake LaMotta aren't a fun type of fight.
Given LaMotta was beaten by guys like Dauthille and Villemain he seems like a pretty bad example of someone who would supposedly trouble Roy. LaMotta's reputation seems to be based almost entirely on beating Robinson.
I don't think LaMotta was even a top 5 middleweight of his own era and he's supposed to be a threat to someone like Roy Jones Junior, that seems pretty silly.
What is LaMotta's reputaion based on exactly? A win over Robinson in which he had a 16 pound weight advantage. Shouldn't there be some other indications of his prowess?
Down and dirty Sosa tried and was slowly building some success. But peak Roy was just lightning and defused those tactics with overwhelming speed and power. This content is protected
Jones was the fastest boxer I have seen both had and feet 160 or above besides Joe Calzaghe. We can all agree on that.
I dont know. I think he won the Middleweight Title after being passed over for a shot for a good portion of his career. He beat some good fighters and he fought alot of good fighters.