The Best S.Middleweight of all time is.....

The serious challenges, even if you want to go back in time and look at older footage are guys like Greb, Ezzard Charles, Bob Foster, Michael Spinks.

The only guy I'll really analyse him against is Michael Spinks, due to them being 10 years within each other and as good as Spinks was, he showed he was susceptible to being intimidated and easily knocked out against Tyson.

Different types of athletes, sure, but in his pomp, Roy Jones Jr used to bring a lot of intimidation into that ring with him.

 

Jones was no Tyson, and that was no prime Spinks. In his prime he never had any of those issues and pretty much cleaned out one of the better LHW eras ever. There are a few from around that time I'd have to think about as well, such as the 3 Muhammad's.

A lot of competition throughout history at LHW, Floyd Patterson as well.

One overrated LHW that Jones would beat is Michael Moorer. I don't get the fascination with this guy in the General Forum. He was better as a HW.

 

Better as a HW? Cold clocked by a contender at best in David Tua?

I think Moorer was good as a LHW.

As for Spinks.

A technical boxer with power that most technical boxers don't have. He had a big height advantage over Roy Jones Jr and that would allow most people to believe he could control the fight with that jab of his he liked to force people into taking.

My thoughts are that you had a supremely gifted Jones Jr who was able to get on the inside of jabs, despite reach advantage due to his quick reflexes. In his prime, Jones Jr was never easily found with the jab in my view and while Spinks is the best jabber he would have thought, I don't see this changing.

With Spinks, you had tremendous power in both hands - but then, so did Jones Jr. It's hard to call who was more powerful, my thoughts are Jones Jr but late in his career, he never seemed that concerned with utilising his full power so it's hard to judge, but where Spinks liked to set up his KO's with repeated power shots, Jones Jr had one punch KO power.

Handspeed, Jones Jr.

Footwork, conventionally, Spinks - he had great footwork, managed to keep his distance with short steps despite being quick across the ring and always threw from a solid base, but he never had the awkward angles and being able to throw off balance like Jones Jr.

I get the feeling Spinks would want to be the aggressor against Jones Jr, while Spinks was a tremendous counter puncher, he would believe his height advantage would be best utilised coming forward and trying to negate Jones Jr coming forward.. this is where I feel Jones Jr is surely going to win prime vs prime.

At his prime, Jones Jr could take a shot, had two handed power and could hit you from out of no where, no matter what way I slice it, if I disregard the thoughts that Jones Jr always had a glass chin and just protected it, (I personally think his chin diminished from the weight drain) - I see Jones Jr winning a late knock out against Spinks, despite Spinks having a great chin.

I can see where others would believe Spinks with his reach advantage, adequate handspeed and ability to keep fighters where he wanted them with his jab and that big overhand right would beat Jones Jr, but personally, I just don't see there being a better fighter P4P and H2H in his prime than Jones Jr in the time I've actively been watching.

 

Resume is not just wins alone, it's how you win and Ottke had several bad gift decisions, including the first title win against Brewer.

Not to mention, Joe defeated better fighters anyway than Ottke did and did so more impressively. All wins are not created equal.

 

Joe knew the score, back then. He even stated that he was better then Lewis; but he wouldn't say it about Jones.

"Obviously Lewis is bigger than me". "But he's not better than me. I honestly believe I'm the best boxer in Britain."

"I could probably give Jones a tough fight, probably the best fight he's ever had," said Calzaghe. "But I know my capabilities and unless I got paid the crown jewels I wouldn't want to risk it."

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Yeah, you forgot to mention his win over Holyfield. A contender at best? Tua fought one of the best HW fights in recent memory with Ibeabuchi, took out Ruiz in 20 seconds, Maskaev, Rahman, etc before losing to Lewis and Byrd.

Not at his best by the time he fought Moorer(neither was Moorer), but with a puncher like Tua, anything can happen, and Tua was one of the hardest pure punchers the sport's ever seen.

As for Moorer, let's see you justify him being a better LHW, considering his wins at HW over Holyfield, Smith, Botha, Cooper, etc compared to his wins over.............at LHW. People don't take into consideration his extreme lack of opposition at LHW, nor the flaws he showed while there against that same inferior competition. Not to mention he was weight-drained. He looked far better against Holyfield than he ever looked at LHW in my opinion.

As for the Jones/Spinks matchup, you're entitled to your opinion. Not an impossible scenario, I'll stick with Spinks landing the Jinx and putting Roy's lights out around the 9th.

 

No question that Moorer had some good achievements as HW but in my view they were negated by how easily blown out of the water he was by Tua.

Tua has some good achievements too, but he never managed to beat the guy when it counted. He needed to win against Byrd after losing to Ibeabuchi and ultimately lost that fight.

He was also shown to be completely amateur against Lennox Lewis in my view. Ibeabuchi vs Tua was a great great fight and in my view, ruined both of those fighters from then on.

I dunno, hard for me to consider Moorer great, Botha was never a great, Holyfield was erratic during that period, etc.. I think Moorer being undefeated and never being completely cold clocked at LHW adds for it to me, I like my fighters to generally be undefeated.

As for the Jinx, well, hell, if you think it's going to land and have an impact, then why not Spinks in the first three? Cause that punch was a killer and potentially could knock anyone out, even at HW.

But I don't see it landing on Jones Jr, I just don't.