I'd give Ezzard Charles or Gene Tunney a solid shot to beat him at 175. I wouldn't be surprised if Archie Moore beat him, but Archie lost to more mediocre fighters than Roy in his prime. (In my opinion, Roy would stop Bob Foster) At 168, Tommy Hearns could possibly pull it off, but I'd still favor Roy. 160, good old SRR could match him for athleticism (almost) and probably take him. I wouldn't put it passed Roy to pull it off, though. Honorable mentions to prime Hagler and Monzon, although I'd still favor Roy. The problem with Roy in H2H matchups, is that he was never really tested in his prime. I can't think of a single close fight he was in while he was prime. (correct me if I'm wrong) Toney was supposed to be on his level and Roy completely shut him out. That's good and all for Roy, but it doesn't give you any body of evidence as to how Roy would react in certain situations. He was such a talented fighter, but that's all we have to go off of. Unfortunately, there's more to boxing than what Roy showed us. We kind of have to fill in the blanks ourselves. (which gives us completely different results in match-ups like these)
If Toney could have stayed away from the Buffet he might have had a shot. According to Failey Calslappy already did! bahahahahaa
simply amazing. that vid never gets old, my favorite part was that move he busted at 2:37 against richard hall.
It does tell you how good Roy was. How many people could shut out Toney? Hopkins gave Roy a close fight in his prime but even Hopkins couldn't deal with Roy's movement and speed.
It wasnt really close still 9-3 type stuff, domination at best 8-4. I still wonder how the 2001 fight would have been.
All it does is reinforce Roy's abilities. There's certain situations that we never saw Roy in. What if Roy was behind against a guy like Hearns? What would he do? It's those things that make us have to speculate.
Michael Nunn, Lamar Parks, I always believed both would've given Roy a serious challenge, especially Nunn. I think Roy would've pulled it out, but both guys were quicksters with serious skills.
I think Hagler would have beat him even at 168, and he was not smw. At middleweight, he would have knocked Roy out in his prime.