Assuming both either retire in the near future or fail to have any further meaningful victories. Atfirst i'd always assumed it was jones, but upon study I can't help but conclude that toney achieved far more in his career. At middleweight toney was the man and jones wasn't, altho he beat the guy who would go onto be the man. At smw both established themselves as number 1 but neither took on there top contender. Also jones won a landslide decision vs toney. At lhw jones did good but I can't help but think how fraudulent his run was, all his belts were giftwrapped to him and dm was the rightful champ and triple beltholder. At cruiser toney defeated a top contender and jones of course skipped the division. At heavy I think it's clear as day toney has had a better campaign. In terms of longevity toney has not yet been stopped and his staunchest fans will say a lot of his defeats are questionable but I won't get into that. I honestly think toney has had a superior career to jones. Thoughts?
Roy Jones for sure I admire james for what he did to Nunn but Roy made hash of him in a ridiculously easy, one sided contest. Roy makes my top 10 - Toney nowhere in sight
Jones was more dominant. He beat Toney one sided. They are both ATG's, but I rank Jones higher for his accomplishments at the weights.
Guys, he said PFP not H2H. H2H then it's clearly Jones but PFP I see Jones taking it but not by as big of a margin than he is against Toney H2H. I am a fan of RJJ and repect Toney but I go with Jones. More consistent and still had some solid wins though I do wish him and DM fought.
Jones makes your top 10? I'd argue that at their respective best weights (middle for james and lightheavy for roy) james did more. I'd say toney campaigning as a heavyweight quite successfully is far more amazing than anything jones achieved. H2h jones is very strong going off what we saw prior to tarver. But p4p on overall accomplishment I think james outshone roy.
Toney has been ranked number 1 fighter at SMW and Cruiser. He was the champ at MW and has been top 5 ranked in both LHW and HW. He beat the lineal champ in Nunn and beat top ranked fighters in Barkley and Jirov. That means he's beaten the best man in 3 seperate weight classes from 160 - 200. Up at Hw his runs of fights with Holyfield, Ruiz, Rahman and Peter is the first time in years a former MW champ has successfully campaigned at HW. he earned himself a top 5 ranking! I know he has gone off the boil a few times with his weight but this guy is old school. between 160 and heavyweight Toney has proven to be a force to be reckoned with and has shown a solid chin even when moving up in weight. He was the best MW in the world in 1991 and a top 5 Heavyweight in 2006. 15 years as a top level fighter is amazing by anyone's criteria.
I am not even close to being a RJJ fan, but I would say Roy and don't particularly find the margin that close.
Toney had superior technical skills and longevity, and probably took on more challenges as well. But he was not nearly as dominant or consistent in his prime. Not only has he losses to Griffin and effing Thadzi, he lost very one-sidedly to Jones himself and IMO didn't beat an aging McCallum. That part swings it in favour of Jones for me.
When the Classic forum goes insane Rightful triple belt holder? No he wasn't, Jones rightfully won the WBC title, he was supposed to be stripped of it, but if you think Roy should have been stripped you also have to agree that Darius should have been stripped of his WBA/IBF
I think it's worth noting that 40 year old McCallum gave Jones a better fight than Toney did. Toney looked so hapless that one wonders what truly went on there. If he really was badly weakened by weight drain. A prime Jones always beats him easily, though.
mostly I'm playing devil's advocate (I still believe Jones was never rightfully champion). But does the estimation of Jones rise significantly due to the future success that Hopkins would go onto achieve? Also whoever it is you do feel is greater, where abouts on any ATG list would you place them?