Roy Jones and Floyd : who was more dominant in their prime?

[Boxer4life]

I am surprised and happy to see so many people giving credit to Roy, the way i like to look at this is say pound 4 pound, they fight, Jones wins that battle everytime in my humble opinion, i honestly don't think anyone in middleweight or light heavyweight history can beat a prime roy jones jr. That being said though, legacy wise, Floyd has a bit better resume(not roys fault) and he is more consistent in his old age. But then you have to look at the way roy jumped classes and obliterated guys. So all in all, Roy all the way, and this is coming from a huge Mayweather fan. Sorry for the thinking on text.

[imp]

I am surprised and happy to see so many people giving credit to Roy, the way i like to look at this is say pound 4 pound, they fight, Jones wins that battle everytime in my humble opinion, i honestly don't think anyone in middleweight or light heavyweight history can beat a prime roy jones jr. That being said though, legacy wise, Floyd has a bit better resume(not roys fault) and he is more consistent in his old age. But then you have to look at the way roy jumped classes and obliterated guys. So all in all, Roy all the way, and this is coming from a huge Mayweather fan. Sorry for the thinking on text.

True.

Floyd is a multi weight champion as well though..he just will never make heavyweight.

[El Kabong]

For people not to give RJJ credit on winning the WBA title off of John Ruiz would be silly! RJJ not only won that fight but he blue printed John Ruiz and James Toney & David Haye used RJJ's gameplan to beat him. Before that only Tua had worked over Ruiz, everyone else, EVERYONE else had trouble with him and those guys weren't the puncher that Tua was.

Floyd is amazing, but RJJ was just damned ridiculous...playing basketball before a fight, rapping his own intro, hands behind the back KO, I mean RJJ seriously clowned some very capable fighters.

[Fenster]

Roy gets too much credit for beating Ruiz. It's more a minority of hardcore fans that understand he beat an average/ranked heavyweight not THE world champion. Was it a very impressive win for a light heavyweight? Yes. Does it mean he achieved some amazing unfathomable feat by beating a guy given a WBA title? No.

Just in recent times, lots of fighters have have moved from lightheavy to beat average/ranked heavyweights.

Overall though I'd pick prime Roy P4P over Floyd even though his record is inferior.

[J_Undisputed]

I'm going to go with Roy. There's just a lot of feats included with roys resume that Mayweather wouldn't attempt. (The basketball game before the fight, fighting Hopkins and telesco one handed. Mayweather's only official knockdown came from the pain from breaking his hand in a fight and too his credit he survived for the decision...but you never saw him schooling guys with one hand the way roy did.

There's a difference in the perceived level of competition. The games changed a little between the two fighters even though there was a span of years where they were fighting at the same time. The level of Roy's competition was dictated by mostly by title defenses. He sat on top of a pile of belts and defended against his mandatorys. Floyd, Martinez, broner, Paul Williams has/had the luxury of free wheeling through divisions cherry picking champions for belts without having to wait in line because the super fight money has trumped the honor and rules that used to be prevalent in the fight game. Roy only really started doing that at the end of his career and it was unnecessary. Can you imagine Roy fighting DLH at a catch weight and smoking him out 5 rounds...Or Trinidad... and doing to them what he did to pazienza.

Every generation of boxer has their hype jobs.. but there seem to be a lot more now. You grab a volume puncher and take him to GNC and get him some supplements, give one of his opponent's ex wives or gf's to talk crap for a free trip to vegas and let the fighter's Jaw at each other for a bit and you label it to the casual fan as bad blood.. The fight sells and everyone gets a piece, but no ones looking at the disparity of the talent except the students of the game (us).

Roy and Floyd are 2 special fighters but the environment has changed... so measuring them equally is harder.

[Mr140]

I say its a tie if they fought pound for pound i have to say i have no idea who would win. As for Jones winning belt against Ruiz i think its pretty impressive but does get overrated. When people talk pound for pound i say Holyfeild is up there consider he started as a Lhw and became a top atg Hw.

[jon09]

Not to start an argument but didn't Roy get busted for a form of steroids in his fight against Richard Hall? I love Roy and he was an awesome fighter but I feel that taints him somewhat. I think Floyd has been a consistent bad ass since 98 and has been in the ring ratings since then.

[imp]

Not to start an argument but didn't Roy get busted for a form of steroids in his fight against Richard Hall? I love Roy and he was an awesome fighter but I feel that taints him somewhat. I think Floyd has been a consistent bad ass since 98 and has been in the ring ratings since then.

Such a good point.

I love roy but theres no ignoring the steroid issue.

Floyds prime is still going.

Thats dominance

[chinchekked]

Not to start an argument but didn't Roy get busted for a form of steroids in his fight against Richard Hall? I love Roy and he was an awesome fighter but I feel that taints him somewhat. I think Floyd has been a consistent bad ass since 98 and has been in the ring ratings since then.

I remember this but he seemingly got a pass as he proved that it was a tainted supplement. If I recall correctly it was TwinLabs Ripped Fuel or something like that.

[Violent Demise]

Not to start an argument but didn't Roy get busted for a form of steroids in his fight against Richard Hall? I love Roy and he was an awesome fighter but I feel that taints him somewhat. I think Floyd has been a consistent bad ass since 98 and has been in the ring ratings since then.

It doesn't taint him at all. Taking steroids is considered cheating. It gives one fighter an advantage over the other one. When that happens it's no longer a level playing field. That's wasn't the case here. Hall himself also tested positive. Making it a level playing field. No fighter had an advantage over the other one. So no cheating ever took place.

[imp]

Floyd has continued to dominate all types of opponents even though he is usually the smaller guy.
We dont even know when floyds prime started and when it will end.

Roy was clearly a superb talent and i was obvious the weight loss after ruiz was going to affect him but that was all muscle loss which made it even worse.

After coming down and beating tarver in the fight of his life the mental side of things for roy had gone and he had nothing left to achieve.

Roy and floyd are two of the greatest boxers of all time and I couldnt choose between the two.

[cambay411]

Its easy for me to pick. Before Roy fizzled out he was 50-0 (49-1 because of the BS disqualification loss) with 40 KO's. And only like 10 decision wins all of which weren't even close decisions.

Roy was easily more dominant. No one could even touch Roy before Roy was 34-35.

[DannyV297]

Roy gets too much credit for beating Ruiz. It's more a minority of hardcore fans that understand he beat an average/ranked heavyweight not THE world champion. Was it a very impressive win for a light heavyweight? Yes. Does it mean he achieved some amazing unfathomable feat by beating a guy given a WBA title? No.

Just in recent times, lots of fighters have have moved from lightheavy to beat average/ranked heavyweights.

Overall though I'd pick prime Roy P4P over Floyd even though his record is inferior.

I agree. I think the HW win against Ruiz was one of the least of his accomplishments. That said, Roy owned the sport along with every belt known to man for a decade. Father Time beat Roy the worst. He seemed to get old literally overnight. He also carried himself as a champion better imo. Roy was one of a kind, Floyd is just a HOF'er.

[bzkfn]

Roy gets too much credit for beating Ruiz. It's more a minority of hardcore fans that understand he beat an average/ranked heavyweight not THE world champion. Was it a very impressive win for a light heavyweight? Yes. Does it mean he achieved some amazing unfathomable feat by beating a guy given a WBA title? No.

Just in recent times, lots of fighters have have moved from lightheavy to beat average/ranked heavyweights.

Overall though I'd pick prime Roy P4P over Floyd even though his record is inferior.

But he did something no other fighter has even done. No fighter who won a world title at 160 ever went to Heavyweight and did the same. Credit where credit is due for me. Ruiz wasn't the best, but he was a legitimate champion and Roy schooled him.

As for who was more dominant, I'd go with Roy. He just sailed past his opposition. Floyd's fights always seem more competative.

[Fenster]

Roy gets too much credit for beating Ruiz. It's more a minority of hardcore fans that understand he beat an average/ranked heavyweight not THE world champion. Was it a very impressive win for a light heavyweight? Yes. Does it mean he achieved some amazing unfathomable feat by beating a guy given a WBA title? No.

Just in recent times, lots of fighters have have moved from lightheavy to beat average/ranked heavyweights.

Overall though I'd pick prime Roy P4P over Floyd even though his record is inferior.

But he did something no other fighter has even done. No fighter who won a world title at 160 ever went to Heavyweight and did the same. Credit where credit is due for me. Ruiz wasn't the best, but he was a legitimate champion and Roy schooled him.

As for who was more dominant, I'd go with Roy. He just sailed past his opposition. Floyd's fights always seem more competative.

"Legitimate champion?" The only reason he had the WBA title is because they stripped Lewis. Take away the WBA title and Roy beat a heavyweight, which is something that numerous middleweights have done throughout history.

In the good old days, when there was only one champion, the middleweights trying to dethrone THE heavyweight champ were facing guys like Louis, Marciano etc. There wasn't four "world" champions to pick from. Roy basically beat a fighter he was giving 30lb too. It's common these days. James Toney went from middleweight to beat Ruiz and a bunch of other heavyweights including Holyfield.

(by the way Bob Fitzsimmons was the first to do it )