Who's The Best

[mikeeod]

I'm talking about the whole package. Career and talent
Who accomplished the most and who looked the best (at their best)

Ray won gold, Roy silver and Floyd bronze
So I guess who'd say Ray had the better amateur career.

Floyd won the most titles, Ray beat the bigger names
But Roy cleaned out and dominated his division.

Honestly, I don't recall Roy ever cleaning out a division he was in, where both Ray and Floyd cleaned out divisions. If we are talking the whole package then I rank them in this order:

1. Ray
2. Floyd
3. Roy

I think Ray has both hands down on quality of opposition and special performances. Difficult to top the Duran and Hearns wins, and then throw in Benitez and the fight vs. Hagler (thought Ray lost but he got the win and performed MUCH better than I anticipated) and it is tough to match that level of competition. Roy has both on the "eye test", where he just looked so much more superior than everyone else, especially during his dominant performances against Ruiz, Montell, Toney...etc. Floyd is a balance between the two to me, where he beat slightly less impressive competition than Ray, but never had some of the "wow" performances of Roy. If you take Ray out and throw Manny, Hopkins, and Evander in there it will be a much more difficult debate in my opinion.

[GaMo]

Honestly, I don't recall Roy ever cleaning out a division

He held just about every belt available at 175
He held the WBC, WBA, IBF, IBO, IBF, WBF, IBA
And Ring Magazine titles at Light-Heavyweight
The WBO and WBU are the only belts he didn't own
But he was quite clearly the man at 175.

[mikeeod]

Honestly, I don't recall Roy ever cleaning out a division

He held just about every belt available at 175
He held the WBC, WBA, IBF, IBO, IBF, WBF, IBA
And Ring Magazine titles at Light-Heavyweight
The WBO and WBU are the only belts he didn't own
But he was quite clearly the man at 175.

Darius was the lineal champ and they shared the division and Roy never beat him. Do I think Roy would have beaten him? Yes. But that doesn't change the fact that he didn't clean the division out. Hagler, Hopkins, JCC, Duran, Joe Louis, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis...etc., all cleaned their divisions out.

[GaMo]

Honestly, I don't recall Roy ever cleaning out a division

He held just about every belt available at 175
He held the WBC, WBA, IBF, IBO, IBF, WBF, IBA
And Ring Magazine titles at Light-Heavyweight
The WBO and WBU are the only belts he didn't own
But he was quite clearly the man at 175.

Darius was the lineal champ and they shared the division and Roy never beat him. Do I think Roy would have beaten him? Yes. But that doesn't change the fact that he didn't clean the division out. Hagler, Hopkins, JCC, Duran, Joe Louis, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis...etc., all cleaned their divisions out.

Michalczewski never fought outside of Europe
And Boxing in Germany during the 90s was so corrupt
Just look at Sven Ottke's career and you'll see it
Biased refereeing and blind judges.

I'm sure Roy would've welcomed him in America
But after the Olympics Roy wasn't keen on traveling
And Germany was the last place you'd want to go back then.

[mikeeod]

Honestly, I don't recall Roy ever cleaning out a division

He held just about every belt available at 175
He held the WBC, WBA, IBF, IBO, IBF, WBF, IBA
And Ring Magazine titles at Light-Heavyweight
The WBO and WBU are the only belts he didn't own
But he was quite clearly the man at 175.

Darius was the lineal champ and they shared the division and Roy never beat him. Do I think Roy would have beaten him? Yes. But that doesn't change the fact that he didn't clean the division out. Hagler, Hopkins, JCC, Duran, Joe Louis, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis...etc., all cleaned their divisions out.

Michalczewski never fought outside of Europe
And Boxing in Germany during the 90s was so corrupt
Just look at Sven Ottke's career and you'll see it
Biased refereeing and blind judges.

I'm sure Roy would've welcomed him in America
But after the Olympics Roy wasn't keen on traveling
And Germany was the last place you'd want to go back then.

Not saying you are wrong on your points, but fact still remains that he never cleaned out the division. Was the same thing at 160 and 168 as well. I thought Roy was clearly the best, but you still have to beat the other top fighters in your division to prove it. I thought GMan was by far the better fighter than Nigel Benn, and look how that turned out. Same with Tyson vs. Douglas. Just because you are favored or are perceived to be the guaranteed winner doesn't mean that it is a foregone conclusion.

[GaMo]

Honestly, I don't recall Roy ever cleaning out a division

He held just about every belt available at 175
He held the WBC, WBA, IBF, IBO, IBF, WBF, IBA
And Ring Magazine titles at Light-Heavyweight
The WBO and WBU are the only belts he didn't own
But he was quite clearly the man at 175.

Darius was the lineal champ and they shared the division and Roy never beat him. Do I think Roy would have beaten him? Yes. But that doesn't change the fact that he didn't clean the division out. Hagler, Hopkins, JCC, Duran, Joe Louis, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis...etc., all cleaned their divisions out.

Michalczewski never fought outside of Europe
And Boxing in Germany during the 90s was so corrupt
Just look at Sven Ottke's career and you'll see it
Biased refereeing and blind judges.

I'm sure Roy would've welcomed him in America
But after the Olympics Roy wasn't keen on traveling
And Germany was the last place you'd want to go back then.

Not saying you are wrong on your points, but fact still remains that he never cleaned out the division. Was the same thing at 160 and 168 as well. I thought Roy was clearly the best, but you still have to beat the other top fighters in your division to prove it. I thought GMan was by far the better fighter than Nigel Benn, and look how that turned out. Same with Tyson vs. Douglas. Just because you are favored or are perceived to be the guaranteed winner doesn't mean that it is a foregone conclusion.

He definitely didn't clean out 160, 168 or Heavyweight
But he beat the best at 168 (Toney) and the best at 160 (Hopkins)
Guys like Eubank and Benn never seemed in a rush to fight him
Ottke and Calzaghe never left home. At 175 Jones was the man
So much so that I think he'd have an easy night with Andre Ward.

[mikeeod]

Honestly, I don't recall Roy ever cleaning out a division

He held just about every belt available at 175
He held the WBC, WBA, IBF, IBO, IBF, WBF, IBA
And Ring Magazine titles at Light-Heavyweight
The WBO and WBU are the only belts he didn't own
But he was quite clearly the man at 175.

Darius was the lineal champ and they shared the division and Roy never beat him. Do I think Roy would have beaten him? Yes. But that doesn't change the fact that he didn't clean the division out. Hagler, Hopkins, JCC, Duran, Joe Louis, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis...etc., all cleaned their divisions out.

Michalczewski never fought outside of Europe
And Boxing in Germany during the 90s was so corrupt
Just look at Sven Ottke's career and you'll see it
Biased refereeing and blind judges.

I'm sure Roy would've welcomed him in America
But after the Olympics Roy wasn't keen on traveling
And Germany was the last place you'd want to go back then.

Not saying you are wrong on your points, but fact still remains that he never cleaned out the division. Was the same thing at 160 and 168 as well. I thought Roy was clearly the best, but you still have to beat the other top fighters in your division to prove it. I thought GMan was by far the better fighter than Nigel Benn, and look how that turned out. Same with Tyson vs. Douglas. Just because you are favored or are perceived to be the guaranteed winner doesn't mean that it is a foregone conclusion.

He definitely didn't clean out 160, 168 or Heavyweight
But he beat the best at 168 (Toney) and the best at 160 (Hopkins)
Guys like Eubank and Benn never seemed in a rush to fight him
Ottke and Calzaghe never left home. At 175 Jones was the man
So much so that I think he'd have an easy night with Andre Ward.

Agree with most of what you say. I think Ward is the modern day Hopkins, so again, I don't think Roy is a guaranteed winner or has an easy night with Ward. Ward and Hop both are masters at shutting down the other guy's offense and making him fight an uncomfortable fight. Ward is bigger than Hop, so that makes it even more difficult for Roy. Would be a great match up in my opinion.

[Fenster]

He definitely didn't clean out 160, 168 or Heavyweight
But he beat the best at 168 (Toney) and the best at 160 (Hopkins)
Guys like Eubank and Benn never seemed in a rush to fight him
Ottke and Calzaghe never left home. At 175 Jones was the man
So much so that I think he'd have an easy night with Andre Ward.

Roy never left home either (forget the excuses, I know them all, just stating a fact). The only reason he had the IBF/WBA titles at LH was because Michalczewski was stripped after beating Hill. The Ring changed their rules to gift/promote Roy.

So unless you believe Americans should get special dispensation for being American Roy should have travelled to challenge the true champ - Michalczewski.

[Dark Lord Al]

For talent ,achievement and power this guy was better than all 3.
He once floored David Haye something Wlad could not do.

[erics44]

Leonard will win this poll, boxing fans are very nostaligic

in reality he would lose to both jones and mayweather by some margin

[Master]

Leonard will win this poll, boxing fans are very nostaligic

in reality he would lose to both jones and mayweather by some margin

Leonard wins because he is really is the best not because of nostalgia. I am not even a fan of his but even I realise that he is one of the greatest fighters in the history of the game. His accomplishments in the ring are better than Jones and Floyd.

[Fenster]

Leonard will win this poll, boxing fans are very nostaligic

in reality he would lose to both jones and mayweather by some margin

Roy might have beat him as he's naturally bigger.

Floyd? No way. He was at his best below welter.

Prime Oscar and Mosley would have beat Floyd at welter too let alone Ray.