
Originally Posted by
JazMerkin
It's Mayweather for me. I think both Mayweather & Pacquiao have resumes superior to Jones, and all this talk about prime is very convenient, but let's face it, prime just means when someone wasn't losing. Mike Tyson was prime until he fought Buster Douglas. Donald Curry was prime until he fought Lloyd Honeyghan.
For me, he may have beat Hopkins but it was no more convincing to me than Mayweather's win over ODLH or Pacquiao's 2nd win over Barrera. His win over Toney is impressive, but other than those two fights the opposition is too weak to me. In contrast, PBF & Pac have fought a combination of Oscar, Hatton, Mosley, Corrales, Marquez, Castillo, Barrera, Morales, Cotto, Judah, Margarito, Gatti, Genaro Hernandez, Sasakul. That's 14 possible future hall of famers between them, with at least eight I'd consider nailed on. Each has fought at least five.
Granted Jones lost a lot of weight to fight Tarver, but so did Toney when losing to Jones, so you can't have excuses one way and ignore them another. Personally I see Tarver, Johnson & Calzaghe as the best fighters Jones faced outside of B-Hop & Toney, and granted he may or may not have been past it, he still lost convincingly to all of them.
He may be the greatest athlete out of all of them, but there's not enough to prove he's the best, and in a p4p match-up, I have to ask who Jones fought who was as quick p4p as either of these guys.
I find it hard to split the other 2. I think if they both retire today, Manny has the better legacy, I'd favour PBF in p4p and their resumes are similar imo. I think on the basis that I think Mayweather is the better boxer, I'd favour him.
1) Floyd
2) Manny
3) Roy
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