IS ROY JONEs THE GREATEST EVER

[Spicoli]

Nah.Not for me.In hindsight,I think he may have wasted some valuable time with much lesser fights when bigger challenges were out there to be had.He may very well have walked a path on the backs of a Benn,Collins,Michalczewski,Nunn etc but we'll never know.He could have stamped his legacy in stone by facing the best available but was afforded the choice to blow out the Thortons,Sosa's,Pazienza,Brannons etc.Some of his headliners were borderline sparring sessions.He was that good indeed,but could have tested himself much more I believe.

Im not disregarding the mans pure blazing athletic skill.Just a phenom with killer instincts,timing and handspeed that left you dizzy.But he frankly complained of bordom,not getting payed enough for potential big fights and thought himself a little high & mighty.His wins over Hill,a Young Hopkins and Toney deserve much respect.Some say Toney was weight drained etc,etc,....Whos fault is that?Jones whipped him and I think was inside of Toneys head before the opening bell ever rang.Jones was a sensation,but not the very best ever we've had the pleasure to know.

[DaxxKahn]

out of all the great fighters ive seen . for me roy jones is the best prime for prime,pound for pound, the most talented fighter i have ever seen. the things he did when i watch his fights take my breath away. does anyone agree. or does anyone think other wise,if so let me no why

The version of Roy Jones at 168 was the most naturally gifted athlete to ever step in the ring...I think during that short period of time in a P4P style basis he was the greatest fighter I ever seen,,,Greatest of all time no...We can not base a fighter on that one short period of time in their career and say they were the best....Just like you can not take a great fighter who does not know when to quit and downgrade his achievements due to his shortcomings as a shot fighter....

If Jones spent as much time as a SMW and fought more quality opponents during that time the arguement would be strong but there are too many chinks in his career that deter his being even in the top 10 of all time

[scraptime]

Roy Jones dodged a lot of good fighters IMO to try to keep his undefeated record. There were plenty of good fighters out there that he never fought. He was very talented yeah, but the greatest ever? Not even close.

[Andre]

out of all the great fighters ive seen . for me roy jones is the best prime for prime,pound for pound, the most talented fighter i have ever seen. the things he did when i watch his fights take my breath away. does anyone agree. or does anyone think other wise,if so let me no why

I get where your comming from without putting words in your mouth .

I read it like you originally ment ring skills alone.

He has to be up there near the top you cant deny what he got up to in there that others wouldnt have the guts to even think about doing let alone try for real.

Even against a middle of the road pro most top pros wouldnt place their hands behind their back lean forwards to invite a ko hook shot then move and singly counter punch removing the suckersaid attacker from the fight.

Put Roy 'at his all time best form' in front of any top fighter from any era and he would of given over 95% of them trouble.


He is a bit like Naz was. experimental and ballsy that makes people who want strict boxing to always prevail their long term detractors,its an old sport many hate seeing something untaught working against them.

Not everything works every time in the ring or out of it for that matter.

I love it though; seeing people push the so called limits even if they do get caught out once in while . theres alot to learn from their moves if you care to.

[X]

Jones was an awesome talent, who could do things that I've never seen a boxer do to another pro before. Amazingly fast hands, unorthodox style and he was a marquee character.

I don't think he was the greatest ever though ...... his talent was mainly based on his amazing reflexes (so he had some technical flaws that he never had to correct). Once the reflexes started to go, he became quite hittable. A few brutal knockout losses tarnished his legacy in my view.

It was also unfortunate for him - but not his fault - that he didn't really operate in an era where he had great competition. I'm not knocking his performance against Toney, which was fantastic against a great opponent, but there were not many other good fighters around and, for whatever reason, he didn't fight a lot of them.

If you look at his record, I donlt think its in the same league as Ray Robinson (something like 100 fights unbeaten before his first loss to LaMotta ... after that he went another 70 or so before losing again) or Joe Louis, 25 defences of the undisputed world heavyweight title.

Still, I think Jones is an all time great - just not the greatest ever. There's no shame in that!

[SweetPea]

I put Jones 2nd, behind Mighty Mike Arnaoutis.