Who's the better boxer throught his career: Roy Jones Jr. or Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Question

Who's the better boxer throught his career: Roy Jones Jr. or Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Answer 1

hard to pick both class jones jr was better id say.

Answer 2

I think Jones Jr.... The quality of opposition was very similar, but you have to give Roy the nod for beating opponents with style.

*  Galactus gave an awesome answer. Its head and shoulders better than any.. so I hope you give him the nod. I always wanted to see Roy fight a dangerous opponent.. Like he mentioned that was difficult to find! I always wanted to see him fight someone like Calzaghe but the match makers on each side always made it so difficult!.. so I guess better late than never!

Answer 3

Roy Jones is easily the better boxer. People will forever argue about who had the better skills and fought the better opponents but I'll just stick to the facts.

- More of Roy Jones opponents went on to win championships after he beat them (Bernard Hopkins, James Toney, Clinton Woods, Julio Gonzalez, John Ruiz). Floyd's opponents were either way too green or were on the tail-end of their boxing careers

- Roy Jones has yet to show a single sign of ever getting hurt, or close to losing a fight until he was 35 when he barely beat Tarver and got knocked out in the rematch. Jones has a love and respect for the sport. Mayweather retired at 33 after massing up large amounts of cash. Mayweather has also came close to losing against a prime Castillo (a fight I think he clearly lost). Mayweather has also been stunned on several occasions.  

- Roy won in a much more impressive and devastating fashion than Floyd and he did it against better opponents. Remember when he mimicked a chicken and knocked James Toney into the ropes? I'd love to see Floyd open up his guard for once and try that on another hall-of-famer. Roy left no doubt who won the fight. Floyd loves to bend the rules by using his forearms, turning away from his opponent, and dipping so low that his opponents accidentally hit him low or in the back of the head.

- Roy fought the better ranked opponents. Go to boxrec.com and you'll see that Mayweather didn't face the best of the welterweights or junior welterweights. Zab Judah was a has-been who lost his title to Baldimir.

- Roy was also the first fighter and perhaps only fighter to go through an entire round without getting hit by a punch. So who's defense is better now?

- Roy never got hurt or close to losing a fight during his prime. So who's got the better boxing style after all or was Roy that much more athletic?

- Many observers have also considered Roy Jones to still have faster handspeed than mayweather. There are also others like myself who feel that Mosley has faster handspeed than Mayweather. Mayweather's speed is mostly in his body.

In the end, Floyd won boring unimpressive fights against lackluster competition. Even against inferior fighters, he showed numerous flaws and got hit with big clean shots. Floyd may have won many fights but he did lose numerous rounds against Castillo, Judah, and De La Hoya where Roy hardly ever loses a clear round (in his prime).

Answer 4

Jones Jr. hands down, who else could have moved up and won the heavyweight title, a feat that had not been accomplished in over 100 years

Answer 5

Jones. Retiring in your prime while two noteworthy opponents are in front of you smacks of taking the easy way out. Roy might be alot of things but we can atleast make a accurate assessment of his career. Mayweather if he stays retired will always be known as a "could of been".  

Answer 6

if people know boxing then they know roy only relied on his natural god giving ablities which were speed, quickness, and his reflexes. when he lost that, well you know the rest of the story. and whoever said floyd ducked people(i wont go into that read some of my other answers) know that roy ducked hopkins for years. but i wont talk about that either im still a roy fan.

back to floyd though. he has everything you need to be a great boxer(speed,quickness,reflexes,ring generalship, and what roy lacked defense) notice i didnt say power because you dont need power to be a great "BOXER" although floyd has deceptive power evident by his 25 ko's out of 39 fights or should i say wins.

so the answer has got to be

MONEY MAKING PRETTY BOY FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR

the best boxer of my generation (argubly the best boxer ever)

hate his arrogance but not his skills

GET IT    GOT IT     GOOD

Answer 7

I would say Floyd. I mean he is one cocky dude, but he backs up his talk. His retirement might've been a little too early but his body has probably taken a good beating.  

Answer 8

Mayweather

Answer 9

That is a very good question that's not very easy to answer.  Neither man ever had that "Super Opponent" who defines his career.  Not everyone can have that kind of career.  Both men have somehow "missed" the chance to face that Super Opponent.  

I have to give the edge to Roy for two reasons.  

One:  Roy DID defy some rules in boxing by moving up to take on "A Heavyweight". Granted, Ruiz was as "ordinary" as one can be.  In fact, he was one of the Worst Hvt. champions in the last 30 years.  STILL there was the feint though  "He might KO Roy,  He IS a Hvt.".

Two: Roy fought more dangerous opponents.  He missed a few but he did fight most of the best.  He didn't have the list of Super Opponents Floyd had but Roy fought the best available.  Also,  Floyd never had to "DIG DEEP".  Roy DID have to dig against Tarver in the first fight.   Though Tarver cried like the whinner he is, he did not beat Roy in that first fight.    

Floyd never had that opponent to put that FEAR in his fans, FOR his Safety.   Everyone Floyd fought came in at a disadvantage.  Floyd was EXPECTED to beat them.  Floyd won titles from 130 to 154 but he was still growing and was simply more talented than the ordinary opponents he faced on the way up.  

Even when Floyd faced Diego Corrales,  he was expected to go to war but favored to  win because most fans KNEW "Chico" was killing himself to make weight at 130.  He's as tall as most MIDDLEWEIGHTS.   Ever wonder why Floyd never gave Chico a rematch at a higher weight?  For example, I can SEE why Sugar Ray Leonard would not face Tommy Hearns at 175.  But Floyd was successful up to 147.  

Another thing many seem to forget, or never know in the first place,  is that Floyd is very talented.  However, his "Natural Class" is 140-147, not 130.  Again, I give Floyd credit for being a young boy and beating up MEN.  Still, he was expected to beat them.

The MAIN reason I give Roy the nod here is that Floyd WILLINGLY WALKED AWAY from his Toughest challenge.  By the time Miguel Cotto arrived on the scene,  Floyd had not really accomplished much in the way of "Opponents".  IT was smart marketing and the opportunity to fight Oscar, that enabled Floyd to strike it rich.  

NO ONE who knows boxing can say anything like "Floyd has done enough and has nothing to prove"  by avoiding Cotto.  Like I said in the Ruiz example,  He SUCKS.  He's one of the WORST Hvts.  I've ever seen.   STILL he is a Hvt., which poses a danger to Roy Jones who's "Natural" class is 168.  

People mistake your "FIRST"  for your "Natural" class.  That means that both Oscar AND Floyd are natural 130lb. fighters.  NOT TRUE.  "Natural" weight is to Duran as "P4P" is to Sugar Ray Robinson.  However "Natural"  is not always First.

When Leonard fought Duran, people said  "Sugar Ray is gonna get KILLED".   When he fought Hearns, People said "Sugar Ray is gonna get KO'd".  Same with Hagler.  

Ray rose ABOVE the challenge.  Now, it would not be fair to expect many to duplicate Leonard's success.  FEW have the chance.  However,  FLoyd DID have the chance.  I'm sorry but beating a rusty "post prime" De La Hoya just doesn't cut it.  Beating "Tissue paper" Hatton doesn't either.  Hatton is a tough guy but his hatred for Floyd got the better of him.  Still, he wasn't much of a challenge for Floyd.  Floyd was EXPECTED to beat him.

Against Cotto (Before Margarito) Many felt  "Floyd is gonna get KILLED".  Unless he proves them wrong,  there will ALWAYS be "UNFINISHED BUSINESS" under the name Floyd Mayweather.  

Answer 10

I figured this would be a lot more one sided favoring RJJ.

Having said that, since you said throughout his career (meaning the whole career)  It would have to be Floyd.

Floyd fought 14 fights against 13 opponents who either had a belt at the time of the fight, had a belt previously or would go on to win a belt.

Roy was the more spectacular fighter, and had very stiff competition.

I give the nod to Floyd, though, as he did retire without a loss in his career, and his last 6 or so fights were some of the best of his career

EDIT: No matter when an undefeated fighter retires there will ALWAYS be unfinished business.  He is done with boxing and it is a disservice to boxing to continue to fight if you are not up to fighting to the best of your abilities.

Answer 11

I like Floyd "Money" Mayweather Jr. He beats the Big Show at WrestleMania 24.

Answer 12

lmmfao

PLEASE PEOPLE BEFORE YOU BEND THOSE FINGERS KNOW THE SPORT FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i am a roy fan but as far as "boxing"skill he had none. yall said it for yourself. you never seen no one move that fast that was that big....and thats all he did was move he relied on his natural god giving abilities. when i speak of defense that means blocking roy never did that.

to say floyd didnt fight anybody and then in the same breath say roy did is just(i have no words for that). one guy says names like james toney for roy. i guess he didnt know james was walking around at about 215 or so and had to drop alot of weight for that fight(not sayin roy wouldnt have won anyway) but its easy play chicken wit a dehydrated fat boy. oh and he knocked him down when james tried to do the chicken thing back at him. and he beat hopkins in a close fight very early in their careers(some say it should have went the other way)and would never give him a rematch. later he says he will fight him but he wants a bigger cut of the purse. hopkins refuses and roy moves up in weight to go get belts(sound familar)but yall criticize floyd for that.

somebody else said when he fought chico(r.i.p.) he was favorite because chico was strugglin to make the weight(which could be true) but going by your logic if floyd was naturall 147 pound fighter wouldnt he struggle to make 130 too? and then you say floyd wouldnt fight him at a higher weight. well your right there. thats because chico never moved up from lightweight until 2007 right before he died.

and why did you drag sugar ray into this. looked at the record not to much of a difference is it. he had those 3 fights you named and one of them we can argubily say he ducked while he was in his prime. haggler tried to fight sugar for 5 years before he finally fought him. nobody says anything about the way sugar went about getting those fights.maybe floyd knows this as well and knows over time people will foget and only remember the record. maybe he comes back. who knows.

but to sum it all up yes roy was the better athlete. was his hand speed maybe was his power definitly was his defense no. the reason hopkins was still good as he got older because of defense(blocking punches) roy relied on reflexes. its like michael jordan if all he did was play above the rim when he got older he would have been done but he developed an outside game. roy only knew one way to fight and when it was taking away he lost. what makes floyd the better boxer is because he adjust to the fighter. thats the main reason he gets taged in early rounds but once he finds his range its a rap.

GET IT GOT IT GOOD