Roy Jones Jr thinks only a small selection of modern boxers generates the excitement and throws the number of punches of greats from eras gone by.
Jones Jr himself is widely regarded as one of the best to ever do it, not just because he went from middleweight all the way up to heavyweight and won world titles at every step, but also because of his enthralling style and ability to knock out anyone.
He came up shortly after what is regarded as the golden era for heavyweights, with the likes of Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier and Evander Holyfield, all known for their relentless wars in the ring across the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
Speaking to Sean Zittel, Jones named his favourite fighters from history and then named the few contemporary fighters he thinks are modern equivalents.
“A lot of those guys [Lennox Lewis, Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Larry Holmes] were really good boxers, and some of them really knew how to put punches together.
“You don’t see a lot of that in today’s fighting, which is why boxing is not as exciting as it used to be. With the exception of ‘Boots’ … Benavidez, Inoue, ‘Bam’ does too, but not many people do. That’s a handful that throws combinations like that.”
Japan’s Naoya Inoue is a four-weight world champion and undisputed in two divisions, having knocked out 27 of his 33 opponents, while David Benavidez has held world championships in three weight classes and stopped 36 of his 32 opponents with his all-action style.
Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez just claimed a title in his third weight class by knocking out Antonio Vargas in June, and former welterweight ruler Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis just became a unified super-welterweight champion when he stopped Xander Zayas inside seven rounds in June.
