A Hall of Fame inductee claims he could have surpassed the legendary Muhammad Ali had he walked away from the sport before suffering a number of damaging defeats.
The Kentucky-native entered the paid ranks after his success at the 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome and would go on to win the world heavyweight championship on three occasions during his tenure.
Whilst he did end up suffering a handful of defeats along the way, Ali got the better of a number of legendary heavyweights before he drew the curtain on his career, including Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston and George Foreman.
Another legendary American fighter who enjoyed considerable success is Roy Jones Jr, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2022.
Speaking to Titan Play, Jones believes he would be considered as the ‘greatest fighter ever’ had he announced his retirement from the sport after defeating Antonio Tarver when they first met.
“Had I retired after I beat Antonio Tarver the first time, we wouldn’t be having conversations about the greatest of all time. And we still shouldn’t, because facts are facts.”
Instead, in a separate interview, Jones named Ali as the best to ever do it.
“The greatest fighter of all time, the greatest athlete of all time in my book, always is going to be Muhammad Ali. It ain’t what I think, it’s what I know.”
Jones defeated countryman Tarver to unify the WBC and WBA light-heavyweight titles back in November of 2003 in what is considered to be one of the best victories of his entire career.
The Florida-native would fall short to Tarver in their second and third encounters however, as well as suffering a further six defeats to the likes of Joe Calzaghe, Bernard Hopkins and MMA star Anthony Pettis in the years that followed.
