Roy Jones Jr and Floyd Mayweather each have a claim as the best fighter of all time, pound for pound.
Slick but punishing Jones was the first man to win a middleweight world title and go on to do the same at heavyweight in over a century. He held top honours in four divisions throughout his storied career, beating the likes of James Toney, Bernard Hopkins and Antonio Tarver with an endlessly watchable style.
Mayweather famously finished his campaign with a 50-0 perfect record, holding belts in five divisions and dazzling with a defence that is widely considered the very best in the business. He was also one of the most lucrative stars the sport has seen, claiming four of the top five biggest selling pay-per-view events.
Speaking to Real Lyfe Productions, Jones Jr was asked if ‘Money’ Mayweather’s record meant he was the greatest of all time. He said “no.” Elaborating, Jones said there were more impressive campaigns out there.
“You got to respect anything a person does to stay undefeated that long. I respect it to a degree, yeah. Is it a 50-0 that I think he’s the greatest fighter of all time? Nah. [Julio Cesar] Chavez went 80-0 at one point. 80. You gonna ever top that? No. He just didn’t stop. [Floyd] got to 50-0 and stopped because of Rocky Marciano. Rocky died. If he wouldn’t have died he probably would’ve kept going too.”
Jones then took issue in particular with Mayweather’s farewell bout, a tenth round stoppage of UFC superstar Conor McGregor in his boxing debut.
“And then, at the end, you fight a guy who’s 0-0. How can I respect that? Conor McGregor was 0-0 and they let you do that? So what pisses me off if I’ve had fights that I’ve tried to promote in Vegas at that time with that same commission. They wouldn’t let a 13-5 guy fight with a 13-0 guy, but you would let an 0-0 fight a 49-0? That shows you that it’s all about the money.”
