Roy Jones Jr shared the ring with a number of great fighters throughout his career and has now revealed the greatest of them all.
Jones made his way into the paid ranks back in the late 1980s after he became an Olympic Silver Medallist at the 1988 Summer Games in Los Angeles, California.
He would go on to become a world champion in five weight classes throughout the course of his professional career, racking up victories over the likes of Mike McCallum, James Toney and Bernard Hopkins to name a few.
Perhaps the most memorable victory of his tenure came when he made the move up to heavyweight in 2003 where he defeated fellow countryman John Ruiz via unanimous to capture the WBA world heavyweight title.
In a feature with The Ring Magazine, Jones made no mistake in naming fellow countryman James ‘Lights Out’ Toney as the best opponent he ever crossed paths with, paying homage to the three-weight world champions outstanding defence.
“James Toney. He probably had the best defence of all of them. You couldn’t hit him flush; he was so elusive, the hip movement and the shoulder roll made it very difficult to hit him with a clean shot.
“He had all the tools, he was hard to hit, he could knock you out at any time. He would be right there in your face and you still couldn’t hit him flush.”
‘Lights Out’ would go on to have an impressive professional career after suffering this defeat to Jones, sharing the ring with the likes of Evander Holyfield, Mike McCallum and Montell Griffin before he announced his retirement from boxing in 2017.
