Roy Jones Jr is heralded as one of the pound-for-pound greats of the sport, but in his eyes, there is one man above him in the rankings when it comes to debating the greatest fighter of all time.
Jones reigned at middleweight, super-middleweight, light-heavyweight and even heavyweight during his time in the ring, with his electric fight-style and aspiration for legacy inspiring a generation of fighters.
Dominant at both 168lbs and 175lbs, Jones Jr lost just one of his first 50 professional contests, and did so via disqualification, perceived to be almost unbeatable in his prime, but eventually hanging up the gloves with a record of 66-10.
Speaking with ATS Fight, Jones was asked to interrupt when he heard a better fighter than himself, before he kept quiet throughout the extensive list of; Pernell Whittaker, Shane Mosley, Oscar De La Hoya, Canelo Alvarez, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr, Evander Holyfield, Manny Pacquiao, Terence Crawford, Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson and Oleksandr Usyk.
However, when the interviewer got to the name of Muhammad Ali, Jones quickly intervened, admitting that without Ali, he would not have been the same fighter – and for that reason alone, he has to be considered the greatest of all time.
“Now you can stop. That is the only place that you can stop at. The rest of them are awesome, they are great fighters and, in the ring, it is still questionable [if Ali was better than me].
“But he is always going to be the greatest to me because he laid the platform for me. Without that platform, I would have never been me.
“So, he will always be the GOAT in my eyes.”
To this day, Jones Jr boasts the third-longest professional career of any former heavyweight world champion, with Mike Tyson and Oliver McCall’s recent comebacks breaking his record.
