STP wrote:Jones at 168 looked as close to unbeatable as we've ever seen in a boxing ring, against Harris, Malinga, Toney, Byrd, Pazienza, Thornton and Brannon he was almost hideous, barely took one flush power shot in all those fights together and his hand-work seemed super-enhanced, even throwing flurries of power shots. But at 175, he had a closish call with McCallum, got a little schooled by Griffin, KTFD by Del Valle, a close call with Harding, a close call with Tarver, and then KTFO by Tarver.
He just wasn't the same fighter at 175 and personally I rated Mosley and Mayweather over him in mythical lb4lb, and Hamed after the Badillo and Bungu fights, and Oscar and Trinidad I suppose too. He was probably not a mythical lb4lb top five fighter at 175, IMO.
STP, in all due respect, your post is full of enormous holes to suit your argument. Yes you are right jones was the nearest thing to unbeatable at super middle, and had fun while he was at it. But if you look at his record at l.heavy it's a record anyone would be proud of.
he was two time l.heavy weight champion, undisputed l.heavy champion, he had 15 fights at the weight before moving up to heavy. losing one on a DQ, that was admittedly his hardest fight to date, but was certainly on his way to winning in that round or the next. How you could say he was schooled just because it was a difficult fight is beyond me. The mccallum fight was far from close. He broke Hills ribs in 4 one sided rounds, hit the deck for the 1st time in his career versus Del valle and still won by 10 rounds on one judge and 9 rounds on the other 2 judges score cards.
He made twelve defences of his undisputed crown at the weight.
Lets face it jones was never the same fighter once he dropped back down from heavy, you could clearly see that in his body and stamina, he just wasn't the same.
Hopkins
malinga
tate
toney
byrd
pazienza
thornton
sosa
lucas
mccallum
griffin
del valle
grant
r. johnson
telesco
harding
gonzales
woods
ruiz
tarver
These are all good fighters mixed with the odd great one. These names would look impressive on anyones record.