Legacy And Competition

[The Old LefHook]

The legacy of some fighters heralded by promoters and broadcasters as great during their own time can really take a plunge after retirement if the fighter faced less than the best competition in his career. Without the big fights in a timely manner, the legacy will suffer, irregardless of the financial success the boxer might have enjoyed.

I offer the two most obvious cases in point--Roy Jones and Floyd Mayweather, two great boxers who seemed to pattern their careers after Meadowlark Lemon.

There were good fighters they did not clean up on, and had the chance to, and now their legacies will pay, for a while at least. After a time everyone who lived through it will die off and humanity will be left with the film and the journalism to decide.

But for now, I think those two legacies are showing the effects of their owners' reluctance to fight the best in a timely manner.

It feels good. It feels just.

[Black Jesus]

I mean honestly, their legacies are just fine.
You guys are REALLY grasping for straws sometimes.

I will say Roy Jones legacy took a hit, but that was more because he got knocked out 11 times in a row than because he didn't fight his opponents in 'a timely manner'

The problem with you casual fans that get all your information from First Take is that you really don't know anything about boxing, you simply run around parroting what other people say.

Ironically enough, in the later half of Floyds career, HE was the older fighter coming in to face the younger opponent, wether that was against Miguel Cotto, or Canelo or Ricky Hatton, or even Manny Pacquiao.

You casual fans also seemed to overlook Floyds 11 year career before the De la Hoya fight, in which he had already locked up HOF status before the ODH fight.

Just because you don't know who Genero Hernandez, Chico Corrales Jesus Chavez , or JC Castillo, are for example, does not mean they are simply just names on a resume. These were all top guys, tough fighters, that Floyd fought early on, in addition to guys like Zab Judah .

Trust me, if Usyk can be considered an ATG for having a couple of wins over Mario Breides and Gassiav, Floyd must of had this status locked up by 2004 .

And of course Manny....you people are worse than the ***** Haters!!! Insisting for years that Floyd was a coward if he didn't fight Manny, and that Manny would kick his @ss, and they finally fight and Floyd dominates, and you people make every excuse in the book and try to discredit the win

[billeau2]

I like to separate key aspects of JOnes and Mayweather. I also disagree with others who think Jones getting kicked around the latter part of his career has anything to do with his legacy.

Watching Calzighe have his way with a version of Jones should tell the story...there is no way Jones version A gets touched up by Calzighe. I say this because one can look at who they both faced, the results and the sheer dominance of Jones to establish the difference between what one could call "JOnes A and JOnes B."

Jones fought fellow great Fighters, and he dominated. His career shows us a way to give him his due and I for one am perfectly happy writing off anything he did post Tarver One.

Mayweather was obviously great at the lower weights, but he never had a fellow ATG near prime and I do think this hurts his legacy. I give Jones way more props for taking the early part of his career and really getting ahead of the pack. Mayweather, not so much. We don't really see total domination either. Even when he fought guys like Judah, Judah was not near at his best, and Floyd did have a few problems with him.

Both obviously great fighters... Roy a lot easier to place in my opinion.

[Rusty Tromboni]

I mean honestly, their legacies are just fine.
You guys are REALLY grasping for straws sometimes.

I will say Roy Jones legacy took a hit, but that was more because he got knocked out 11 times in a row than because he didn't fight his opponents in 'a timely manner'

The problem with you casual fans that get all your information from First Take is that you really don't know anything about boxing, you simply run around parroting what other people say.

Ironically enough, in the later half of Floyds career, HE was the older fighter coming in to face the younger opponent, wether that was against Miguel Cotto, or Canelo or Ricky Hatton, or even Manny Pacquiao.

You casual fans also seemed to overlook Floyds 11 year career before the De la Hoya fight, in which he had already locked up HOF status before the ODH fight.

Just because you don't know who Genero Hernandez, Chico Corrales Jesus Chavez , or JC Castillo, are for example, does not mean they are simply just names on a resume. These were all top guys, tough fighters, that Floyd fought early on, in addition to guys like Zab Judah .

Trust me, if Usyk can be considered an ATG for having a couple of wins over Mario Breides and Gassiav, Floyd must of had this status locked up by 2004 .

And of course Manny....you people are worse than the ***** Haters!!! Insisting for years that Floyd was a coward if he didn't fight Manny, and that Manny would kick his @ss, and they finally fight and Floyd dominates, and you people make every excuse in the book and try to discredit the win

While I agree about Jones. He chose to return to LHw, when he clearly belonged at Cw and Hw.

Floyd was better than Jones, but ckearly cherry-picked. He definitely wasn't as ambitious as Manny.