Roy Jones Jr. is regarded by many as one of the greatest fighters of all time.
Jones was at his most dominant during the early-to-mid 1990’s, capturing world titles at both middleweight and super middleweight during this time.
He racked up career defining victories against the likes of Bernard Hopkins, James Toney and Mike McCallum, remaining unbeaten through his first 34 professional contests.
He bounced back from the first defeat of his career against Montell Griffin in 1997, which was actually ruled as a Jones disqualification. Jones was victorious in their rematch where he picked up the WBC light heavyweight title to become a three-weight world champion.
After just shy of 80 fights as a professional, facing an array of heavy-hitters and great fighters during this time, Jones once revealed the man who he claimed was the toughest of them all.
In a feature with The Ring Magazine, Jones claimed James Toney was his toughest opponent he’d ever faced, as he gave plaudits to the technical brilliance of ‘Lights Out’.
“James Toney probably had the best defense 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.”
Jones made the step up to 168lbs to face Toney back in 1994, outclassing the then unbeaten American star to capture his IBF crown.
Despite this setback, Toney went on to have an impressive career which culminated with him becoming IBF cruiserweight champion in 2003. He came extremely close to defeating Hasim Rahman for the WBC heavyweight title in 2006 but the fight was scored a split decision draw.
