Roy Jones Jr gave a quite stunning response when requested to call the toughest hitter he ever got here up in opposition to.
The Corridor of Famer made his mark on the center, super-middle and light-heavyweight divisions, earlier than dethroning WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz in 2003.
Regardless of hitting the scales at simply 193lbs, a severely undersized Jones nonetheless dominated their contest from begin to end and claimed a unanimous resolution victory.
Primarily based on dimension alone, many would suspect that Ruiz, who ended 30 of his 44 skilled victories inside the gap, was the most important puncher that Jones confronted.
Alternatively, Antonio Tarver was additionally a heavy-handed puncher who shared three fights with the four-division world champion at 175lbs.
Regardless of shedding their first encounter by way of a majority resolution in 2003, Tarver exacted his revenge by securing a second-round stoppage victory the next 12 months.
The ‘Magic Man’ then ended their trilogy with a unanimous resolution win in 2005, but it surely was almost a decade earlier that Jones recollects encountering his hardest-hitting opponent.
Talking with Ring Journal in a ‘Greatest I Confronted’ characteristic, Jones names Merqui Sosa, who he stopped within the second spherical in 1996, as probably the most highly effective fighter he confronted.
“Merqui Sosa was a really highly effective man. You couldn’t push him again; he didn’t surrender something within the ring. I needed to get him out of there early. He was very robust and wasn’t planning on going nowhere.
“Merqui missed me with a shot that just about buckled my knees. If that had landed it could have been completely different.
“I used to be like, ‘Wow, this man’s attempting to kill [me]!’ I went to work on him after that and bought the combat over. Tarver had good punching energy, however he didn’t punch tougher than Merqui Sosa.”
Previous to his combat with Jones, Sosa had misplaced a break up resolution to James Toney after struggling an early knockdown and being docked a degree for low blows.
And regardless of by no means turning into a world champion, the Dominican banger nonetheless ended his profession with a formidable report of 34-9-2 (27 KOs).
