Of the two fighters entering the ring tonight, a win is much more crucial to Joe Calzaghe's place in history. Jones has titles from middleweight to heavyweight and wins over fighters like Virgil Hill, Mike McCallum, Bernard Hopkins and James Toney.
Calzaghe has the perfect record, but the only real names on his resume are Jeff Lacy, Mikkel Kessler and Hopkins. Lacy is no Hall of Famer, Kessler has a ways to go and many people believe Hopkins beat Calzaghe.
Going into tonight, I have Roy Jones Jr. ranked 12th all time and Calzaghe at No. 50.
How did they get to those positions? I'll break it down.
Joe Calzaghe:
* He has no title fight wins over Hall of Famers -- 0 points
*He has no wins over Hall of Famers in lesser or non-title fights -- 0 points
(This will change when Hopkins is inducted)
* He has one win as a unified champion (in this era I consider 3 of 4 of the major titles to be unified), that was against Kessler -- 65 points
* He has two other wins in WBA, WBC or IBF title fights and none by knockout -- 70 points.
* He has a 19-0 record with 11 KOs in WBO title fights. I grade WBO wins lower than WBA, WBC and IBF -- 543.75 points.
* He has a 2-0, 2 KO record in stepping stone title fights. 37.5 points.
* Since my system ranks fighters on their best 60 fight record. His non-title fight record was adjusted to 36-0 with 31.1 knockouts -- 437.7 points.
* I do another career ranking and Calzaghe's undefeated record helps here -- 1,766.7 points.
That's a total of 2920.6 points.
Where Calzaghe is hurt and where a win tonight would really help is his top 125 bonus points. He's two fighters in the all-time top 125 -- Bernard Hopkins and Kessler. Those are worth 107 bonus points (94 for Hopkins and 13 for Kessler).
So Calzaghe's final total is 3027.6, which I divide by 60 and get 50.46.
Roy Jones Jr.
* He is 1-0 with a KO in Hall of Fame title fights (Mike McCallum) -- 100 points.
(This will grow as Hill, Toney and Hopkins are inducted)
* Jones is 8-0 with 5 KOs in unified title fights -- 601.25 points.
* Jones is 14-4 with 8 KOs and 2 KO losses in 18 WBA, WBC or IBF title fights -- 517.5 points
(This is where the Tarver and Johnson knockouts hurt, points are deducted for KO losses)
* Jones has no WBO title fights and is 3-0 with a KO in stepping stone title fights -- 48.75 points.
* That's 30 title fights. So his non-title fight record is adjusted to 30-0 with 27.7 KOs -- 369.2 points.
* His career record of 52-4 with the 38 KOs and 2 KO losses -- 1626.6 points.
That's a total of 3265.3 points. Well ahead of Calzaghe. Once you add in top 125 bonus points the gap grows even more.
Jones has beaten Virgil Hill (18 points), Mike McCallum (10 points), James Toney (41 points), Felix Trinidad (88 points) and Bernard Hopkins (94 points). That's 251 points.
That gives him a total of 3516.3. Divide that by 60 and you have 58.6 points.
A win tonight would tack on about 60 more bonus points for Jones (after factoring in Calzaghe's loss) and that would lift Jones to No. 9 all time ahead of Archie Moore.
If Calzaghe wins, Jones would be worth about 110 points and that would lift him up to around No. 31 Abe Attell and No. 32 Sandy Saddler.
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