{"id":364193,"date":"2025-12-23T17:23:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T17:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/364193\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T17:23:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T17:23:06","slug":"roy-jones-jr-says-one-man-stands-alone-as-the-best-fighter-hes-ever-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/364193\/","title":{"rendered":"Roy Jones Jr says one man stands alone as ‘the best fighter’ he’s ever seen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roy Jones Jr<\/a> was just 11 years old when the fighter he would later name as the \u2018best he\u2019s ever seen\u2019 won his first world title.<\/p>\n

Nine years later, Jones made his foray into professional boxing following his controversial defeat to Park Si-hun in the light-middleweight final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.<\/p>\n

That unhappy ending carried a remarkable twist 37 years later when, in September, the South Korean presented Jones with the gold medal<\/a> that he \u2014 and much of the watching world \u2014 believed he had earned.<\/p>\n

Jones transitioned to the professional ranks seamlessly, going on to win world titles from middleweight to heavyweight and securing his own place in boxing immortality.<\/p>\n

When Jones defeated James Toney in 1994, it was not only for the IBF super-middleweight title, but also a fight to determine the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world at the time. Years later, Jones revealed his pick for the finest fighter he had ever seen<\/a> \u2014 a choice that may have surprised many \u2014 Salvador S\u00e1nchez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best I ever saw? Skill-wise, a guy by the name of Salvador S\u00e1nchez. The best all-round fighter that I ever saw.\u201d<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez was just 21 when he upset Danny \u201cLittle Red\u201d L\u00f3pez to claim the WBC featherweight title. The gifted Mexican was a complete technician, combining exquisite footwork, sharp counter-punching, stamina and the ability to box with equal authority on the front or back foot.<\/p>\n

\u201cChava\u201d packed an extraordinary amount into a short career, making nine successful title defences in just over two years and defeating elite opposition including Wilfredo G\u00f3mez and Azumah Nelson.<\/p>\n

Tragically, S\u00e1nchez\u2019s life was cut short just weeks after beating Nelson on August 12, 1982, when his Porsche 928 crashed, killing him at the age of just 23<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roy Jones Jr was just 11 years old when the fighter he would later name as the \u2018best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-364193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}