Former world champion turned boxing pundit Paulie Malignaggi has had his say on the outcome of a fantasy fight between Roy Jones Jr and Andre Ward.
Jones Jr is a Hall of Famer who famously won his first title at middleweight and went on to win belts in four weight classes including heavyweight across a 76 fight career.
Ward, meanwhile, held multiple world championships of his own including unified super-middleweight titles between 2009 and 2015, and unified light-heavyweight titles between 2016 and 2017, retiring with a perfect record of 32 wins from as many fights.
Speaking to ProBox TV, Malignaggi was asked who would win between these two in a fight at 168 lbs if both men were in their prime and he came down in the side of Ward.
“I’m gunna go with Andre. Andre hasn’t lost a fight since he was 12 years old, and he never lost again.
People underestimate his athletic ability, yes he was a thinking fighter and a lot of times was a little bit more stationary, but I saw him win the championships when he was 17 years old. He won it on pure athleticism.
He just didn’t always translate it into the ring ’cause, especially as a pro, he started to bully you and be physical and get in your mind it in other ways. A lot of time he didn’t have to show his whole repertoire.”
He then moved on to Roy Jones Jr’s chances.
“Roy is an unbelievably talented guy. From the talent perspective, may be the best ever. It’s hard to pick against him. But I think if you can bust him up and mix it up in just the right way, and with Andre’s intelligence, I think he might find a way to balance it all out.”
In recent times, Jones has worked as a trainer and cornered the likes of Chris Eubank Jr as well as fighting as recently as April when he was outpointed by UFC star, Anthony Pettis.