Aug 30, 2023; Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA; Floyd Mayweather watches Inter Miami and Nashville SC practice before the game at DRV PNK Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rich Storry-Imagn Images Rich Storry-Imagn Images

Roy Jones Jr Admits Floyd Mayweather's Greatness Amid Bitter Beef

Originally posted on KO on SI | By Grant Young | Last updated Aug 19, 2025 6:20 PM ET

The biggest beef in boxing right now is between two iconic fighters, Roy Jones Jr. and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

This beef stems from comments Jones Jr. made during a June 17 appearance onAndre Ward's All The Smoke Fight podcast, where he asserted a prime Sugar Ray Leonard would beat a prime Floyd Mayweather in a hypothetical bout.

"To me, people don't give him enough credit. People always say, 'Floyd would have beat Sugar'. No, baby, Floyd is not nearly as mean as Sugar was. Sugar is a dog. Just because his name is Sugar don't mean nothing. Sugar is a dog. People don't give him enough credit for that." Jones Jr. said.

"For me, I like Floyd, and Floyd was cool. But it's like, it's gonna be hard for me to go take it and beat Sugar. They'd have to do something different, that's for sure. If [Floyd] did something different, he probably has a chance. Just the way he's been doing with normal people, what I saw in his prime, that's not gonna work with Sugar. Sugar got a third element [heart] right there," he added.

"We think Floyd got [heart], we don't know. We've never seen him challenged. We know Sugar's got one."

These comments rubbed Floyd Mayweather the wrong way, as he responded to them by posting videos of him watching Jones Jr. get knocked out on TV in a July 6 Instagram story.

This infuriated Roy Jones Jr., which is proven by his making scathing comments about Mayweather's legacy and suggesting that Manny Pacquiao had a better overall career with him in a recent interview with The Ring Magazine.

Roy Jones Jr. Reluctantly Praises Floyd Mayweather

Roy Jones Jr. returned to Andre Ward's All the Smoke Fight podcast for an August 19 episode. After Ward called him out for asserting that his beef with Floyd stemmed solely from his comments on Ward's show (as Jones Jr. also threw Mayweather shade during other interviews around that time), Ward got Roy Jones Jr. to admit to Floyd's greatness.

"The man is great. I'm not saying he's not great," Jones Jr. said of Mayweather. "The man is great. Floyd is actually a great fighter who had a great career."

When Ward asked whether he thinks Floyd is an all-time great, Jones Jr. said, "In the all-time [conversation], yes. He is in the conversation, without a question."

While Jones Jr. went on to list several fighters he thinks would have beaten Floyd in their respective primes, this felt like a first step to the two finally squashing their beef.

This article first appeared on KO on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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