Why did Roy Jones ruin his career the way he did?

Jones should be retiring now after all. He will never be the same as he was.

 

Rico i\has always been a Jones hater to the extreme, he has blind hatred towards him. It's different from the normal hater who just didn't like his attitude, but respected his ability and sees him as an ATG. Jones took shots from a prime John Ruiz, who had KD Holyfield and Kirk Johnson hard. Jones wasn't able to avoid all of his shots, in the first round Ruiz landed 2 big right hands consecutively, he took it, and wasnt rocked. This version of RJJ now would have been in a coma.

 

with the right opponent you can make anyone look like superman

 

Many of Jones victims have went on to become champions in their own right. The problem is Jones was just way above everyone else. He looked like superman against Virgil Hill, James Toney, and even a Prime Ruiz, who nobody at that time could look good against once he adopted that ugly style of his and throwing that sneaky right hand before he grabs you in a headlock. There are many other fighters who he BLEW away who were good fighters whom no one could do that too, like the big hitter Merqui Sosa, Thronton, Clinton Woods, Montel Griffin, that guy who beat Benn, among others.

Honestly the only fighters who would have given him real legit trouble that he did not fight, who may have had a chance against him was Nunn and G-Man, but with G-Man since he was abandoning his boxing skills for his power punching, he may have just been dominated.

 

Ruiz didn't stay in HW because any top 10 HW would have knocked him out. John Ruiz is the shittiest belt holder in boxing history and RJJ took advantage. He is a total paper champ in the HW division.

John Ruiz vs. RJJ for the belt was followed by Vitali Klitschko vs. Lennox Lewis. Talk about a huge difference :rofl

 

Not really. Ruiz DID beat top rated heavies. You are bullshitting, his resume is no worst than Chris Bryd's (based on who he actually beat at that time), with the exception of Vitali, who he didn't actually beat and was losing to before Vitali got injured. Bryd actually got a gift decision against Fres Oquendo, who should have won a clear decision, but Ruiz actually TKO'd him in their fight. So how exactly was he the weakest titlist and would lose to any top rated heavies when he BEAT top rated heavies? The problem with Ruiz was that his style was ugly and foul filled... that's pretty much it. Also he got wayy too many chances to win the WBA belt due to his promoter, but to say what you did is not accurate. The truth is most of the heavies at that time were garbage outside of Lewis and the Klits. Rahman was slow as **** and wouldve posed nothing, Bryd was the only guy that was a size where jones could have competed against, although Bryd had ZERO power, but other attributes which wouldve made for a good fight, like speed and boxing skills.

No one doubts Ruiz beat and fought some good fighters, and has been on the end of some bad decisions, but the reason he was hated was for his horrible fighting technique. it was terribly ugly but effective and he cried too much in the Johnson fight. But he beat Rahman, Holyfield who was past prime but not shot yet, Fres Oquendo, Kirk Johnson, Golota, and a few others.

 

Ruiz beat fellow DKP fighters. He hardly pulled a Mike Tyson circa 1986 and cleaned out the division, did he?

Also, name the punchers Ruiz fought lets say after David Tua.... The next hitter he fought was Haye and that was a long long time between punchers on a resume.

 

I agree his career choices were strange

when you put it the way you did

well my opinion is beating Ruiz at heavy took him a step further

he probably thought I can beat anybody and over come anything

and then he beats Tarver,,,he struggles but he wins

unsatisfied he tries to avenge it and then gets KO'd

i guess as he still loses he either still thinks he has it or just fights such tough comp past peak knowing one big win will put him back

just think if Roy were to won one of those embarrassing losses ESB would cream in their pants and hop on the band wagon

 

Roy's just tried to remain relevant, that's all. Take on some name opponents, stay in the public eye, make some money, etc. The reality is that he should probably have retired after losing to Tarver the second time or the Glen Johnson beating.

 

H

Hi mate!

Think you're being OTT! Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it? I'm sure he's got a few regrets, but a ruined career? Don't be ridiculous! He's had a great career. His resume isn't half as bad as people make it out to be.

A few of the fights everyone wanted to see didn't come off for various reasons. King stood in the way of the Benn fight, Eubank was happy to stay in England for example. Apparently Roy ducked both of these. DM was offered $5M to go to the U.S. and turned it down in two occasions. Roy wasn't going to fight in Germany in 2001 and who could blame him? The judging was disgraceful and he was still scarred from the Olympics. So it's easy to say things like he should have fought him etc, but things are never that simple.

Tarver lost his chance to fight Roy by losing to Harding the first time. Almost every week on this forum people talk about the bums he fought. Why? Every single fighter fights bums! Why don't you analyse the good/great fighters he fought, and then look at what they did before they lost to Roy, and then look at what they went on to do afterwards.

I bet if you compare Roy's resume to Calzaghe's, DM's, Eubank's, Benn's, Tarver's etc, it's pretty good!

Roy's made a few mistakes in his career. He never should have rushed back for Tarver. He kept his Ruiz weight on for a while in the hope of fighting Tyson, and then when it became apparent it wasn't happening, he had to get it off pretty quickly. It has been proved that he was a ripped 200 pounds. He went from 200 to 175 for the weigh in and then hydrated back to around 186 for the fight. That's 14 pounds of muscle at nearly 35 after 50 fights. He had to do a lot of running before he even went into his normal 8 week camp.

He hired Mackie Shiltstone to bulk up for Ruiz, and he hired him for the Tarver rematch, but he didn't hire him for the first Tarver fight, which was a huge mistake! Tarver was physically and mentally at a 100% for that fight. He'd lived in Roy's shadow his whole life, and he was fired up. Roy on the other hand, only took the fight because Tarver had hounded him and crashed the Ruiz press conference. He'd had his heart set on a Tyson fight, so he wasn't that motivated for the fight. He also wasn't at his best physically. Also, Tarver was the fresher man. He didn't turn pro til 28, and Roy had fought twice as many fights.

Like I say, hindsight is a wonderful thing. I think he should have gone up to heavy the following year, and then stayed there for a while. If/or when he came back down, he should have done it slowly stopping off at cruiser first, and he should have hired expert help like Mackie to do it.

But why don't we celebrate the wins he had over good/great fighters, instead of looking at the Frazier's and Kelly's etc?

Roy's started out at 154 and dominated at 175. He's one of the best to ever lace them up, and whoever doesn't agree, knows less than nothing about boxing!

Regards, Loudon.

 

Jones's win over Tarver adds a hell of a lot to his legacy.

 

Holyfield turned down fights at HW, as did Tyson I think. Hopkins turned down the fight at 175 pre-HW. Calzaghe was a nobody in those days

He beat a who's who at 175 bar Darius, who wasn't that good anyway and lost to Gonzalez and went life and death with Hall twice.