How good was RJJ at heavyweight?

So which heavyweights did he face after Ruiz? Pricing himself out of fights by demanding impossible purses (was it $100m to fight Tyson?) is pretty much the same as ducking.

 

Jones matched up well with Ruiz. Ruiz wasn't fast or a puncher. Jones outspeed him and actually landed a good right hand later in the fight that made Ruiz withdraw.

But Jones knew he this was a one time trip, and quickly moved back down to light heavyweight. Jones had a chance to fight Sanders, Klitschko and Lewis.

 

yeah IF jones had wanted to fight the biggest best guys people would of paid for it, he didn't, I don't blame him I wouldn't of in his position either, the light heavys and cruiser's are big enough.

 

Why are people talking about Tyson and Holyfield? Jones beat Ruiz in 2003, and by that time Lennox Lewis and the Klitscko brothers were the big names in the division. Roy Jones would have had no chance whatsoever against those three. He never had any real shot at being the true heavyweight champion, plain and simple.

 

Lewis, Wlad, and Vitali would have been too big and strong for Roy.

 

too big, strong and long.

 

All 3 of them could knock him out with one punch.

 

Tyson and Holyfield were still names that would have generated a lot of money, or at least more then he got for Ruiz. Who thought in 2003 that Jones would still be fighting today. I'm sure Jones didn't think that. He was looking for big paydays at what he thought was the end of his career.

 

He had no intentions of fighting Byrd or Toney, but he did want Mike and Evander.

 

There was no myth.

Roy couldn't hang with Vitali or Lewis etc, but he could beat certain guys.

 

Toney and Tarver.

 

Good post.

I wouldn't have fancied him against Sanders, Tua, and obviously Lennox and Vitali. But I'd have fancied him against shot versions of Tyson and Evander, and probably Byrd too.

 

when you are talking about an opponent carrying nearly 100 pounds more than jones would at his old weight, its never going to end up well for the former LMW whichever way you scratch it.

 

He did.

I've shown you links from Jim Thomas's autobiography. He was Evander's attorney for 13 years.

Evander wasn't interested in 1998, and in 2003, King pi$$ed him off because he wouldn't pay him what he was owed from a previous fight. Roy should have been pi$$ed with King and Murad Muhammad though, because from what I've read, their greed scuppered any deal. Evander then ended up fighting Toney for less of a guarantee with no title at stake. That's how angry he was.

Regarding Mike, according to various reports, Murad spoke to him on the phone, and Roy went to Miami to meet him face to face. They apparently spoke of a potential fight for 2004. But as we know, Roy lost to Tarver and Johnson, and Mike lost to Williams.

Sandwiched between talks with Evander and Mike, Roy had agreed to fight Corrie Sanders. But after thinking about it, he went back and asked for double the money because of the risk.

Also, Lennox called Roy and said he was scared of him.




I may have made that last part up.

:rofl

 

The former don't make him money. The latter do. But if he beat the latter the former (by 2005) offer him a fairly risk free way of unifying the division.