How much credit should Roy get for winning a HW title? Yes, he was the first fighter in a century to win titles from MW to HW, but he won a trinket belt by beating a slow, light-punching, undersized HW in Ruiz.
Not much. He cherry picked the easiest guy. Stil, it was a good performance. But, it would have been much more impressive if he had beaten the top guy in the division, not just a mediocre alphabet titlist.
I do love how a 6 - 2, 226 pound John Ruiz is undersized but a 6-2, 216 pound Luis Firpo is a manmountain. Anyhow, Ruiz was still a relevant and elite heavy, able to give any heavy alive a difficult night with his own, unique brand of ring control. And he had a decent right hand, not as underpowered as some try to make out.
I would say that any case of a former ranked middleweight, beating a currently ranked heavyweight, is an exceptional result. Whatever Ruiz's limitations, he was unequivocally world class.
Hate to admit it but Ruiz was solid. Holyfield, Kirk Johnson, Golota, Rahman, Oquendo, were all good victories.
Legit? Sure why not. I hated the guy and rejoiced when RJJ took him to school. But he was deceitfully clever with all that damn holding. I think the Tua demolition job made him think twice about his profession.
Toney's heavyweight run deserves to be rated higher than Jones. But Toney could have achieved so much more. Had he trained for the Rahman fight, he would have become WBC champ. That would have made a big difference in terms if his legacy.