How well would R. Jones have done if he could have fought Holyfield`s Top 10 opponents in his prime?

Badly!

There is a reason why he got out of the heavyweight division very quickly!

 

And picked a contender for worst heavyweight "champion" ever!

 

RJJ vs Riddick Bowe would have been a memorable fight

 

Roy Jones was not a true HW at any time. He just cherry picked to get a HW title on his resume. Holyfield was a HW for two decades. This is a useless thread.

 

I wish RJJ cherry picked Lennox Lewis

 

Jones would not do well against an excellent HW.
Bowe would decimate him.
He was not a natural HW.

 

This would have been like Bowe v Hide imo .Jones connecting early ,making Bowe flounder, then getting hit and hurt by massive uppercut s .

 

he would die.

 

Jones was not very good at all in the absorbing punishment department. As in getting hit over the course of a career. Once he was finally asked to have the ability to absorb in order to win fights, it wasn't there. The digging deep department---and Evander had that in spades.

All of his early fights were mismatches and just how many bouts was Roy involved in where he was taking punches? That was always a question mark with him & the first time he was asked was the first Tarver fight. And that guy was no hitter. Then we had Tarver rematch & the Johnson fight. Just who did those guys knock down, let alone ko? Who was their next best victim to suffer being punched by them?

He was a 90% offense guy and his horrible in the absorbing punches department. But low level opposition and those quick reflexes did not see him getting hit. Once he got hit, he sank real quick.

Commander Vander is the polar opposite in absorbing punishment. He had a ton of tough bouts where he had to dig deep and absorb in order to win. Having Jones even attempting to wear those shoes is hard to imagine. The aggregate of tough bouts and its physical demands between the 2 is as wide as it gets.

 

Well one can say that Holyfield wasn't a natural heavyweight, too.

 

That is technically true but a totally different situation between the two.

1) Holyfield unlike Jones was a natural HW his whole career based upon the HW criteria for most of boxing's history-over 175 lbs.
During his prime WITH rehydration RJJ fought as heavy as low 180's.
Holyfield was maybe the best ever CW without rehydration.

2) Showing Evander was naturally significantly bigger.
Height reach bone structure...He was clearly larger BEFORE Holyfield bulked up.
Both used PEDs, only one looked not even pumped up at 205 or so: which may have been BEFORE EH started juicing.

3) Holyfield has an exponentially better chin & proved it against heavy hitters who were natural HWs.

4) Holyfield has a huge record of success at HW, not cherry-picking a rare fight against a non-world class fighter.

It is not even close.
RJJ was great & very elusive during his prime.
But he would not be able to escape getting hit enough-the guys are slower but somewhat bigger & longer to get to him.

 

When Holyfield first moved up, it's not outside the realm of possibility that Holyfield was all natural. With the best strength and conditioning coaches money can buy and access to the most nutritious foods that money can buy, it would be nothing for a naturally 190 pound man to bulk up to a lean, shredded 205 pounds without the aid of steroids. Especially a man in his 20s. I've seen cases of natural bodybuilders that started in their 40s and they were out of shape fat ****s who didn't have access to the resources that Holyfield did and they managed to become lean and ripped with enough dedication and knowing what they were doing.

Although the Jones/Ruiz fight did show that cruiser sized heavyweights of past eras could perhaps defeat many of your modern day heavyweight contenders.