Roy Jones Jr. at Cruiserweight.

Prime Roy is a different story. Prime Roy never fought at cruiserweight so it is for me difficult to assess how he would have done.

 

Actually he was which is why he was leaning on the ropes so much in the Johnson fight. He didn't have the foot and hand speed anymore.

 

Age. Nothing to do with weightdrained

 

Actually it's bit of both. A lot of fighters have failed when they tried to go back down.

 

I never said that. Not as in - being weight drained.

 

Of course. It's all hypothetical. We're all just guessing. But you'd have to assume that he'd have been better in his mid 20's than what he was at 34 against Ruiz. And I would honestly favour the version of Roy who fought Ruiz, over Jirov, Toney and anyone else who fought at CW back then. So I'd confidently be picking a 28 year old, 200 pound version of Roy. But like you say, all it would have taken was one great shot.

 

Cruiserweight was cannon fodder back then. Gomez was stationed in Germany and would’ve stayed there. Jirov would be fun but one sided. Nelson would’ve been owned. Toney only made a pitstop. Tiozzo would’ve been owned.

 

He was clearly psychologically damaged from the Tarver fight, which had happened only months earlier. He should never have been in the ring at that stage. But in my opinion, he was deeply hurt and embarrassed by it, so he wanted to fight again as soon as possible.

 

You call these fighters cannon fodder?

 

The OP called 175 cannon fodder. 190 was thought of as the worst division back then.

 

I believe he would have lost a ratch with Toney had it taken place at cruiser

 

James was a great CW when he was motivated. But I envisage another U/D due to Roy's speed.

 

I don't think hand speed would bother Toney. It was his inability to control range that caused him to lose their first fight. Toney had his best moments when Jones was in front of him. I could see it going either way but I would favor toney to win on points

 

Of course his speed would have bothered James. Roy wouldn't have been in front of him. It would have been a cautious fight, where he'd have used his hand and foot speed to counter and then evade James' follow up shots.

I think it would have been a boring fight.

 

I just think Toney was the flat out better fighter above 175. Roy's not gliding around the ring as effortlessly there. I see Toney dragging Roy into a war and I would favor Toney in a close quarters war against just about anyone