Why on earth didnt he stay at heavy?! I understand he had the milkdud taunting him....But jesus christ, he could have finished on a higher note. He didnt look bad at heavy at all. I do believe he would have been toasted if he ever faced some REAL opponents, but he would have got more credit losing to a guy like lewis, than getting double k.o'd to 2 journeymen. ps. I hate tarver
Tarver wasn't a journeymen. Johnson was. Roy kind of made the smart move not staying at HW. As big of a Jones fan I am, it was smart business beating Ruiz and stats wise became the first middleweight in like forever to become HW champion. I wouldn't even wanna think about what a fight between him and Lewis would have looked like.
that fight was like a glorified sparring session. Jones handpicked the worst beltholder at the time. Do you seriously think the result would have been the same if Jones fought a Heavyweight with skills and power two things Ruiz does not have? Jones would have got that fragile Glass Jaw shattered. He knows it and it is why he only fought Ruiz.
God knows why he felt the need to go back to 175, that decision basically finished off his career. He couldve defended his title, maybe unify with Byrd, and look for a big title fight with a Tyson or even Toney, also cruiser was also an option, why kill yourself to fight Tarver?! Its crazy!
i agree with this:deal a fight at heavy versus toney would have been HUGE (at least for us). a fight against byrd would have been historical in the sense that jones was taking on a VERY skilled heavy. at the end of the day i think he left heavy because to add to his legitimacy there and thus, add to his resume all time, the best fight would have been lewis. in fact, for us fans, it was the ONLY fight for him at heavyweight. roy would never, EVER fight lewis. he thought he could drop the weight...he was wrong
I always thought Jones should have fought Byrd right after Ruiz. Byrd would be light a hitting and slow compared to Jones. Jones would have won another title belt. THEN Jones should have challenged Lennox Lewis for the real title. Lewis would have killed him, BUT Jones would have gotten more respect for even taking that challenge. He also would have made a whole lot of money! Instead Jones wimped out and took what he thought was the easy way. He performed worse then expected and used the weight loss as an excuse. Fine... I'll buy the weight loss excuse for the first fight...EXCEPT Jones got KOed in the REMATCH. Jones had enough energy to WIN the first Tarver fight, but then after having MORE TIME TO ADJUST, he got KTFOed. So the weight loss excuse don't fly for that one. After that KO Jones was a broken fighter, psychologically... he never was the same or anywhere near the same again. Being KOEd by a huge heavyweight sure would have done a lot less mental damage on Jones. But, as they say, hindsight is 20/20.
For someone who showed no problem holding a punch and all of a sudden get KOd twice makes me think that its a little more to do with ad******g to the weight again/getting old more than a chin problem
Whoever said Johnson is a journeymen is an egit. Hes better than a journeyman and has proven himself to be a good fighter. Just ask Chad Dawson!
i remember this fight because i believe it was pay-per-view and that was the first fight that i was able to afford to buy at the time... it was excited for it and every punch jones hit ruiz with... everyone was cheering... but someone inside me said "pls ruiz, dont land a big shot... not sure if jones can take it from a heavyweight!!"... im glad he didnt stick around cause he would have gotten blasted by the other HW champs... he should have just went down to cruiser and dominated... :yep
at the time he was a journeyman.....:deal and I said it....as will 98% of the boxing community...."egit"
Yea definitely. It was very dumb to jump back down when he actually had the whole boxing communities panties wet after becoming a heavyweight "champ". He could have fought a number of other heavies on the big stage and his athleticism would've got him through a few. Either way a KO from a good heavy would have looked alot better for him than what happened to him being put to sleep twice.