No, I think he made a good point actually. I'd imagine Jones figured that if smaller, faster guys could not land much on him, the likes of Ruiz definitely couldn't. He was betting more on his elusiveness rather than his ability to take a big shot. Let's turn this on it's head for a second. Would he go up to heavyweight for the first time if he had already been knocked out by Tarver? Jones had fantastic physical gifts, but his chin wasn't great. Not bad, but certainly not great.
You ever see Jones and Tarver in person? Tarver is a huge man, tall looks like a heavyweight in my opinion. Jones on the other hand looks very very small. His upper body is muscular but his overall persona is very small. Just meeting him in person gave me a whole new respect for what he did, he looks like a middleweight at best. Now that he is in his advanced age and fighting at 168 is proof that he really never had any business at LH or Heavyweight for that matter, and the only reason he went up there was to take on more challenges. I think Jones liked to stay busy, so he filled in his schedule with some soft touches, but the tough fights are mixed in quite well in my opinion. Boxing is a business, and Jones knew it quite well.
So we are dengrating a midlleweight for not fighting Mike Tyson or a 240 pound Douglas?? Like I said, if that is your point of detraction, that is actually a testament to his greatness. 4 division champion from Middlweight to heavy, and we are talking about a few sloppy fighters he didn't fight..... Keith
In my defence Stonehands... my 10th place changes more than it should... I do only rank fighters Ive seen enough & know enough about... I rank primes & H2H ability higher than the average poster... & I think on ability, he`s up there close to Robinson, its actually his career choices that keep him as low as 10 on my list. :good