Whose the best heavyweight RJJ could have beaten?

Yeah early 90's Holy would KTFO Jones.

I think even 2000 Holy that Ruiz beat would still have a great chance of beating Jones.

 

Nope, the '99 Holyfield who put in a good competitive effort in Lewis II may beat '03 RJJ, but Evander was shot after that Lennox rematch & would get thoroughly out-boxed by Roy.

 

Some people on here really, really love style over substance it seems.

 

Holyfield looked shot to me too after LEwis, he went 50-50 with the Ruiz that Jones dominated, he also didn't do too well with movers and slicksters either, getting dominated by Byrd and Toney. A 2003 fight with Holyfield would have made allot of sense for Jones, a Tyson fight probably sees him getting sparked early unless he can stay away until Tyson gasses. Still he'd at least make Tyson money

 

I think every one of these guys destroys Jones ... he could not defeat Tarver or Johnson ... Imagine a sharp shooting Tunney or monsters like Dempsey, Marciano or Langford ?

 

This is all funny reading ....

Moore, Walcott , Vharles and Patterson would have all taken Jones head off.

 

BULL****, Jones was shot against Tarver and Johnson, and ummm yes he could and did defeat Tarver

 

Which is exactly what Patterson had, but more. Patterson had head movement versus Jones who simply had fast reflexes.

Don't get me wrong. I like Jones, fun guy to watch. Patterson had more talent and skill overall. Jones just had talent. When that talent failed, he lost. Got cracked and couldn't get up. Patterson was a seasoned fighter and had the ability of getting up when knocked down.

 

It is really funny, floyd patterson, marciano and dempsey would absolutely destroy jones!!!!! They would destroy him!!!! Many people forget that jones is a natural mw. Lmao ... Marciano and dempsey . Marciano would extract the head of jones... Dempsey would hit him even in te floor hahaha. And patterson would win by a clean,accurate and beautiful ko

 

i agree with some of your analysis here but don't agree at all with your outcome. jones was only getting ko'ed in his post-heavy career starting at age 35. we're talking about prime jones. rocky fought in arguably the worst heavyweight era in history. all of the great names on rocky's resume were old when he fought them. the skill level in this fight would be the difference imo. jones by dec or stoppage on cuts.

 

he grant, you're my boy but come on. ok, all those guys beat a 35-yr old, post-heavyweight jones. prime jones was a different story. don't have a problem with you thinking any of those fighters could defeat jones but none of them are going to "destroy" a prime version of jones.

 

wouldn't expect anything less from a member named goldenera. speed kills and none of these fighters would be able to cope with jones'.

 

and most people on here are full of crap. a number of you think bob fitzsimmons beats jones as well. all due respect to fitz but i find this comical.

 

you know what else kills.. power punchers like those men.. Jones would get caught sooner or later period

 

I'll state my answer again: mid-seventies Ali. Jones had better speed, mobility, and reflexes--some of things Ali relied on to win fights. Ali wouldn't press him enough to really disrupt him and didn't really have power to control the fight. Ali had an okay jab, but not really a scary, fight dominating jab. It's a bad style match-up for Ali and he might just drop a decision.