Really, it shouldn’t have altered his current ranking by much. But the truth is, it definitely would have done. Because a lot of people today either have forgotten how great he was, or they just reflect on his losses and hold them against him. There’s a lot of fans who came into the sport off of the tail end of Floyd’s career, where they put an unbeaten record high up on a pedestal. He’s already in the ATG discussions.
That’s ridiculous. Getting knocked out was due to his diminished reflexes, not being mentally weak. He was never mentally weak. He went to HW. He dropped back to LHW. He struggled with Tarver, but rematches him straight away. He got straight back into the ring after the Tarver loss. He fought Tarver again. He fought Calzaghe. He went to Russia to fight Lebedev when he was absolutely shot. You are talking nonsense.
They were lined up to fight each other in 2004. If Roy hadn’t have lost to Tarver and Tyson hadn’t have lost to Williams, they were on course. It could have happened. They’d already met face to face in Miami late in 2003, and they’d spoke regularly on the phone, along with their advisors.
Behave. It’s not some made up thing from the internet. Roy is one of the greatest fighters of all time. He’s obviously not the GOAT, but he’ll go down in history as an ATG fighter.
No. Ranking them is subjective. It’s not subjective to say that Roy’s an ATG. If Roy’s not an ATG, what does that make your hero?
Ruiz fought a passive fight. He is a boring clincher and the ref would not let him work. It was an opportunist fight for RJJ, same as Canelo versus Kovalev. Although you have a guy like Toney who could do well against Holyfield, Rachman, Oquendo... you have a guy like Chris Byrd who started his career at 169 pounds and scored a win against V.Klitschko... I still doubt RJJ could beat Tyson. But in boxing sometime strange things happen. So you never know 100%.
RJJ would have easily beaten 2000s Tyson, if he would have fought Tyson after he beat Ruiz it would have been a RJJ domination. Prime Tyson or even early 90s Tyson is a different story. Personally I think mid-80s prime Tyson would have been too much for HW RJJ from 2003. But 2003 RJJ vs mid 90s Tyson at Heavyweight would have been a very competitive bout.
Oh if jones beat Tyson & then retired. He would be the goat. & even Floyd’s purses would have taken a little hit.