Except RJJ. I'm watching Jones vs Ruiz now and they showed Michael Spinks sitting ringside and I thought to myself "what other light heavies could beat Ruiz"
I think Artur Beterbiev would knock Ruiz out while Michael Spinks and Archie Moore would have won decisions.
If Ruiz was getting rocked by a 193 pound Jones, how would he react to a jinx from a 205 pound Spinks?
Ezzard Charles. Beat JJ Walcott and Louis at HW, gave Marciano the toughest fight of his career and all when he was past prime, he grinds up Ruiz.
Harold Johnson did well at heavyweight and was considered an opponent for Sonny Liston. He might’ve beaten him, smart guy. @robert ungurean here spoke with HJ and he said and I hope I’m quoting you right “he never hurt me” regarding sparring.
I'll be completely honest, there aren't a whole lot. Ruiz gets alot of **** (deservedly so) but there are precious few that would walk through him. He had a decent punch, he was extremely strong in the clinch (strong enough to give fits to Rahman who's known for physical strength) and quite frankly a LHW is a LHW, most of them don't even go on to do big things a CW let alone beat a legit top 5 HW (and yes Ruiz was a legit top 5 HW). Aside from the obvious Roy and Toney, I think Spinks, Ezzard, Archie and Bob Foster. Maybe someone like Billy Conn as well. There's actually a lot of LHW's that some people may end up mentioning that I don't think beat him. Funny enough, as an amateur Ruiz was a pretty highly ranked LHW.
Ruiz at his “best” employed tactics not so pure and certainly not prescribed by the MOQ. Those tactics were expected to be used against Jones. No illusions or pretences in place otherwise. Nady effectively removed the main bullets from Ruiz’s gun in so far as preventing Ruiz from employing those tactics, in fact, he also precluded any infighting, running in to separate the fighters even when infighting was only hinted at. As far as Nady blocking Ruiz less savoury tactics, while that can be argued as being fair regulation - it can also be argued that such tactics represented the primary threat to Jones - tactics which would’ve also called in and utilised Ruiz’ greater size and strength. Ruiz trying or being forced to “outbox” Jones was not the successful path for victory anyone projected for the Quiet Man. If it was understood that the fight would unfold that way - of course Jones would’ve been a justified favourite. So, given the same “protections” as Roy was afforded against Ruiz, quite a few of the LHs already nominated would and could do it so much better than Roy’s did. On the other hand, if Ruiz is allowed to fight as he normally did, the nominated LHs would actually have a tougher opponent on their hands than the one Roy faced. - but I see them actually overcoming same and still winning, no refereeing assistance required.