20 years ago, Roy Jones Jr. beat John Ruiz.

Awful performance by Ruiz

 

Basically, Jones found a perfect heavyweight to beat.
I don't actually think Jones could have beaten a Bruce Seldon or Tony Tucker at Heavyweight.

 

Says it all, mate.

 

P4P I rate it as a very good win.

A naturally SMW sized fighter moving up to take on a 230lbs top 10 HW contender, is very impressive to me.

Yes, RJJ picked Ruiz because he was a rare HW titelest he would be favoured to beat. That shouldn't detract from the win though, there arent many former MW titelests id favour over Ruiz, so it says a lot about how good RJJ was for his size.

From an historical, comparative perspective, I consider it a win over a top 10 HW contender, rather than a win over the HW champion, like I do with Fitzsimmons over Corbett.

Times had changed and Ruiz's size advantage over RJJ was much greater than Corbett's over Fitzsimmons, though.

I know others will disagree, but I consider RJJ's wins over pre prime Hopkins, Toney and Ruiz, as the cornerstones of his resume.

I rank RJJ #27 p4p all time and as I consider this one of his 3 key wins, I clearly consider it not too shabby of a win.

Incidentally, I'd likely rank RJJ higher on a H2H, P4P, all time list, if I'd compiled one.

 

I thought it was soooo awful that I deemed it rather suspicious.

 

P4P it rates very highly people like to diss Ruiz which I understand, but this is the same Ruiz that hurt and dropped Holyfield, who was fresh off giving a prime Lennox Lewis a tough fight.

Was Ruiz a memorable Heavyweight champion ? No. But the fact Jones started out as a Middleweight, and managed to win a Heavyweight title it's still a very good achievement.

I find it laughable when people diss Jones for not fighting Lewis. I mean who in their right mind would face a 6'5 240+ pound Heavyweight when your a 5'11 former Middleweight.

 

That was a master boxing performance by Jones. I can remember Jim Lampley saying that Ruiz’s face looked like a Picasso painting at one point

 

Tbh Ruiz had his hands full that night. He was going through a divorce (which is always painful) I think his mentality wasn't in the game it was more the refs actions were in his mind. He stated it was weird, it felt like he was fighting both of them in the ring, as Jay nady was PERFECT for Roy's non infighting style. What I'm trying to say is that Ruiz was not allowed to work in the clinch.

Jay nady for his track record: caused Zab Judah to go for his throat, caused Evander Holyfield to not even lay his head on the inside vs James Toney, caused grown men to be scolded by being called performing "a bozo nono." While coaching from the apron. He caused johnny to not have a inside fight game. For petes sake, I despise his style so much I swear I wish he could magically go back and ref Tyson holy one and two! Nady had no personal ties with Evander, he no wept any nights Evander lost. He liked to say:"stop using your head Evander." Just like Frank cappuccino being the best ref for Gatti ward one, nady maybe woulda been appropriate for fights like I mentioned, where flagrant headbutts were adaquate and not cutting down on the inside fighting.

 

It was a good win, but for perspective, his next fight against Tarver was a better win. Toney beat Ruiz a couple of years later. It's not like it was mission impossible.

 

I think he should have retired after the Ruiz fight. It was the pinnacle of a great career, soon after it would become a very far drop for Roy Jones.

 

wow! that long ago? had a few friends over that night to watch it! a good win for jones that night.

 

Actually Roy wanted the fight, but his father convinced him not to do it, would have been his debut HW fight.

 

Jones picked the greatest heavyweight of the past 30 years to make his mark.

I had Ruiz winning on my card but I respect that Jones could have edged it according to judges not entirely up to snuff.