Could Roy Jones JR ever have beaten Mike Tyson?

Personally, I think that the Evander fight would have happened, if it wasn’t for King’s actions.

Yes, Nady did jump on Ruiz for the first few rounds.

But even when he knew that he was losing the fight, he still didn’t try and get close again.

You can’t blame that on Nady.

We’re talking about a guy who often mauled his way inside all throughout his career, in almost every fight.

 

Most definitely.

But he wanted mega money to remain there.

It would have been nice to have seen him at CW first, against Jirov or Toney.

HBO would have given him $4-5m for Jirov. But I believe that he got $4m for Woods.

 

We obviously view the fight and the extent of Nady’s influence differently but I respect your opinion.

 

I agree with what you’ve said. Especially the first two rounds. But you’d have expected Ruiz to try it again, 8-9 rounds later, when he knew that he was losing the fight.

 

Besides the first 2 rounds, I recall Nady getting in there often enough during the whole fight to cause Ruiz to second guess himself.

Roy was landing some excellent counters but I don’t think that they were the only thing stopping Ruiz trying to get in close more often than he did. Just checked a few rounds and even in round 11 Nady was still getting in there to cut short Ruiz’s opportunity to work on the inside.

I actually also noticed that when Ruiz got in close on some occasions, the very moment Roy tried to hold Ruiz, it seemed to cue the ref to immediately step in and separate them even though I think Ruiz would’ve been happy to stay in close and work it out himself.

Mind you, Roy didn’t hold every time and did some nice work in close at times himself.

As to Norman Stone, in round 10, yes he was screaming at Ruiz to get in there and fight - but he also said at the same time that the ref sucked and **** the ref.

But I agree that Ruiz should’ve still bullied his way in at every chance, push Nady to whatever point he was prepared to give a warning or even enforce a point deduction - as it was, Ruiz was doggedly following Roy around anyway, not backing away, only to get belted while fighting at Roy’s preferred range.

 

Nady did Roy a favor and IDGAF what anyone says

Ruiz’ only chance was to use his size and maul, which was the appeal of the fight and we were robbed of it