Had Roy Jones retired after the Ruiz fight...

pretty much the same as he is now, i think. later fights did not add to his legacy, merely showed he could do what he already had done.

And it was clear he wasnt the same man in any of those post HW fights, increasingly so.

Our great Brit Joe calzaghe couldnt have put it any clearer, that in 2004, jones was looking increasingly shot and would be a terrible disappointment and an appallingly cowardly way to end ones career facing in 2004 onwards.

 

He was being put in the discussion of the greatest ever at that time. If he had bowed out after Ruiz I don't know what would have changed that. Perhaps a few years would have sobered up the scribes and he would "only" be in the Top Ten All Time P4P.

 

Would've considered him the greatest fighter of my lifetime, without question.

 

So, he's essentially chastised for bad career management. And his judgement at anything less than a top 15 or 20 ATG is a judgement based upon career management and not boxing excellence.

Or you can try to convince me that he was suddenly "exposed" after 14 years in the pro ranks and a couple dozen title matches.

 

Sad how many people this has happened to, past and present.
It's a shame, but management and matchmaking quality will always indirectly affects a fighters standings in h2h and overall .

 

So, do we denigrate Langford and Charles the same as we do Jones?

 

Match them up against the darlings of the modern era and you'll see their dregs come up.

 

Not from me. When a fighter has had a long proven record and then doesn't know when to get out at the right age, I don't factor the sad ending in or pop off about the fighter being "exposed". Some guys just have better means, were better at saving their money, were better at checking their ego...etc.

 

I still think Jones ducked a lot of guys, and up to that Ruiz fight that was talked about. That Ruiz was the guy lower weight guys wanted to fight to win the heavyweight title. and still Jones has not won the cruiserweight title.

 

Jones was absolutely in the discussion of best pound for pound of all time, after he beat Ruiz.

When there was talk about matching him with Tyson, many said that it would be a mismatch, and that he would just use Tyson as a punch bag.

Him dropping down to light heavyweight to fight Tarver, was one of the biggest tactical/career mistakes in the history of the sport.

I am glad that he did in a way, because if he hadn't, I would be spending a lot of time on this forum, trying to prove that he was not the monster that people took him for.

Welcome to my world, if he had retired after the Ruiz fight.

People would be making the most extraordinary predictions of who he could have beaten, and I would be the voice saying "wait a minute here, his resume doesn't look that watertight on closer inspection".

 

Would you rather him fight Dariusz than fight Hopkins, Toney, or Johnson?

 

Yes I would.

That fight would have created an absolutely dominant light heavyweight champion.

That was the fight that we needed.

 

That is true. It is a fight he avoided as well as others.