Heavyweight Roy Jones, how far could he have gone.

Chad Dawson, Chris Byrd, Wladimir Klitschko...

Definitely not slo heavyweights.

 

Roy Jones would've been carefully handled there and "Hand-Picking" his opponents... Jones would NEVER unify...... In my opinion, Roy Jones would have eventually been stripped of his title for failure to meet certain opponents.... Jones was NOT destined to be a great heavyweight..... Peace...

MR.BILL:bart

 

Who says he needed to be great?

Fighting and beating gun shy heavies like Jamel McCline would of done a lot for his legacy. His sole fight against Ruiz does plenty, more then Toney's continued efforts at HW.

 

Right now, I say Toney kills Roy Jones in a heavyweight fight..... Jones is NOT even thinking about James Toney at 200 to 200 + pounds in 2009...... Toney looked in decent shape for Hasim Rahman last July... That 226 that Toney made, showed an effort in reform.... Peace..

MR.BILL

 

You are absolutely right, and I wish you weren't. I agree that Jones should receive the acclaim he receives because of his win over Ruiz. A win over McCline would also be deserving of great praise. A former middleweight competing with the big boys is just astounding.

The part I wish you were not right about is his win over Ruiz doing more for his legacy than Toney's heavyweight resume does for his. Toney defeated Holyfield and Ruiz. Drew with, and defeated, Rahman. Had close fights with Sam Peter. Toney is a former middleweight too.

I believe that a heavyweight Roy could take James Toney head to head. I think last night's Roy could beat James at heavyweight. Toney has still achieved more above 200.

 

People are going to look at Toney's record in 20 years and see multiple No Contests, Draws, and split decision wins and losses over Danny Batchelder (Who?) and Samuel Peter.

Honestly, I love James Toney... But his HW resume is unbelievably muddled. It's amazing what he's done, we have so few modern examples of a fighter moving up as far as he has...

And really, his best HW performance is against Holyfield. Chris Byrd did the same thing a year before Toney did it, to a much better Holyfield. Byrd's a ex middleweight as well, so it's not even a Toney unique win. Why doesn't Byrd receive more credit then Toney, or even as much as him?

And technically Toney didn't beat Rahman or Ruiz. He was never able to convince the judges as Jones did against Ruiz. He never came into a fight as high stakes as Jones did to simply dominate. For all he did against Peter he was still knocked down by one of his jabs.

Like I said... Muddled.

 

Agreed.

Before the Ruiz fight, he already ran his mouth about moving to Heavyweight and was pretty much set to fight a totally washed up Buster Douglas but backed out ............because his dad told him he could be seriously hurt. The same Douglas who then fought Saverese and got ko'ed cold almost immediatly.

Even for the Ruiz fight he was MIA for most of the time and nobody knew if the fight really would go thru. Not a good sign if he intended to stay/fight the big dogs at Heavy and he handpicked the poorest of the poor Don King protected clubfighters, Johnny Luise. His mandatory would have been VK and that would have been a legal execution aka RIP RJ.

The problem Jones faces are his relative lack of power and the good o'l wiskers, most of those guys would have walked right thru him take two and land one.

Tarver, Johnson or in Lewis's case Rahman/ McCall were never considered big bangers, could they crack , sure but never in the league of say, a Foreman or Tyson or The Hawk etc. Those fighters made there entire punchers rep on landing the right shot at mediocre chinned fighters.

No disrespect intended against Jones, he was a great fighter in the lower weight classes but he does not belong at Heavyweight. Think about it, once he reflexes slowed down a bit and he got pressured he was put into a come by the rRoad warrior.............some Heavies would have put him into the morgue.

 

I did not realize the results of the 2nd Rahman fight were changed to a NC.

Toney did convince the judges against Ruiz. Not by as wide of a margine as Jones, but a UD nonetheless. That result was later changed because of Toney testing positive for steroids. I've read the steroids were not really performance enhancing, but more or less injury healing. An injury being healed does help performance, that kind of argument could go on forever. I am not a doctor; and to my knowledge, Toney does not have a history of testing positive for steroids.

Interestingly, I remember Jones testing positive for steroids after a light heavyweight bout. He said it claimed from using Ripped Fuel, which he had purchased from a nutritional store. Like I said, I'm no doctor. I don't offer judgment in these situations.

 

My apologies, Russell, I did not fully iterate my point.

I don't think that Toney was more impressive as a heavyweight than was Jones. I think he has accomplished more. Toney has more wins at heavyweight than Jones, and a NC(win) over the only person Jones defeated at the weight.

 

If those results were all offical I'd agree with you.

Like I said, I feel it's sabotaged and muddled.

 

Well, when you look at it on paper, you are right. I can try to argue Holyfield and Guinn are just as big, but that argument doesn't have an overwhelming amount of traction.

I still side with my unofficial results, but I see where you're coming from

 

Roy Jones picked a perfect style match up vs Ruiz with a ref who limited Ruiz's usual style.

Roy Jones turned down a fight with Corrie Sanders, and also could have fought Vitlai Klitschko. He would have been a KO loser vs either.

I don't think Jones could have gone very far at heavy. Maybe he could win another match vs a hand picked guy in Don King's stable. That is about it.

 

Toney did not defeat Ruiz. He cheated. cheaters like Roy and Toney should get some sh*t for cheating and no praise for winning while cheating :bart

 

Toney was tested positive with steroids again against Batchelder for example.