How good was RJJ at heavyweight?

I agree. His management had (without his consent, he claimed) signed him up to fight Sanders and I reckon he woke up and realised he risked getting messed up. So that never happened.

It's a tribute to RJJ's skills that he managed to win at heavyweight at all, imho.

 

I never said he's beat anyone on their best day. I said on his best day.

 

That list is nothing to do with what I posted.

 

6 3 is an inch bigger than ruiz.

seriously, an inch? you size fanatics are pushing it. at which point in that inch does it "become too big"? the 6 2 and a half? the 6 2 and 3/4 point?

ridiculous!

 

Fair enough, but that's really damning Roy with feint praise if you have to match him on his best day against a lesser version of someone else to give him a chance. Best to best, he's not beating many top heavyweights. He knew that better than some of his admirers, hence him only having one fight in the division, against John Ruiz.

 

Of course we have to do that to give him a chance. HW was far from his best weight and his whole strategy relied on being a superior athlete who hit harder than the other man.

In theory he could have faced Byrd for the WBA/IBF in a 50/50 fight, feasted on the remains of Holy and Tyson until Vitali retired and then fought Toney for the WBA/IBF/WBC and retired a unified champ. That would have really over inflated his h2h capabilities despite him only really beating Ruiz and Byrd of any note.

 

Come on ffs, no one on this board considers Tyson to be more over rated than me, but are you seriously going to claim that even the version of Tyson that hit Danny Williams early in their fight wouldn't have comatosed Jones with the same punch. Tyson was never slower of hand and foot than Ruiz, even when he was only good for 3 rounds in a fight. Particularly if he knew the other guy couldn't possibly hurt him. I see even that version of Tyson, destroying Jones inside a round.

 

What a Tyson fanboy you are :rasta

 

Things weren't straightforward regarding Douglas. It was Roy's father who wouldn't let him go through with it. And when he stepped in, it was the first time in 6 years that they'd spoken to each other. From what I can gather from the information I've read, Roy was under a lot of pressure from his family to heal the rift. So he backed down. At the time, he was only 28/29, and he had other things to accomplish. But late in 2002, he'd pretty much done all he could at LHW apart from fight Tarver, and time was running out on his career. So he moved up to fight Ruiz, and to my knowledge, his father made no objections.

 

Well obviously if you think that version of Tyson definitely sparks that version of Jones then you rate him higher than I do.

 

I have a hard time envisaging Roy beating most of them, but I think it's an exaggeration to say it'd only have taken them a round. They wouldn't have respected his power and they'd have walked him down. But even so, he wouldn't have been stood there right in front of them. I think Roy could frustrate many HW's in the early rounds due to his speed.

Foster's the most interesting match up. Foster was a great LHW with awesome power, but he didn't have any success at HW. But he was taller than Roy with a bigger reach. It would have been a very dangerous fight for Roy. But Roy would have had a 15-20 pound weight advantage as well as his speed. Although Foster could definitely have beaten him, I don't think it would have been early, and I think Roy would have had the power to have hurt him.

 

Evander wasn't interested in 1998, but in 2003, the fight was close to being made. But Don King got greedy and upset Evander, which is why he pulled out of negotiations and went on to fight Toney instead.

 

I appraise him for the one fight he had. John Ruiz was no ATG great but he was a respectable player at the time and holding a belt. Jones dominated in excellent fashion.. But truthfully Roy Jones shouldn't be talked much about in heavyweight discussions. It was a one time performance and should be left at that.

 

He didn't duck every HW with a pulse. But he wanted mega money to remain at the weight, seeing as though he was a 35 year old LHW who'd fought 50 times.

 

Agreed,

I don't think he really ducked anybody if truth be told. He moved up there as a one time deal, looked around to see what kinda money could be made, and when no palatable offer was put forth he moved back down to his own weight class. There was brief talk about him fighting Corrie Sanders right have the sniper had sparked Wlad. But it never materialized and Sanders was a high risk low reward proposition anyway.. Its not like Roy made outlandish claims like David Haye about "saving boxing" and "conquering" the heavyweight division.