If Jones Jr. had stayed at heavyweight....

Unless he did the very best cherry picking job of all time then not very long. Even opponents like Rahman and Oquendo could have done some damage if they landed a single bomb directly on his chin.

 

yeah there's a reason why Jones didn't hang around at heavy. He even said more than once that he didn't feel it was worth taking his chances against the bigger and harder punching guys. At one point he entertained the idea of fighting Corrie Sanders which would have been dangerous as hell right after he sparked Wlad.

 

Feelers were put out for a fight with Lewis, and he also talked about a match with Tyson followd by retirment.

In practice I suspect that the WBA would just have made him rematch Ruiz

 

He should have stayed at heavy and faced Corrie Sanders like he said he would Corrie was just about creaming himself at the chance to face RJJ. They signed that contract so fast the pen took fire

 

Not sure but there might have been. in either case he was wise to quit heavy while he was ahead.

 

fat failed sanders who was retired after winning nothing signifcant all his career, yeh? he was a noone, roy would probably have handled him just like ruiz.

jones wanted a titlist, not someone who defaulted in whilst in their worst ever shape.

 

The situation on the ground at the time was that people had not quite figured out that Holyfield and Tyson were spent at world level, and neither had they figured out which of the new generation were the dangerous prospects.
What Jones should logically have done is try to make a fight with Tyson or Holyfield, which would have garnered a lot more interest than a fight with the more dangerous younger contenders.

He would have been more likely to win, he would have got more credit if he had, and he would have made a lot more money.

 

That would have been an awful fight for Roy to take.

Probably one of the worst, even though there were better HW's around than Sanders.

 

I'd have given Roy a shot of beating the following HW's:

Rahman
Oquendo
Tyson
Holyfield
Chagaev
Byrd
Valuev

 

Roy would never have handled Sanders like he did Ruiz.

It would have been an awful match up.

 

That's what he tried to do.