What if RJJ decided to stay at HW? Could he have defended his title? Maybe fight Byrd for the WBO strap?
Well, it's hard to say. Certainly, there were winnable match-ups for him. I'd make him a favourite against Byrd and I think he could have taken Holyfield, as well as a few others. A match against Tua would have been interesting. Roys team sent a contract to Sanders, but the fight fell through once Corrie immediately signed it and sent it back. That would have been a terrible style for Jones. I don't think he could even dream of beating a Lewis, Klitschko or even Tyson, as spent as he was at the time.
I recall that the fight that probably would have generated the most money and least amount of risk, would have been against Tyson. They wanted nothing to do with Lewis.
So you think that a fight with tua would have been interesting but he would have no chance with a shot tyson? Lmao Kid you are laughable. If tua fought jones still in 2016 he would have been in the jail for killing him
It all depends on how many times the public were stupid enough to pay to watch him fight Ruiz over and over again. For sure he couldn't have gone in with anyone who was an above average puncher.
I think he definitely beats Byrd. Had the speed & technique to outpoint any number of heavies but he'd have very little margin for error.
It all depends if he has enough pop at the weight to use operant conditioning on other heavies that were not as tentative as ruiz and as easily discouraged from throwing hard punches until they caught him, stunned him enough to make him freeze long enough to unload on him Ruiz was traumatized by the Tua KO. Jones picked the perfect guy to psychologically manipulate with the tricks i explained in my new thread. Thanks to OP for inspiring me to make it
There is a reason Jones did not stay at heavyweight.He would have gotten stopped sooner than later.Holyfield would have stopped him in my opinion.