Its hard to say, I still feel Roy Jones Jr in his prime may very well have been one of the best to ever to do it. I'm sure if he had retired after the Ruiz fight some would argue that he was the greatest and of course there would be others who'd argue that he didn't beat enough quality fighters to prove this. If you ask me no matter what Roy Jones for what he accomplished in the 1990's and early 2000's and the performances he put forth making many good and a few great fighters look like **** he has to be amongst the top 20 of all time arguably top 10 at least in the last 50 years.
Sure wish he had. What has happened to Roy post Ruiz doesn't change what a great fighter he was pre Ruiz.
True. But those who have continue beyond their use-by date such as Roy would argue legacy doesn't pay the bills. The amount of money Roy and Mike Tyson have squandered between them would have fed a 3rd world country.
Doesnt affect my ranking of him at all because I don't consider people's careers after getting washed up unless they do more impressive things after that (Holmes-Mercer, Foreman-Moorer etc.) Ali isn't lowered for losing to Berbick, and Jones isn't lowered for Tarver/Johnson/Calzaghe etc cuz he was washed up top 25-30 maybe a little higher. probably not top 20 but id have to take the time to think about it
It's a two sided sword. I don't consider what Roy did post Ruiz changes my rating of what he did pre Ruiz, but can a boxer say "please just judge me on a certain portion of my career?" There are careers that end poorly and there are careers that start poorly too. How much of a career do we judge a fighter on if it's not all of his career?
I think ppl are forgetting he beat Tarver in the fight right after Ruiz. THAT'S when he should have hanged them up. He was 49-1 with the one loss a DQ avenged by a 1st round KO to Griffen. He had already beaten his great contemporaries in Toney and Hopkins, he was the reigning P4P king for a decade...he had nothing else to prove in boxing.
Beating Ruiz was a very solid win, but if you look at the top end of quality Middleweights/Light Heavyweights throughout Boxing history, beating Heavyweight contenders was not exactly unusual. As for the question, I suspect I would have him a bit lower than I do now. This would be because to that point the one fight that he did not have his own way (GriffinI) he lost. At least by continuing he did show he had a bit of a ticker and could gut out a win.
Makes no difference to me.. I don't count the losses that he had when he was 35+ given that he was very visibly shot for those fights.
