Is John Ruiz the worst Heavyweight Champion in 30 years, or of all time?

I am not really a fan of Roy (just don't like his diva personality) but to me it is delusional to not acknowledge his history athletic talent. He dominated excellent fighters like Hopkins, Toney, Hill, who were never dominated before or after. Holyfield didn't look as good against Ruiz as Roy did. What's there to overrate about Roy? He would hve never beaten the absolute best HW's in history or the super sized Bowe - Lewis - Klitschko prototypes, but he could have been a real contender at HW and beat a lot of decent HW's.

 

Roy was great but his career will always have ??? when it comes to his lt heavy reign

 

I'm not defensive over Patterson. I just can't see Roy beating him.

There are people who have Jones in their Top10 of alltime, there are people who say Jones would beat everybody between 160 and 175. This is overating. Just read he "Roy Jones is underrated" thread in classic and read what some of his nuthuggers write there. It's reasonable to rank Jones Top10-15 at lhw. It's reasonable o have him between Top40 and 60 atg-wise. And yeah, he is an atg, no doubt. I don't think that highly of Jones h2h against atgs at lhw and mw. He is the best at smw though but I can see Joe C. giving him quite some trouble there.

 

DM bea Hill as decisivly and dominant as Roy. Hopkins wasn' the Hopkins he would be later on. His whole success is based on experience and learning by doing. He was at least 5 years removed from his prime while Jones jus entered his. Toney was an excellent win but Toney was although beaten by guys like Tiberi.
Jones never proved he could hang in with the big guys at hw, one fight against a hand-picked fighter doesn't prove much. He avoided the stiffest challenges in the other divisions like Benn or DM for example. He was great but he wasn't the monster some make him out to be. What do you think Ezzard Charles or Archie Moore would have done to Jones lhw opposition?

 

**** Bruce Seldon

 

Bruce Seldon, Oleg Maskaev, John Tate, Sam Peter, Shannon Briggs, Nikolai Valuev all have had a worse championship "reign" than Ruiz.

 

Not possible, he is the best US HW fighter since Holyfield.

 

how is roy overated now? most people have moved him way down their atg lits. he was a great fighter in his prime but he isnt anymore.

 

Everybody who said Jones isn't great is an idiot. He is. Not at the moment but history-wise definitly.

 

I don't see many people saying he'd beat everyone from 160-175, especially now with all this uneducated glass jaw talk when it comes to his prime. What I have seen was that Jones H2H is a exceedingly difficult fight for anything from 160-175 due to his physical abilities. To not think that is really pushing it, there is no one like Jones that has ever fought at those weights. Do I think he beats someone like a Archie Moore? Probably not, but that there is even a discussion about it, shows how H2H good he is, imo. Does he beat Patterson at his best? Doubtful, Patterson had a wickedly fast and powerful left hook. I think Jones could hurt him though, but it would not be something, imo, that would KO patterson -- nothing really to keep patterson off of him.

RJJ is underrated though due to his after prime decline. But he doesn't beat Patterson. We only have one fight at heavy to determine this by, where he fought a guy like ruiz. Ruiz fought some decent competition and showed himself to have some power, but lets not kid ourselves, he is simply a decent heavy weight who did more grappling than boxing in the ring to win fights. Had Roy stayed at heavy, fought some more guys who could box, hit, etc then maybe we could talk about this. At heavy Jones has not enough for one to seriously say he would beat Patterson. But that is how great Jones is, that we are even having this discussion.

Ruiz wasn't a horribly bad fighter. He has beat the competition he had, arguably beat that 7 footer and was robbed. He may beat haye, he has a sneaky right hand and I am sure he knows this is the last shot he has. But more than likely Haye blows him out. I have no idea why Lewis did not just fight him, KO him and take the belt free fans from this mediocre heavy weights insignificant cheating reign. He is probably going to the HOF, because he is the first Latino Heavy champ.

 

DM beat hill as decisively and dominant than Jones! atsch Ahhhh I remember you from that Jones thread in classic! You still feel that DM was champion at LHW, would you label DM to beat any of the ATG's at LHW?

 

WBA sucks

Look at David Haye!!!! Of course he isn't the worst HW champ, but he's got the easiest way to achieve it.

Bonin, Barret Valuev and that's all his HW!!!!! WBA is a ****

 

Of course not. He was champ in a weak era and his resume doesn't show he would be up there with the bes. Just like Jones'.

btw. I do no feel he was the champ, I know he was. He was the one unifying. Jones was the one picking up he bels oher fighters where stripped of.

 

DM captured belt at CW. Ruiz was cheery picked opponent for Jones
and Nady was helping Jones in all possible ways to neutralize best Ruiz
weapon (close hugg) .... so I think if DM would have some cherry picked
opponent himself (e.g. Byrd) he would become HW champion as well.

 

Look at some recent threads in classic. There are guys who say Monzon wouldn' win a round against Jones. atsch
Patterson would KO Jones. Jones would have no speed advantage and would be inferior in every departement. I could see him beeing outclassed by Floyd.

Let's face it, his competition was mediocre over all. The only reason he is so appreciated is because he looked spectacular in beating them - a parallel to Tyson btw. He is underrated by some people who don't know what they are talking about. And overrated by his fanboys.

Lewis didn't want to fight Ruiz because nobody looks good against him. Same why he never fought Byrd. Stewart said so himself. Personally, I like Ruiz. He is a likable person, always in shape, always gives his best, never ducks. Yeah, his fights are ugly to wach bu well, boxing is not about entertaining. If you want entertainment go and watch wrestling. :bart