James was having, IMHO, the best form of his life after his stint at MW. Roy just became HW champ. Say they met at CW, HW or in-between, who wins and how?
Tough call. I think the Toney that fought Jirov, would have beaten the RJJ that fought Ruiz, but the styles of both of them and the way they won was so different, it's really hard for me to say. With Toney he won a trench warfare kind of fight, whereas Jones just boxed Ruiz's ears off. Probably Toney would need a knock out (or a couple of knock downs) to win.
Why? I don't see a much different result. Jones would use his phenomenal speed to pot shot Toney, just like he did at SMW.
That's possible, but I don't always think one fight tells the entire story. If it did, then presumably everyone who won the first fight, would always win the rematch, and we know that's not always the case. (Lewis -Rahman, SRL - Duran, Pac - JMM, Jones - Tarver, Jones - Hopkins, etc.) I certainly think the version of Toney who fought Jirov was miles better than the version RJJ fought, but whether or not that would result in a different outcome, I'm not sure.
Jones's skills detoriated at a shocking rate after Ruiz, but at the time he beat Ruiz he was still his almost untouchable peak self more or less. I just don't see what Toney could have done so much differently compared to 1994, whether he was suffering from draining himself or not in that fight. The Toney that fought Jirov wasn't any better at cutting the ring off. Perhaps even less so. He wanted opponents to come to him. And Jones at that time was still fantastic at getting in and out behind his lead punches and flurries. He'd just do that one more time.
But the fights you mention where either close fights or one punch KO's or a matter of one of the fighters having declined much more than the other. Jones just outclassed Toney in their fight. And while I love Toney's performances against Jirov and Holy, there wasn't anything in either of them to suggest he had turned into a fighter that could deal with the almost unreal speed and mobility Jones still had in the Ruiz fight. I think it is soooo hard to say anything conclusive about if or how much Toney was effected by draining himself for Jones. Had he needed to shed lots of weight? Yes, but then had been the case with him for years. Did he look sluggish and slow? Yes, but fighters like Nunn and even Reggie Johnson, who wasn't as fast as Jones, had made him look slow and stationary for large part of their fights as well. And apart for all of that, what about his performance against Jirov or Holy indicated he would all of a sudden cope well with a super mobile and super fast fighter? They both came to him and let him counter to his heart's content. He didn't need to cut the ring down. He hardly needed to move forward at all. And nothing he did indicated he had gotten any better at doing so.
Far enough. I would agree that Jones would be the favorite but the Tarver fight only a year later showed that he had slowed down and wasn't all that great at taking a punch. I would say that if the fight occurred prior to Jones fighting Ruiz you're most likely right, but he declined rapidly after that. But make no mistake, prime for prime, I think Jones beats Toney 10/10 times, but he simply wasn't the same fighter after the Ruiz fight, most likely because of the huge drop in weight. And it's hard to know just how much credit Jones deserves for beating Ruiz, he wasn't all that great of a fighter.
Because toney was naturally bulker,stronger and got x 10 better chin so he is better in higher weights
