I like to here you're thoughts on how Roy Jones Jr's career may have went different if he had stayed at heavyweight. Is there any chance he'd have continued his dominance as a heavyweight? Would his decline still have taken place without losing all that weight in a short period of time? How do you invision fights with the following opponents from his era turning out ... All fights taken place around 2003 when Roy Jones was champ.. vs Lennox Lewis vs Mike Tyson vs Evander Holyfield vs David Tua vs Wladimir Klitschko vs Vitali Klitschko vs Chris Byrd vs Hasim Rahman vs James Toney
I really can't say how he would have done as a heavyweight during that era. I suspect he'd have to pick his fights wisely, mainly against older and shopworn heavies. Lewis would be far too big a jump, and I suspect the younger and greener Klits would just be too big and strong. He and Byrd at heavy would have been an interesting fight. I think he'd still be too fast for Toney. What I am interested in though, is how Jones would have fared against a smaller generation of heavies, from say the 60's and before. At a robust-looking 193-odd lbs and faster than greased lightning, I think he'd have done plenty of damage.
Much as I liked watching RJJ at any weight, I think at HW he needs to carefully handpick opponents, so from this list I think he has a good chance to beat:- James Toney Chris Byrd 41yr old Holy I think he has some chance against poorly motivated versions of:- David Tua Mike Tyson Hasim Rahman But the tall big guys would really hurt him.
Roy Jones has stated on several occasions that he never wanted any part of either Klitschko or Lewis, and on the basis that they were just too big. Of the men on that list, there are very few that I would have picked him to beat, given that he was already around 34 years old and still under 200 lbs when he ascended in weight to fight Ruiz. Chris Byrd looked like a winnable fight on the surface and he might well have been. But something tells me that when we combine his size advantage along with pretty good skill and speed plus Jones' age, it might not have been pretty. Holyfield and Tyson were beyond shot by that point so I think he outpoints them fairly easily, barring Tyson landing something big at the right place and time. Heavyweight version of James Toney would have to be favored over Jones, though prime for prime and below cruiser weight its no contest. Fighting Tua would have been a big mistake.
