Roy Jones Jr. vs. James "Buster" Douglas

This right here^^^^^

 

Tyson wasnt at his best?

this goes back to the ring IQ thing...Tyson couldnt eliminate distractions and was too angry and emotional. Thats not having a high ring IQ...Focus is apart of that

 

Ruiz went 12 with RJJ and he isnt as strong or as skilled & fast as Douglas.

even the 1998 douglas would have a great chance of doing what Glen Johnson did...

these guys vs each other if they weighed the same then Roy would destroy douglas

 

Roy would only have to land one shot. Do you realize how crappy that version of Douglas was? Tarver (today) would probably beat him.

 

Add Ruiz to the list of people who'd easily knock out 1998 Buster Douglas.

 

That's not how the fight game works.

 

The best versions of both men????? You've got to be kidding. Buster ktfo Jones in 6, if not sooner. It would be a mismatch. Buster kills him. The Tokyo version of Buster only, I'll add as a disclaimer.

 

Mt apologies for not fully reading your intro post...of course a fat, past it, post-Tyson version of Douglas wouldn't cut it...but the the version that shocked the world was damned near a "perfect storm" of a fighter. A fast, jabbing, purposeful, skilled and utterly FEARLESS force to be dealt with.

 

IntentionalButt,

Hi mate, good post, but I think you're been a little harsh.

There's a few things I don't agree with, which I'll gladly debate.

First off, like SJS19 has mentioned, Big Roy intervened.

They hadn't spoke properly for 6 years, and Big Roy wouldn't let him go through with it.

It's on Beyond the Glory, and he says "I aint saying he couldn't whoop him, but I wouldn't run a Volkswagen into a Big Mack truck!"

Even though they hadn't spoke for a long time, Roy still respected him. Also it devastated Roy's sister who's extremely close to Roy, that they hadn't spoke for a long time. I'm a huge fan of Roy's, and over the years I've read countless articles, watched numerous interviews and watched all of his fight footage. In my honest opinion, there's three reasons why he didn't go through with the Douglas fight.

1. As discussed, Big Roy intervened, and it brought them together for the first time in a long while, and Roy's family were pleased.

2. One of Roy's main objectives at the time was to unify at 175. He did this the following year against Reggie Johnson. He wasn't a 100% committed to going up to around 200 at that point. What would he have done after, had he gone through with it?

3. He was only 29, and had time on his side. If he'd have been 34 like he was against Ruiz, then nothing and nobody would have stopped him going through with it. But at 29, he knew he'd get another opportunity.

After the Griffin rematch, he mentioned fighting Holy and moving up to heavy, but he wasn't entirely sure if he was going to go through with it.

He said "If i set my mind to it, I could do it, but it would be a huge sacrifice on my part and I'm not sure."

So his circumstances were different in 1998 to what they were in 2003.

But you are clearly implying that Roy ducked him and was scared to go through with it.

But lets look at things logically. Roy didn't fight Buster at his peak at 29, but he ended up at heavy at 34. He fought Ruiz, and then tried to get Tyson (who fair enough was shot) and after seeing Vitali give Lewis hell, wanted Lewis.

Murad tried to secure those fights. You can have the links, and everything is on the free library. A guy who feared Buster at 29, would not even consider fighting Ruiz, Tyson and Lewis in his mid 30's. It's ridiculous.

When push came to shove in 1998, he didn't need to take the fight.

But in 2003, things were different. He'd unified at 175, and couldn't get the DM fight or the rematch with Hopkins, so he only had one remaining goal. That was to become the first guy in history to start out at 154, and then win a version of the heavyweight title.

His career was coming to an end, and he was on a mission. Big Roy couldn't have stopped him in 2002.

So I respect your opinion, but he didn't back out because he was afraid of Buster.

Like I say, after Ruiz, people were talking about a Lewis fight. Lewis was interviewed and he said, "Roy's a great fighter, but fighting me, would be a step too far!" Lennox saw Roy as an easy nights work for a huge amount of money. He was confident that Roy was too small, and he was up for the fight.

The Vitali fight threw everything up in the air. Nobody knew going into the fight, that it would be his last. Manny Steward, and Lennox himself hadn't planned it as a retirement fight. The performance against Vitali shocked him into retirement. He never anticipated a fight as hard as that, and afterwards, he knew it was time to let go. Before the fight with Vitali, Roy himself thought that fighting Lennox maybe a bridge too far, but afterwards, he told Murad to try and get the fight, because he was sure he could beat him at that point. Roy approached Lennox a few months later, and Lennox told Roy that he was definitely going to retire.

So again, Roy was wanting Tyson and Lennox at 34. Lennox walked away from a rematch against Vitali, and a fight with Roy that would have been worth millions and millions of dollars, because he was honest with himself and knew it was time to walk away.

The other point that I don't agree with, is that he targeted Ruiz because he was a weak champion. That was not the case. Roy's original target was Evander Holyfield. Roy and his team approached Evander late 2001, just prior to Holy's final bout with Ruiz. Talks had gone well, and everyone was happy. Holy then went and lost to Ruiz again, and that threw a spanner in the works. Afterwards Roy was asked if he still wanted the fight. Roy said no, because he didn't think he'd get any credit beating Holy at that point, and Ruiz was the champ.

So Roy remained at 175 for another year, and then told Murad to make him the Ruiz fight. You make it sound as though Roy went through a copy of The Ring mag with a marker and then put a circle around Ruiz's name. That's not what happened.

The Ruiz win is also completely underrated by haters, especially on here.

Ruiz wasn't a great heavyweight, but he was effective, and he wasn't garbage. He also outweighed Roy by over 2 stones on the night, and nearly 4 naturally. The fight split opinion and a lot of respected writers thought that Roy was in over his head despite being superior technically.

Who out of the super six for example could you envisage going up to fight anyone at heavy? Who currently at 175? There's a reason that Roy was the first person in 103 years to achieve it. If it was that easy then more people would have done it.

Roy didn't just win, he easily won. Ruiz wasn't a cherry pick, but even if he was, it was still impressive.

So like I say, I think you've been harsh. History has shown that he ended up at heavy. I think fighting Lewis at 34, after 50 fights, would have been a bigger risk than fighting Buster in 98, at 29 years of age.

Finally, had the fight gone through, I think Roy would have won a clear decision at that point, despite Buster having a huge size advantage.

Just out of curiosity, how would you have seen a Roy vs Valuev fight playing out?

Get back to me when you have the time.


Regards, Loudon.

 

Wasn't RJJ also in talks with Corrie Sanders at one point as well? I remember Sr warning against that fight...no?

 

douglas isnt ruiz and at 37 yrs of age still had a vintage jab.....only his legs wre gone...but buster douglas of 97 at 37 yrs of age woulda knocked out roy jones

 

did you even watch boxing back then? roy barley ko'd anyone at light heavyweight. he hit richard hall with everything for 11 rounds and couldnt finish him. telesco went 12, harding went 10, reggie johnson 12 rounds, trinidad 12 rds, badju 12 rds, hanshaw 12 rds. tarver 12 rds, tarver 12 rds but you think roy would knock out buster douglas a 245 pound heavyweight. atsch

 

Douglas was a diabetic and a complete joke by then. Completely incapable of going a hard 12. Remember when Jones knocked Glen Kelly out with his hand behind his back? That was pretty sweet.

 

He slows him down (not that Douglas was that fast in 1998) but can't seriously hurt him.