Roy Levesta Jones, Jr. vs. Evander Coley Holyfield, Sr. -- at cruiserweight

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Not a match-up that has never been discussed (certainly it was now and then when both were still actively competing - and especially in the late nineties through mid aughts when neither was quite shot to hell yet) but less than you'd think with them being contemporaries with a lot of parallels who each became improbable world heavyweight titlists. Improbable, that is, were you to have asked most pundits at the start of their pro careers.

Jones gets thrown into a lot of fantasy h2h match-ups at HW, actually - despite his triumph over The Quiet Man being very much a one-off (and even in that contest, RJJ came in comfortably seven pounds below the cruiserweight limit). Holyfield gets frequently paired off in hypotheticals with every great cruiser and heavy from history - but rarely with Jones. The parallels abound, though:

DEMOGRAPHIC/LIFESTYLE

• Both east coast black Southerners born in the 60s who took up the sport in preadolescene (Holyfield at 7 and Jones 9 or 10).
  
  
• Both remained dedicated gymrats for decades, even between camps and upon retirement from prizefighting.

AMATEURS

• Jones' record stood at 121-13 before he turned pro.
  
  
• Holyfield's was an extraordinarily simlar 160-14.
  
  
• Both were top Americans in the mid eighties - Jones at light middle and Holyfield at light heavy.
  
  
• Both came up just short of their gold medal dreams in their respective Olympic bids - Jones getting controversially robbed for Silver in Seoul and Holyfield getting controversially disqualified for Bronze in L.A.

PROS

• Both turned pro and dominated for almost precisely eight years before suffering their first defeats - to Montell Griffin & Riddick Bowe respectively.
  
  
• Both at least partially unified a division with each holding the WBC & IBF belts simultaneously (RJJ at 175 with a few lesser regarded "world championship" baubles for good measure, and Holy at 200lbs).
  
  
• Both came up short in trilogies with their archrivals - Tarver and Bowe.
  
  
• Both had their gazes set on parlaying their remaining name value into a chance at the K2 sweepstakes in the period from 2005-2010ish, but would each suffer too many setbacks to be seriously considered.
  
  
• Both stopped a guy named Vinny.

COMMON OPPONENTS

• John Ruiz - split a 1-1-1 trilogy with Holyfield; lost a UD to Jones.
  
  
• James Toney - lost a UD to Jones in 1994; stopped Holyfield in 2003.

Now, as for the fight!

Holfyield would have a 3½″ height and 4" reach advantage. Jones would have the clear edge in hand speed. Power goes to RJJ p4p, Holyfield at heavyweight and maybe Holy (or a wash) at cruiser?

I guess for evaluative purposes if we're talking primes at this weight, then we're looking at Evander's whole body of work pre-Tillis (average out the "baseline Holfyield" in your mind's eye) and Jones from 97-03 with that extra Ruiz bulking, rather than his later contests against the likes of Lebedev.

12 rounds, 200lbs - what say we?

 

I can see very surface level arguments either way...

"There's no way Holfyield doesn't KO him cold if Tarver could!"

"RJJ would absolutely piece up Holyfield and stop him, if a less explosive up-jumped (and fat) middleweight in Toney could!"

etc.

But if you actually think about it and imagine their styles meshing...this is a good, close fight.