2003 Roy Jones vs Lennox Lewis? What if Roy won! Would he be best ever?

[DanielTurcotte3]

In 2003 Roy chose to take on John Ruiz who was a smaller heavyweight at 6-2 and around 225 pounds.

What if Roy fought and beat Lewis? Would he go down as the best ever?

I am as a big a fan as it comes to Roy Jones, but at the same time I am a realistic one, and I'd have a tough time talking about Roy up there in the top 10 P4P with greats like Pep, Robinson, and Ali even if he did beat Lewis. There were to many unknowns at one point or another during Jones tenure as the best P4P fighter in the world. And regardless of who's fault it was at the time, whether or not the Jones Vs Michalczewski never happened and other fights like Jones Vs. Hopkins 2 prior to the year from Jones decline never came to fruition. It is these types of fights I think that needed to occur before we even talk about a Jones Vs Lewis fight that would have cemented his legacy as one of the best P4P Fighters of all time.

See if Jones had wiped out Dariusz and Hopkins the same way he toyed with fighters like Richard Hall and David Telesco, and had even just beaten Ruiz in 03' came bvack down to LHW like he did and beat Tarver and then retired, we'd be hard pressed not to talk about him being a top 10 P$P fighter of all time even without a win against Lewis. But when you leave those unknows there and just put a Lewis on his resume, I still have a hardtime seeing through the fights that needed to happen and never did to give Jones Jr that All time P4P Ranking in my own humble opinion

[RayLeonard82]

Roy Jones fighting and beating Lewis is a way tougher challenge than Ray Robinson taking on Marciano or Joe Louis

So had be beat Lewis...Robinson still gets gets the edge...WOW

Lewis was 6-5 250 pounds....1 solid jab and Joe Louis is HURT

[SirTomJones]

Lewis would have sparked out Jones Jr bad.

[BattlingNelson]

i understand the question is unrealistic, but here is another question.

The top 10 guys of all time who are 135 pounds, 160 pounds, 130 pounds, whatever there weight was. Did they ever beat someone 5 inches taller and 50pounds heavier? How can you not be among the best?

Ray Robinson never challenged anyone 50 pounds bigger and 5 inches taller and neither did Duran, Hagler, Leonard, Hearns.

This kinda proves in order for Roy to get respect he would have had to do things that no boxer had ever done.

I mean Marvin Hagler was scared to move up a simple 15 pounds to take on Michael Spinks....so had Roy beat 6-5 250 pound Lewis...Im sure some would still rate Hagler over Roy based off wins over blown up Duran and Hearns which is way easier.

Wow it's shocking to see ppl saying if he beat Lewis he is still not top 10 or barely top 10. When those in the top 10 never took on a challenge like that.

I did say that he'd make the top 10. I dont think it's possible to make a case for him being up there with the very best. This is only one fight and although it would surely rank as one of the best wins by any boxer ever, that alone will not surpass the full career accomplishments of Robinson, Armstrong, Greb, Langford etc. IMO.

[PrinceCharlez]

Lewis??

Lewis wouldve knocked Roy's Head off his shoulders and into merchants lap. for a ring side interview durning the fight....

At less his career wouldve ended 8 years ago, instead of today..

[Sparked_1985]

I'd say yes.

But Lennox would've KO'd Roy in a few rounds. No problem. And it would be almost fraud in the sense of how easy it would've been to make $20 million plus dollars for such a mismatch. I bet Lennox wouldn't have minded that at all.

[PrinceNaz88]

RJJ may have actually been killed if he fought Lennox Lewis. Lewis is/was way too big and way too strong for RJJ...

[Faerun]

Given he retires after defeating him, yes. There really isn't much more you could do for your legacy.
He loses 99 out of 100 against Lewis though and wins one by freak injury so it's not worth discussing.

[JDezi4]

He'd have a ****ing claim that's for sure. To go from middleweight to heavyweight and beat one of the biggest heavyweights (ever?)...... He could do that to Lennox, he could do that to Tyson..... And if he did that....

[Clyde Barrow]

In 2003 Roy chose to take on John Ruiz who was a smaller heavyweight at 6-2 and around 225 pounds.

What if Roy fought and beat Lewis? Would he go down as the best ever?

Best ever? No. But his reputation would have gotten a huge boost. Had he simply fought and beaten Byrd for his HW belt to unify after Ruiz it would have been a monster accolade for him. Beating Lennox would have launched Roy to a whole new level though. In hindsight, I'd rather have seen Roy try to take on Lennox and get KO'd rather than going back down to 175 and getting hammered by Tarver.