Would Roy Jones Jr.'s legacy be better/worse?

[W1LL]

Roy Jones Jr. moved back down to Light Heavyweight in 2003 after winning the WBA World Heavyweight title. From then until now he has a 17-8 (9 KO) record with no notable wins and some embarrassing defeats.

What if Roy had stayed at Heavyweight? Maybe defended his title a few times and then retired? Even if he'd cashed out in a big money Heavyweight fight, would his legacy have been more/less tarnished?

Fights which stand out would have been the James Toney rematch or the IBF/WBA unification with Chris Byrd. Roy was ranked #4, Byrd #2 and Toney #5 at the time. Another option would have been #10 ranked Mike Tyson. Would cashing out against divisional champion Lennox Lewis have been a bad idea, in hindsight?

Imagine if Roy had successfully defended against Toney and Tyson before dropping his title to Lewis or a prime Klitschko...

[Gentblue]

Better he was supposed to fight Vitali but the plans fell through and him vs Tyson is an 2 mil buy ppv and a wet dream fight.....

[W1LL]

Yes, "Roy Jones Jr. vs. Mike Tyson for the WBA Heavyweight championship of the world!" What a prospect in 2003...

[TBear]

As a heavyweight he was a solid 190 lbs. Cruiserweight would have been a great option. Much better than dropping all the way to 175 again.

[DeadLikeMe]

Who was even at heavy then? Like James Toney and Michael Grant? Klits were just breaking onto the scene and no way in hell would you want to let Vitali brutalize RJJ. I'm not even sure the Ruiz version of Roy would last a round against Wlad's right hand.

[W1LL]

Another fight which could have been made is Roy Jones Jr. vs. Evander Holyfield. Evander was 40 years old though and had back to back losses against Chris Byrd and James Toney at the time. He'd also fought a 1-1-1 trilogy against the man Roy won the title off.

[Dip_Slide]

Even though Roy was an established ATG at that time he still hasn't made the money that he thought he could make with his talent and dominance, this is why he moved back down because he thought he can still dominate light heavyweight for 3-4 more years during which he can have a multiple of big money fights and then retire on top. He knew that staying at heavyweight was a huge risk and that he won't be able to fight big money fights back to back without losing, so he preferred to move back down to 175 since cruiserweight was a dead division with no big oppurtinities.

It was either stay at heavyweight, fight once or twice in huge money fights and then retire (probably with a loss) or move back down and dominate 175 will having 3-4 big money fights. He chose the latter and it was a bad move imo. He could've retired after a Mike Tyson fight (2 mil PPVs, 30-40 million dollars) and focused on a rapping or acting career after boxing since his albums did very very well for his poor talnet in rap.

I give Floyd Mayweather a lot of credit for making the most out of his talent and not letting promoters, managers and networks rip him off. Roy could've went to on become the highest paid athlete/former athlete in the world but he made wrong decisions on the outside.

[Robbie Barrett]

Jones didn't want to fight the top Heavyweights because he knew he would lose. Ruiz was a cherry pick.

[soul_survivor]

If Jones had lost to a legit top heavy at the time and retired, his legacy would have been much better than it is now with is loss to Tarver and Johnson.