Roy Jones Jr. at Heavyweight

[juggernaut666]

Ruiz was mediocre but he was tough.

A number of people thought it was a dangerous fight, including Ron Borges, who was one of Roy's biggest critics over the years.

Roy wasn't a natural LHW.

You have to note that LHW was his 3rd weight class.

A former MW champ beating a top 10 HW with ease was very impressive.

Ruiz gave other top 10 HW's hard nights.

It was a boring fight, but only because Roy made it look so easy.

If it'd have been exciting like Toney-Jirov, he'd have gotten a lot more credit.

Fighting a HW john Ruiz at 6'2 average skill isn't a measuring stick at all . Get a sizeable HW that can punch and it wouldn't turn out so good bc you NEED to be able to punch or at least have ability to stay in pocket with a chin (Toney ) .who also beat Ruiz ,drugs or not ,with bigger HW's . Its not really about what Ruiz did with other HW's ,he fought one live prime puncher and got knocked out in one rnd .

Im not even sure he won any of those Holyfield fights . I would also say IF RJJ defeated Valuev it would prove anything bc that guy was slow as hell and not even as skilled as Ruiz ,he stayed with Ruiz on his size .....RJJ beating certain fighters really wouldn't prove much other than a highly skilled guy who weighed less can defeat slower MUCH less skilled ones .

[robertzimmerman]

Fighting a HW john Ruiz at 6'2 average skill isn't a measuring stick at all . Get a sizeable HW that can punch and it wouldn't turn out so good bc you NEED to be able to punch or at least have ability to stay in pocket with a chin (Toney ) .who also beat Ruiz ,drugs or not ,with bigger HW's . Its not really about what Ruiz did with other HW's ,he fought one live prime puncher and got knocked out in one rnd .

Im not even sure he won any of those Holyfield fights . I would also say IF RJJ defeated Valuev it would prove anything bc that guy was slow as hell and not even as skilled as Ruiz ,he stayed with Ruiz on his size .....RJJ beating certain fighters really wouldn't prove much other than a highly skilled guy who weighed less can defeat slower MUCH less skilled ones .

At the end of the day, a former MW beat a top 10 HW with ease.

Whichever way you slice it, it was impressive.

I know all about Ruiz's limitations etc.

How many LHW's in 2002 could have moved up and beaten Ruiz like that?

How many LHW's today could move up and beat Ruiz like that?

I don't think Roy would have beaten an agressive puncher like Sanders, or the SHW's like Lennox and the K's. But his easy win over Ruiz at 34, after 50 fights, tells me that Roy was a great fighter.

[CatchAndShoot]

Ruiz was mediocre but he was tough.

A number of people thought it was a dangerous fight, including Ron Borges, who was one of Roy's biggest critics over the years.

Roy wasn't a natural LHW.

You have to note that LHW was his 3rd weight class.

A former MW champ beating a top 10 HW with ease was very impressive.

Ruiz gave other top 10 HW's hard nights.

It was a boring fight, but only because Roy made it look so easy.

If it'd have been exciting like Toney-Jirov, he'd have gotten a lot more credit.

Dude, RJJ was a full fledged LHW by that point. Are you saying he was a natural MW?

And I remember the tone, and talks before the fight. It was literally looked at as a cherry pick on Jones part. It's not that Ruiz wasn't tough. It's that Ruiz was too crude, and clumsy to be able to catch, or be effective against RJJ.

Being competitive with other HWs is great, but Ruiz didn't have game changing power, so his lack of foot speed, and agility was a major handicap for him.

And yeah, LHW was his 3rd weight class by that point, but 140 was Floyd's 3rd weight class. I don't really understand what bearing that has on anything.

And I understand that some people thought it was a tough fight for him, but there's always a few people that always try and look deeper into everything. It doesn't mean the least likely scenario usually happens.

[creekrat77]

What I don't get is how he always said the weight he had to cut to get back down to 175 killed him. I remember he was already rehydrating to 186 at light heavyweight. So with that being said it doesn't make sense to me he would virtually be the same weight fighting Ruiz at 189 or 193 but look so much bigger than he did.

[JakeTheBoxer]

Lennox retired after Vitali fight in jun 2003. Roy Jones jr. beat Ruiz in jan 2003. I doubt Roy Jones had even theoretical chances to get Lennox fight. He could have fought Mike Tyson, Holyfield, Vitali, Wladimir, Brewster and other guys that were around than.

Instead of that he fought jr. heavyweights and cruiserweights and still got stopped a few times.

[juggernaut666]

At the end of the day, a former MW beat a top 10 HW with ease.

Whichever way you slice it, it was impressive.

I know all about Ruiz's limitations etc.

How many LHW's in 2002 could have moved up and beaten Ruiz like that?

How many LHW's today could move up and beat Ruiz like that?

I don't think Roy would have beaten an agressive puncher like Sanders, or the SHW's like Lennox and the K's. But his easy win over Ruiz at 34, after 50 fights, tells me that Roy was a great fighter.

Beating Ruiz doesnt show RJJ was a great fighter ,his career does .

[VG_Addict]

What if Roy moved down to CW after the Ruiz fight and won a title there?

[Johnny Steele]

That coward Lewis instead faced undefeated 6'7 Grant after a k.o win with Golota .

Are you trying to suggest Grant is better than Ruiz?
Because he's taller??
You are an imbecile and a pu55y.

How many world titles did glass chin Grant win?
Or the polish coward Golota??
How many????????

Ruiz beat Holyfield far more convincingly than Lewis.
Lewis had to rob him to a draw the first time..

[robertzimmerman]

Dude, RJJ was a full fledged LHW by that point. Are you saying he was a natural MW?

And I remember the tone, and talks before the fight. It was literally looked at as a cherry pick on Jones part. It's not that Ruiz wasn't tough. It's that Ruiz was too crude, and clumsy to be able to catch, or be effective against RJJ.

Being competitive with other HWs is great, but Ruiz didn't have game changing power, so his lack of foot speed, and agility was a major handicap for him.

And yeah, LHW was his 3rd weight class by that point, but 140 was Floyd's 3rd weight class. I don't really understand what bearing that has on anything.

And I understand that some people thought it was a tough fight for him, but there's always a few people that always try and look deeper into everything. It doesn't mean the least likely scenario usually happens.

I'm saying that he wasn't a natural LHW, and even though he bulked up to just under 200 pounds, he was still outweighed by over 30 pounds.

Of course Ruiz had game changing power.

It was a dangerous fight for Roy.

[robertzimmerman]

What I don't get is how he always said the weight he had to cut to get back down to 175 killed him. I remember he was already rehydrating to 186 at light heavyweight. So with that being said it doesn't make sense to me he would virtually be the same weight fighting Ruiz at 189 or 193 but look so much bigger than he did.

He was just under 200 pounds against Ruiz, but he kept his physique throughout most of 2003, in the hope of landing a mega money fight at HW. He negotiated with Corrie Sanders in August, but he didn't think the reward matched the risk. When another didn't materialise, he signed to fight Tarver in September. And that only gave him around 2 months to go back to 175 for the weigh-in. So he had to shed muscle in order to do so. He says that most of his training was just running, and it was the hardest thing that he ever had to do in his life.