Would Roy Be The Greatest If He Retired After Beating Ruiz????

[iamboxing]

and also Eubank and Benn stuck to the UK and didn't want anything to do with RJJ and Benn....RJJ avoiding someone is the biggest insult going....The guy fought whoever was put before him.. **** this revisionist bull****

[iamboxing]

Even Eubank in his interview with IFL TV posted a couple days ago said how terrifying Toney was and how bad he was...do you really think he'd face the guy who beat him? Trashing RJJ's career, saying he has no chin is ****ing ******ed and shows you dont know **** about boxing or were born in the 2000s...****ing ignorant millenials

[Earl-Hickey]

and also Eubank and Benn stuck to the UK and didn't want anything to do with RJJ and Benn....RJJ avoiding someone is the biggest insult going....The guy fought whoever was put before him.. **** this revisionist bull****

Nah he fought loads of cab drivers then had his glass chin brutally shattered when he stepped up

Jones was an American trash bum like all weak american frauds

[PRINCEKOOL]

If he would of defended his Heavyweight title against Lennox Lewis, or Evander Holyfield! and won ether of these fights, he would of possibly gone down as the greatest pound for pound fighter ever!

I doubt Roy Jones would of fought Lennox Lewis and beat him, but i actually think stylistically he would of fancied a fight with Evander Holyfield at that specific point in his career........

That fight would of been a better fight to market, and exciting while it lasted.

[LoadedWraps]

I can't answer the question but one thing is for certain, had he retired then, there would still be massive speculation and debate to this day about his standing among the all time greats.

I don't get this logic of lowering someone's all time status just because they want to stick around well past it and still be active. Whether it's for money or love of the game, you don't just remove, or take value from a fighters accomplishments because of what may happen afterwards.

IMO, he's the greatest post-Ali fighter and all-time top 10 already.

To hold him past his prime against him isn't fair, that's like holding Leon Spinks and Trevor Berbick against Ali or something.

I'll remember Roy from 92-2001 or so as the greatest fighter I've ever seen with my eyes with Pernell Whittaker and Floyd Jr. 2nd & 3rd.

Good post.

100% agree with this.

You judge a fighters accomplishments for what they are at the moment, and those accomplishments are etched in history, it doesn't matter if you loses 100 times as a shot fighter, it doesn't change the fact that what he did makes him great.

[SkillspayBills]

He'd be up there for sure but the Ruiz win really hasn't stood the test of time.

[Raonic]

He hasn't moved down when you consider all his losses after Ruiz and I haven't moved him up after his Ruiz win but the aura around him would be much better if he did retire after Ruiz.

[Ray Corso]

The Greatest? That would be Ali, he said it many times don't you listen?

The ATG and p4p King is Sugar Ray Robinson don't you study!

Fighters are judged by their prime years not when their "picking up the pennies"!
They all hang around past their best some to the point of concern.
This boxing, there is no team owner who won't pay or a situation where your "cut" off the squad.
The boxing promoter will use a "name" fighter to a disastrous point and fighter who needs the fix just fights on.
Do you think Bhop at 50 whatever was going to give a youthful 30 yrs old showing?

Do you think Trevor Berbick could actually beat Ali in his prime? Come on!

Ray

[DeLorean]

RJJ was a great cherry picker..that's all. I rank De La Hoya above him... but skills wise he's definitely top 3.. resume weak as hell doe.

[robertzimmerman]

Klitschko2017,

It would have been higher than it is now.

But that being said there was a lot of missing names on his resume from when he was in his prime. His best wins were a very green Hopkins and a toney who he matched up very well against, and lost 47lbs in 6 weeks for the fight. (WAY MORE than jones lost for the Tarver fight btw, didn't affect toners chin though, hmmm)

He did miss a lot of names. It was unfortunate. But they were very hard to make fights for a variety of reasons. Also, everyone misses names. If you look at the resumes of the guys he missed, you'll find the same gaps.

Regarding Toney's weight loss, it's much harder to burn muscle than it is to burn fat, like what Roy had to do in order to make weight for Tarver.

Names like McLellan, Benn, Eubank, Darius M, Calzaghe etc. Of course he also would have been missing Tarver had he retired then. And people knew this even back then. That was the criticism of Roy was he had all the talent but usually fought lower level opponents on HBO and he did this for most of his prime. With the occasional high level guy who was always a boxer, never a puncher, mixed in.

As above.

Those fights weren't viable.

Roy suffered a lot of criticism when he was prime. But it's a complete myth that he was only content to face his mandatories.

I think had he retired then people would have asked why there were so many names missing on his resume.

A while back I did some research into the media around the time that roy beat ruiz and it's interesting, there was a lot of names saying that Lennox Lewis really ought to avoid Roy, which looking back is absolutely ludicrous. But it goes to show how gassed people can get over a well matched, flashy fighter.

I think a few journalists were looking from the perspective of Lennox being in a position where he had nothing to gain and everything to lose. His performance against Vitali also swayed a lot of people into thinking he was finished.

My honest opinion on Roy, I think he had some of the best natural gifts of any fighter. Amazing handspeed, really good power below 175, great engine and really good confidence in himself.

However I also think that chin was always a problem and against some of the heavier punchers mentioned, I think had he fought them all, one of them would have got to him.

I don't belive the myth that losing 20lbs (roy was 195 hydrated against Ruiz so if you factor in hydration it was more like 10lb of lean mass) turned jones chin into glass for the rest of his life, that just makes no sense but the jones fans cling to it. I think he was always harbouring a weak chin.

But yeah that's my thoughts on roy.

I also believe that Roy never had a great chin. Of course it could have been exposed earlier had someone have had the opportunity that Tarver had. But Roy was so great in his prime, they may not have had the opportunity.

Regarding the weight loss for Tarver, losing muscle in a short space of time can certainly affect a fighters punch resistance and overall performance. The exact same thing happened to Antonio Tarver when he fought Hopkins, as well Chris Byrd when he fought Shaun George, and Chad Dawson when he fought Andre Ward. You can read all of their accounts. They were all devoid of energy and were easily beaten.