Quote Originally Posted by mikeeod View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Boxer4life View Post
Jones is a bit like Tyson to me in the sense that, p4p, speaking purely from a skill perspective, they are both top 5 in my opinion. I think they beat someone like Mayweather. Resume wise, however, things get tricky. Personally, just because im a fighter, I judge fighters by how well they can fight and not statistics, I'll leave that to analyst.

So that being said, he is top 5.

That isnt to say his resume isnt impressive. He did beat Hopkins, he did beat Toney, fairly easy. He beat a lot of top contenders and champions.

ALSO, please let's not forget the man went from 154 to heavyweight in his career and WON the heavyweight belt. I don't care how subpar of a heavyweight you think Ruiz was, he was the champ.

So even as an analyst, i'd rate him top 10, i think he tops guys like Chavez and JMM for sure. Guys like Robinson, Floyd, Ali, topple him but his career was impeccable until he got old, and i don't think any fighter should be judged on old age performance, thats a rule in boxing.

As far as who he didn't fight, he would've sparked those guys just the same and then we would've listed them under the "they were nobodies" just as we do with his other solid, but not great opponents.
Couple of points of clarification:
1. Roy won A heavyweight strap, not THE heavyweight Championship. Had Roy beaten Lewis (or Evander when he was undisputed champ), I think everyone agrees that Roy would deserve to be top 5. A fat James Toney beat Ruiz shortly after Roy, so that highlights how limited Ruiz was.
2. As for the Hop victory, that was a pre-prime Hop, not the complete fighter who destroyed Tito. The same way Hop gets less credit for beating an old Roy, Roy loses credit for beating a green Hop.
3. Just because you are POSITIVE Roy would beat people he never fought, that doesn't mean he would have definitely beaten them. Everyone was equally positive that Roy would beat Tarver, Tyson would beat Douglas/Evander...etc.
Just to clarify your clarification. No prime version of Bernard Hopkins beats a prime Roy Jones Junior even the one that beat Tito.