Quote Originally Posted by Beanflicker View Post
Feather fisted? John Ruiz was not feather fisted. He had 30 KO's in 44 wins.

Smallish heavyweight? I guess compared to guys like Lennox Lewis, but he was 6'2'', 78" reach and ranged between 225-240lbs. So I guess it comes to how you define "smallish heavyweight". George Foreman was 215-220, Mike Tyson was 215-220. If you want to talk about HW's of his time, the top guys of the time were 220-250, so I don't see how Ruiz was a smallish HW. Chris Byrd was a smallish HW.

John Ruiz was a good fighter. People talk like he's shit because he had an ugly/boring style, but he was a tough guy to fight and he beat most of the top guys at the time. Was he a Lennox Lewis-level guy? Not even close, but he wasn't the pushover that people make him out to be.

I think for Roy to come up in weight and fight a guy who weighed 30-40lbs on him is definitely a fine achievement. Did Jones pick the weakest champ of the time? Sure, but you can't completely write it off. Ruiz was the real deal at the time and Jones completely dominated him.
agree totally with your post. It was a very good win. Ruiz was a legit HW. Jones skipped cruiser and jumped straight to HW. If it were so easy, tons of fighters would have done the same thing. Even some top HWs couldn't beat Ruiz.