20 years ago, Roy Jones Jr. beat John Ruiz.

[VG_Addict]

20 years ago, Roy Jones Jr. beat John Ruiz for the WBA Heavyweight title, making history as the first fighter in a century to win titles from MW to HW, and the first fighter ever to start at JMW, and win a HW title.

How do you rate this win? Personally, while Roy deserves credit for making history, there's a reason he picked Ruiz instead of Lewis.

[Master]

Roy Jones Jnr the greatest boxer I have ever seen. If he retired after that fight he would be up there with Sugar Ray Robinson.

Beating Ruiz was a great win for him and adds to his legacy. Roy was realistically too small to face Lennox Lewis. Roy knocked down Ruiz and easily outpointed him.

It was one of the last PPV fights I paid for as it was going to be a major event.

Feels like yesterday it happened. Time flies.

[Big J]

It was a calculated win
Everyone knew Lewis was the champ
Jones Jnr. should have stayed at heavy & tried to pick off Tyson instead of dropping back to 175

[Spicoli]

This is one that with hindsight, the significance has shifted imo. Even Toney did the same minus title as well as thrashing Holyfield the same year. But their paths to hvy were much different. Roy's always felt like a one off trinket grab but not thought out well and was very costly. Seems like guys jump divisions today with the ease of jumping out of bed. At the time Roy was the pinnacle of the sport. But seemed to grow bored at Lt Hvy with standard so so defenses after 3/4 unification. He was talking up a fight with Tyson and the 'event' long before Ruiz and they had even turned down a Douglas heavyweight 'debut'. Thankfully . Ultimately and literally physically, I don't think it was worth it for him.

[Big J]

I couldn't find a thread so I'll ask it here
Who do you think was Jones Jnr's best win?

[TIC]

I couldn't find a thread so I'll ask it here
Who do you think was Jones Jnr's best win?

lights out

[Master]

I couldn't find a thread so I'll ask it here
Who do you think was Jones Jnr's best win?

lights out

B Hop

[TitoFan]

I don't know about best... I guess I'd agree with TIC on that one.

But by FAR my most enjoyable RJJ victory was over Paz.

[mrbig1]

Jones had the talent no doubt. he fought a big fat lazy Toney and a green Hopkins. Other than that, he fought the biggest group of bums and nobodies in boxing history. Jones fought Ricky Frazier who was a full time New York cop. he fought another guy who worked on a trash truck full time. How are these guys getting title fights? Jones was HBO's cash cow. He their biggest draw. I think they knew he had a glass jaw. So, it was an endless line of bum after bum.

[VG_Addict]

Roy's resume isn't that bad. He holds wins over Hopkins, Toney, Griffin, Hill and McCallum.

[Spicoli]

Cleary for legacy has to be Hopkins I /Toney. On jaw dropping impressive I'd go with Malinga, Griffin II and long time champ/former champ Hill. Hill being the closest Jones ever went to full unification as Hill had the stones to travel and beat Maske in Germany. Then lost over 12 to Champ Michalczewski in Germany. This entire period is worth a deep dive at some point. There was so much fuckery going on with 175 and the onset of "champion in recess" for Jones. He vacates the wbc in 98, signs to fight Buster Douglas for a bogus IBA heavyweight belt, then changes his mind and pulls out. Graciano Rocchigiani beats #1 Nunn for vacant belt. Jones signs to fight him for the title...then Roy pulls out. So, the wbc then arbitrarily strips Champion Rocchigiani essentially restoring Jones. On its face pretty shady and silver spoon fed. Rocchigiani sued the shat out of the wbc, won in court and they were on the verge of filing bankruptcy. Ohhh so close . Excuse the rant . Tate and that ko was quality for Roy also. But as has been mentioned, he also had some absurd gimmes with overnight rotating "mandatories".

[palmerq]

The best part of looking through the boxrec of jones opponents, is seeing the start next to Roy's name..... Which of course means he has a fight scheduled! Roy isn't finished yet::s

[Spicoli]

The best part of looking through the boxrec of jones opponents, is seeing the start next to Roy's name..... Which of course means he has a fight scheduled! Roy isn't finished yet::s

Just sad man. He clearly wants or needs to lend his name to the circus events but the man is gambling. Should have wrapped after Enzo flattened him, foot twitching. That was a hard watch. Card is promoted by and full of 45 year old ex mma stars and novices. On April fools day too .

[palmerq]

I think you're being generous to Roy there, he should have stopped after Glen Johnson finished him off.

[J_Undisputed]

Bravery will get you so far and then it will get you killed... as the saying goes. Some of the mandatories were worthy of a side eye. It becomes so hard to judge a fighter like jones Jr. over history. His early work speaks for itself and speaks of greatness, we never got to see truly displayed in its prime over the long term. That heavyweight jump was him answering questions for himself and a treat for some fans waiting to see him pull out all the stops and be challenged so we could witness what we knew was there but needed to be fired up and polished and taken off the shelf. Or even better, that super motivated, destroyer we saw in the griffin rematch that solved an awkward enigmatic fighter in 1 round left him floundering like a drunk trapped in a fun house. He should have retired after Ruiz.
The trip back down completely ruined him. Which to me only seemed natural when we weren't talking about baby fat like Chavez Jr. ...I mean age could have been a factor but it kind of of makes you wonder how fighters like Canelo, danny jacobs and fighters that were already shredded are getting away with it today to no ill effects. Its been a long circus since then of Roy trying to heal his ego and his body saying, "you guys do what you want but leave me the hell out of it..." As fans i think we get tired of thinking of how these fights would have went with the Jones Jr. we kept waiting to be taken off the shelf only to shake your head when you realize how crazy you sound to a casual gen Z fan that cant wait to see their favorite, half talent all, mouth perennial fighter that gives himself a "B" on his performance.
When I saw the title to the thread. I cringed and thought Jesus, why not just hand us all walker and a glass of warm milk. Maybe its true for every generation of boxing fan but on top of the guys we held in such high regards there are probably guys that we went in on and didnt realize we were in the presences of greatness and never new it till we have to sit through the next generations fighter and think... Even the Roy that beat the cab driver would have danced circles around this guy and cut him to ribbons... Then again, maybe that's just me...