Quote Originally Posted by diamonddavestafford
Hands down, no question about it, absolutely an alltime great. He was voted Fighter of the Decade in the 90's by The Boxing Writers Association of America. He unified the light heavyweight title and defended it eleven times. Not only did he win titles in four weight classes, one of them being the heavyweight title (which he was the first middleweight in HOW long to win? Something like a century? Bob Fitzsimmons was the last one before Jones), but contrary to what people like to say, Jones did fight good opposition in his day. Bernard Hopkins, James Toney, Mike McCallum, Vinny Pazienza, Montell Griffin, Jorge Castro, Antonio Tarver, Virgil Hill; all got a big piece of one of the best boxers and best trash talkers ever. People forget that in boxing the reflexes are the first thing to go. Jones' style was based on his lightning fast reaction time and the ability to time his opponents down to fractions of seconds before counterpunching the living crap out of them and then moving defensively again; he never carried his hands very high and depended mainly on his ability to move out of the way of attacks at ludacrous speed. Once these reflexes slowed down a little (which is common past the age of 35 or so) Jones was not able to use them to slip and get away from punches as quickly as is needed in the hands down relaxed, showboating style he was a master of as a younger fighter. Nonetheless, he is an alltime great in my book and someday will be in the Boxing Hall of Fame.
You have a point, but if you consider Roy Jones to be an all time great then how much respect are you giving the other all time greats for example Ali, Ray Robinson, Duran, Louis etc

You seem to be giving alot of credit to Jones for beating Ruiz for the Heavyweight title, which yes he did and respect for that acheivement, but he would get alot more credit if he attempted something along the lines of what Billy Conn attempted against Joe Louis taking on someone like Lennox Lewis.

I have HUGE amount of respect for Jones, but I can't see him as an all time great, a modern great yes - but not all time! Don't get me wrong he's not far from being an all time great but he just misses out. With Roy there were too many factors involved like he didn't want to fight on anybody else's turf, if it was a high risk fight he would ask for too much $ and get out that way, any man who steps in the ring I have huge respect for, it takes unbelivable amounts of courage, but with the all-time greats they go that bit more to cement there legacy and greatness and unfortunately Roy didn't!