By Ron Widelec

21.09 - There has been a great deal of excitement recently, as light heavyweight champ, Roy Jones, has been working on a deal to face top heavyweight contender (and holder of one of the comical titles) John Ruiz. It is hard to tell which has generated more excitement: The prospect of the extremely talented light heavyweight champ fighting a top heavyweight, or the opportunity this fight gives writers to use cheesy catch phrases like "Heavy load for a light heavyweight" and things of that sort.

Well I have a catch phrase for this fight too: "the ROY that cried wolf"! I am still finding it very hard to believe that Roy Jones, who has make an art of facing overmatched opponents, will move up to face a full 230 pound heavyweight, not to mention one that is a top contender. This is the same Roy that talked, and balked about a fight with Cruiserweight champ Vassily Jirov at 190 pounds, and instead chose to fight the (in retrospect) underrated, but still severely overmatched Clinton "WHO"ods.

Even though history tells us to be wary of Roy's claims, the possibility of this match has even the most skeptic fans watering at the mouth. From Roy's point of view he sees a no-lose situation.

a- If he wins, he will now hold a portion of the heavyweight title.
b- If he loses, he has a perfect excuse. Ruiz has 50 pounds on him.
c- The money will be enormous.
d- If he wins, a match with Holyfield or Byrd would also be possible.
e- He will become the first middleweight champ to ever become a heavyweight champion.
f- Ruiz is the first heavyweight champ in a while that is limited enough so that Roy actually may be able to win.

Those are the tangible, one paper, outcomes, which is all Roy cares about. However, educated boxing writers (which excludes all the regular sports writers that try to write about boxing, but only spew ignorant propaganda), and hardcore fans know that there are many holes in this plan.

a- Roy is fighting for a BOGUS title, from a corrupt organization, and not for the real, undisputed, linear title (which is held by Lennox Lewis, who Roy Jones will avoid like the plague (rightfully so!), as he will all the 6'5 heavyweights).

b- If, and it's a big IF, Roy wins, he will technically be the first middleweight to become a heavyweight champ, but the championship is not real. And, if there had been three heavyweight belts around throughout boxing history, it is very likely that a middleweight champ in the past would have accomplished this feat. So lets please try to keep this all in perspective!

Now, that being said, if Roy were to face John Ruiz, I would, and every fan should, give him the greatest level or respect, and all previous weak challenges taken by Jones will be completely forgiven (which would also be the case had he fought Jirov at 190). Even though Ruiz is not the true champion, he is a solid, full size, top heavyweight contender. If Jones were to fight any heavyweight, not even a top contender, he would have to be given a great deal of credit.

A Jones victory over Ruiz should not be assumed. While Roy is far more skilled than Ruiz, he would give up a tremendous size advantage, in height and weight to Ruiz. Ruiz is limited in many ways, but he has tons of heart, a decent jab, and a fairly powerful right hand. Ruiz was able to floor Kirk Johnson, a top contender, twice with a single right hand shot in his last bout. Roy has a great chin, but whether or not it will stand up to a heavyweight punch is dubious at best.

This fight would be a tremendous challenge for Roy Jones Jr., which is why I, and everyone else, should remain skeptical. Jones has not seemed willing to take on a challenging fight in quite a while. Word is, this fight is close to being signed, but we have heard that before from Jones. Lets hope this is the real thing, and if it is, lets give Roy all the credit in the world. But like I said earlier, I'll believe it when I see it!

Is ROY crying wolf again? Only time will tell…

Any comments and or questions, email me at Beowolf88@aol.com