"NO SURPRISES" By Jeff Mayweather

Saturday night at the Thomas and Mack Arena history was made, as Roy Jones Jr., won the WBA version of the Heavyweight Championship of the World. Going in Roy Jones, Jr. was the prohibitive favorite for all the right reasons; while Ruiz was given a chance only because he was the bigger man, bigger certainly doesn't mean better when it comes to Boxing.

Roy is probably one of the best and most gifted athletes on this planet. Roy doesn't win fights solely because he's a great technician, in all honesty, by boxing standards he does so many things wrong... but his great vision, catlike quickness and amazing instincts allow him to get away with things that even the best schooled fighter can't get away with.

Roy Jones, Jr. has been blessed with phenomenal hand speed and a lot better than average power. Everyone knew going in that he was the better fighter skill for skill. There was almost no comparison. Ruiz was fortunate enough to fight a well past his prime Holyfield, had a style that clashed with Holyfield, that would give Evander problems each and every time they fought, and fought they did, three times ... two times too many for my liking. Each fight was very ugly to watch, Ruiz handling a shopworn Holyfield was painful to the eye; watching this once great Warrior struggle with a barely above average Heavyweight was downright brutal.

Going back to the March 1st fight... what I thought would happen, happened. Roy Jones is a special fighter, one of those guys who comes along once in a very long time and you just know he was destined for true greatness and would already have his place in history etched in stone long before his final blow is thrown.

I can remember as far back as 1987 in the Golden Gloves National in Knoxville, Tennessee, when I first laid eyes on Roy Jones, Jr.; even way back then there was something different about him. I told my coach "this guy is in a class all by himself," even though we were all Champions in our own right. He did things that made me stop and say to myself, "this guy is a man among boys." After that first night of watching Roy Jones, Jr. I became a Roy Jones, Jr. fan for life. I couldn't imagine him ever being beaten. Honestly, to this date he hasn't been beaten, even though Montell Griffin has a disqualification win over him, a 'loss' that he immediately avenged. Then he became so dominant at Light Heavyweight he became boring to watch; just as in the amateurs, he was once again in a class all by himself.

Saturday night matched a great fighter in one corner while in the other corner you had a barely above average fighter who just happen to weigh more. I see this play out in the gym everyday; I've even been in the same exact situation a time or two. Mind you, I'm certainly not referring to myself as great, but I fought several guys in the gym that were a whole lot bigger than me and I would beat them easily because I was the much more skilled fighter and their size had no bearing on the outcome. So, in my mind you have Roy Jones, Jr., a special fighter and John Ruiz, average fighter. Special wins over Average 99.9% of the time.

If you throw out the Holyfield fights, the only other Ruiz fight you can think of is the one versus Tua and he got massacred in about 20 seconds or less. Throw out the foul-fest between him and Kirk Johnson, a fight which he was losing at the time of the disqualification, David Tua is the only other name that I know on Ruiz resume.