Jones makes history and plays down chance of Lewis match

NEWLY-CROWNED WBA heavyweight champion Roy Jones has played down the chances of a unification match with Britain’s WBC title holder Lennox Lewis.

Jones rewrote the history books when giving John Ruiz a masterclass in technical boxing in Las Vegas last night, cruising to a unanimous points win by scores of 116-112, 117-111 and 118-110.

The 34-year-old became the first former middleweight champion to reign supreme among the sport's big guys since Cornishman Bob Fitzsimmons in 1897.

In addition, of the 13 light-heavyweight champions who had previously attempted to make the step up, only Michael Spinks had been successful in 1985.

However, the signs are that Jones, who was conceding an amazing 33lb in weight to Ruiz, believes a clash with Lewis would be biting off even more than he could chew.

"I've got to go back and look at it. I was here just to make history for the fans," said Jones.

"Lennox is a great heavyweight champion and I love him to death. We go back a long way and I think Lennox is definitely the best of the heavyweights."

Lewis was ringside in Las Vegas and admitted he was having real thoughts of ending his reign on a high.

Lewis said: "It (retirement) is definitely an option for me at this point.

"I really need a fight to make me feel like going in there and fighting, to go out and go through all the training. The person has to get me excited and at this point I'm not really excited about anyone.

"Wladimir Klitschko would be like a Michael Grant fight and even to box Mike Tyson if he's in a bad state will be to go backwards and I don't want to go backwards."

Jones picked up a cool $10 million for beating Ruiz, however, and Lewis believes there are other heavyweight challengers out there who could tempt the American into defending his title.

"For Roy Jones to move up to heavyweight was a challenge he just couldn't pass up. He decided to do it and look what happened, he's the heavyweight champion of the world right now," said Lewis.

"He's definitely going to go back in there with another heavyweight because that was by far the biggest purse of his life.

"I don't think he wants to fight (IBF champion) Chris Byrd but there are a lot of heavyweights out there who he could fight. Maybe Evander Holyfield could be next."

Despite all the omens being against him for the fight, Jones looked remarkably cool as he entered the ring.

As the American national anthem was sung and the boxers were introduced to the Caesars Palace crowd, Jones was by far the more composed as he strutted around like one of the fighting cock he breeds.

In contrast, Ruiz appeared nervous and agitated as he bobbed up and down in his corner. That wariness was again obvious as Ruiz charged forward from the opening bell in a desperate bid to catch his opponent cold.

Once weathering that brief early storm, however, Jones was never in trouble throughout 12 rounds of one-sided action.

The challenger even had the audacity to rock Ruiz with a peach of a straight right towards the end of the fourth that sent the champion back to his corner with a bloodied nose.

For the most part, though, he was content to hit and run and just had too much skill and speed for Ruiz.

"I was never concerned about the power of his punches," said Jones. "People have been saying for years that I don't like to get hit, but I don't give a damn about no punches, I came out here to fight."