NEW YORK, Dec. 3 --­ It's a fight that was originally expected to take place this Saturday, but now that John Ruiz and Roy Jones Jr. will finally get it on for the WBA heavyweight title on March 1 in Las Vegas, what's another couple of hours for the light heavyweight champion to arrive at the press conference that ended the speculation about his future?

"I don't talk, I fight," said Jones, who musta forgot his watch when he showed up at 12:20 pm for a 10:30 am gathering at the world famous Rainbow Room. "I don't have much to talk about."

He wasn't lying.

Looking focused and already in fighting shape, Jones didn't seem too enthused about sharing his Tuesday with a media corps that has dealt harshly with the sport's pound for pound best over the lack of top-notch foes on his recent dance card and his hard line negotiating for this bout.

"For the haters and the critics," said Jones, 47-1 with 38 KOs. " 'Roy won't fight. Roy won't do this. Roy won't be there.' Well damn, who is this?"

It had to make John Ruiz smile. Long denigrated by the press, the classy 30-year-old, characterized by promoter Don King as 'the losingest winningest man I've ever seen', has actually seen the tables turn in his favor as far as media favor goes. And in bending over backwards to give Jones all his monetary demands for the March 1st pay-per-view bout, Ruiz is unquestionably the sentimental favorite to hand Jones a one-way ticket back to 175 pounds.

"I'm surprised in a way," said Ruiz, 37-4-1 with 27 KOs. "I'm looking at the sign Ruiz and Jones, with my name first, and I'm considered the favorite. It's kind of new to me. So I definitely have to go out there and perform."

Ruiz' longtime manager, Norman Stone, expressed his feelings on this turnaround in song. "What a difference a day makes," sang "Stoney".

"I'm comfortable for Johnny," continued Stone. "If I do something that's wrong, I'm doing it for Johnny. Shame on anyone who thinks anything else. Johnny's like my son. We've been doing this for 16 years. I've had him since he was 15 years old and I've been to every fight, every training, and anything he's done in his life has been him and I. No one's ever going to get between it. The money hasn't bothered us. We do what we have to do to get where we're at, and here we are."

Without a guaranteed take of the loot, Ruiz may wind up seeing Jones as the one laughing last in the whole affair if it bombs with the pay-per-view buying public. But HBO PPV boss Mark Taffet sees Ruiz-Jones as having the potential to be a financial blockbuster for all involved.

"This is the type of event that fulfills the dreams and imaginations of boxing fans around the world," said Taffet. "We haven't seen a promotion like this in well over a decade in the sport. So I think this fight has the potential, if it catches on with the public, to be one of the true pay-per-view megafights."

Not that it was easy to make.

From the time word leaked out that the fight was in the process of being made, both sides fought it out with dueling interviews and press releases, sometimes from within the same camp (as in Jones' case, where rumors of disarray within various factions of the team still persist). Even HBO spent many late nights trying to get all sides on the same page.

Said Taffet, "There were a lot of days where I had to check to make sure that we had batteries charged and enough gas in the tank to make it to the next day. But having been through this for ten years we know that the big fights, and the great ones, always have more than their fair share of trials and tribulations, and we stick with it until we get it done. Luckily for us and for the sport, we've had a pretty good track record of getting them done."

With Ruiz on board nearly from the outset, it was all up to Jones. And all Ruiz' outspoken manager needed to hear was the Pensacola native's assurance that the fight was on.

"I talked to Roy a while ago and he said, 'Don't listen to the media. Everything's going to go off' and it has," Said Stone. "You've got to take a guy for his word and that's the way I was brought up."

And after marathon negotiations, a fight is on.

"I'm not taking this challenge because I see someone that I can beat," said Jones. "I'm taking the challenge because I see someone that will fight. I want my back against the wall. I want to be put in a no-win situation. That's what I love. That's what I live for. That's what made Roy Roy."

What has made Jones as been his otherworldly skills, skills that led King to call him "Superman Roy", who "draws his power from a mountain of Blackronite".

All joking aside, Jones' ring abilities are what enables observers to give him a good chance of competing with and possibly beating a legitimate heavyweight, a fighter that may outweigh him by 30-40 pounds come fight night.

"Roy's reflexes are so sharp, and he's so fast that he can actually see the heavyweight's punches coming, but they can't see his," said Jones' longtime (and underrated) trainer Alton Merkerson. "And he can hit just as hard as a heavyweight."

Even Stone admits, "Roy Jones, no matter what anybody says, is pound for pound the greatest fighter today."

For his part, Ruiz is remaining guardedly optimistic that the fight will happen.

"I'm looking forward to the fight but I'm not betting my house that he's going to show up," said Ruiz, who at 6-2, dwarfed the 5-7 Jones as the two stood side by side for today's obligatory photo op. "If he decides to show up it's going to be a great fight. He's a great champion, no doubt about that, but I think he's in over his head now."

And if Jones is across the ring from him in the Thomas and Mack Center on March 1st, Ruiz's game plan is clear. "I think this is a fight where I definitely have to work every round and make sure he doesn't run so much," he said. "Jones is quick but I don't think that he's that quick where I can't catch him. Jones is going to find out that his flurries are not going to work in the heavyweight division. You're taking such a pounding in the heavyweight division that these flurries are more like taking little bee stings, and you've got to keep moving on. He's going to realize that and I'm gonna just run through him."

That may be an ominous prospect for Jones, but one that he says he is relishing.

"When I feel my back against the wall, my eyes light up," said Jones, 33. "I know that I'm the one who stands a chance of getting hurt. I have friends who have been victims of such bad circumstances. But right now, for my sake, for my kids' sake, forget all that, we've got to fight."

Not that everyone within Team Jones was so enthusiastic. "Personally, when Roy first confronted me about fighting a heavyweight, I wasn't too enthused about it," said Merkerson. But soon enough, Coach Merk came around to his pupil's desire to test himself in a way no light heavyweight had since Michael Spinks, and that no middleweight had tried successfully since Bob Fitzsimmons.

"As a trainer, as a parent, as a supervisor in a leadership position, there has to be a compromise because the bottom line is that he is the one that's out there doing the work, he's the one who is out there fighting," said Merkerson. "If my fighter feels that he's capable of beating a heavyweight, or if he wants to fight a heavyweight and that's what motivates him, I have to roll with the punches. I don't have any fear that he can't handle a heavyweight. But as a trainer, you always have in the back of your mind the old saying that no little champion ever beat a big champion. But that's not a true fact. It's just a myth. The reason I felt that way is that he was pressured by so many people that he wasn't fighting anybody, that he needed to fight a heavyweight. I didn't want him to fall into that trap because he was getting pressure from the media. He did have someone to fight ­ top ten contenders like everyone else is fighting. The bottom line is that he is that much better than the other fighters and they say he's not fighting anybody. Those guys he was fighting were good fighters. Look at James Toney. He was the hottest thing going. And then when Roy beat him, 'oh, well he wasn't really ready.' In this game you have to stay ready."

On March 1st, John Ruiz will be ready, and he wants Jones to be as well. "He brings out the crowd with what he does and how he fights and how he behaves," said Ruiz. "People like to see that. There are people who want to see him lose and people who want to see him win. It's going to be a great fight, a hyped fight, and I hope he's ready for it."

Jones says he will be.

"Don't worry. I got this."