I will preface this article by stating that I picked John Ruiz to beat Roy Jones and Wladimir Klitschko to beat Corrie Sanders. My excuses: I figured Roy to come into the Ruiz fight a little over 180 pounds. He came in a hair under 200. I figured Wlad would be able to beat a once-dangerous 37-year-old fringe contender. I was wrong.

Now, to indulge myself, I want to take a look at the larger picture. I have probably been Wladimir Klitschko's biggest critic in the national media. I have also probably been Roy Jones' biggest supporter. With that in mind, I will use this article to gloat. Yes, I can be self-congratulatory at the very moment I should experience a little humility...

"Great heavyweights cannot be created by the hype machine, they actually must exist."

"...the next dominant heavyweight champion? You cannot just wish a guy like that into existence."

Those two quotes are about Wladimir Klitschko. The source: a couple of recently archived articles I wrote for this website.

Look, Corrie Sanders is a big, relatively athletic southpaw, with decent handspeed and excellent punching power. Were he to have taken on Wladimir two, three years ago, he'd have been seen as a very live underdog. Back then, Sanders brawled with Hassim Rahman -- even had the future heavyweight champ down twice before he was finally stopped himself. But nowadays Sanders is 37 years old, and has had fought so infrequently over the last couple of years that he seemed to be in a quasi-retirement.

Rahman beat Sanders on heart. It was a back and forth brawl, and Rahman wanted it more. Sanders, though he fought bravely for a couple of rounds, eventually acquiesced, as Rahman imposed his will.

After Sanders dropped Klitschko in the first round with a hard straight left hand, Wladimir fought on, just as he had fought on when he was hurt and tired late in his fight against Ross Purity. But then, as now, Wlad was ultimately beaten into submission. I mean, let's not forget -- Klitschko was knocked out by Purity several years before Saturday night's beating at the hands of Corrie Sanders.

I have been wrong plenty of times about plenty of fighters since I started on Friday Night Fights almost five years ago. But two things I have been right about were brought to light over the last two weekends:

1. No other fighter should be compared to Roy Jones in a pound for pound sense -- Roy is in a league of his own.

2. Ike Ibeabuchi was the only heavyweight prospect in recent years with the potential for greatness.

Wladimir Klitschko will still beat some good heavyweights before his career is over. Michael Grant may well beat a couple of name guys, too. But neither Grant nor Klitschko ever had the look of greatness, and neither will ever achieve it. Sure, they are the kind of fighters people want to believe are great. They are tall, muscular, charming. And sure, their size advantage helped them against smaller fighters, and in Klitschko's case, his amateur background helped him against less experienced big fighters. But neither Grant nor Klitschko ever exhibited the kind of skills or athleticism that made me think they could ever become dominant champions. Neither guy ever had "It."

On the other hand, from the very beginning, in his first early-career televised fight, Ike Ibeabuchi had the look. He was big (over 230 pounds), hungry, and punched with power and in combination. He was Nigerian, and spoke English with an accent. He was at times surly, criminal, and perhaps mentally ill. So the media did not want him to be The Man. But in the ring, proved he was The Man, and there is nothing we can do about that.

After 16 pro fights, Ike beat David Tua, who fought the fight of his life that night against Ibeabuchi. Ike went toe-to-toe with Tua, trading bombs with him the whole way. Going into the Tua fight Ike had already shown punching power and boxing skills. Against Tua he proved he had the chin, heart and determination to compete with anyone. Ike proved against Tua more than Grant or Wladimir -- who were both given free rides from the very beginning -- have together proven in their combined professional careers.

And unlike Wladimir's points win against Chris Byrd, which came in Germany and under dubious circumstances (Byrd complains that his eyes were burning in that fight from the second round on), Ike handed Byrd his first pro defeat by knockout, in the fifth round of a beautiful fight. That is the same Byrd who stopped Vitali Klitschko (in Germany no less!), and has since beaten Tua and Evander Holyfield on points. Ike would have savaged Grant and then Klitschko. He had a real chance to beat Lennox Lewis, too.

But Ibeabuchi got himself arrested and convicted, and is in prison as I write this. And that is partly the reason for the overreaction to Wladimir. We are always looking for the next great heavyweight to sell to the mainstream. We are always looking for the next star to move boxing off the margins of the sports world and onto SportsCenter, and the back page of the local paper. A tall, good looking heavyweight with an Olympic gold medal and excellent offensive skills? There's a guy we can sell! To media outlets that reach mainstream sports fans!

It was the same with Felix Trinidad and Shane Mosley. Two tremendous fighters. Two fighters who often fought the way we love our top fighters to fight. They pressed the action. Many wanted desperately for Mosley and Trinidad to be the best in the business. But they weren't.

"Roy Jones Jr. makes us wonder if we are watching the greatest fighter of all time. Roy draws comparisons not only with Sugar Ray Robinson, but with Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan."

Yes, another quote from an archived article I wrote.

Roy Jones was, and is, far and away the pound-for-pound best. He never exposes himself to more danger than he has to in the ring, and as a result his fights are one-sided and can lack the action of a Trinidad or Mosley fight. But Jones is the best, and it's not close. And it never was. Whether you like it or not.

I don't care how mediocre a heavyweight you want to say John Ruiz is; no one in boxing other than Roy would be asked to move up as many divisions and then give up as much weight to a ranked guy as Roy did to Ruiz. No one would be asked because we know they wouldn't have a shot to pull it off.

Let's not forget, Roy began his career at a weight in the neighborhood of where Trinidad began his. Trinidad was given enormous credit for moving up two divisions, where he was ultimately dominated by Bernard Hopkins. Shane Mosley had the boxing world invoking the name Sugar Ray Robinson for moving up two weight classes and coming back in a great fight to beat De La Hoya.

It is insulting to Roy Jones to compare these lesser greats to him. Jones beat Hopkins with one hand, and nearly shut out James Toney. Guys like Thomas Tate were blown out in two rounds, Virgil Hill knocked out with a body shot in five. Roy played with Reggie Johnson and allowed him to finish the fight on his feet.

No one has ever really been able to compete with the guy.

Those of us with incorrect perceptions of who the best fighter in the world has been over the last bunch of years must now correct ourselves. When future generations look back at pound-for-pound lists of this era, they will see that between 1994 and 2003 there were several different fighters who at one point or another occupied the top spot. They will see Oscar De la Hoya and Shane Mosley and Felix Trinidad. The reality is that none of those other fighters were ever even nearly the equal of Jones.

Should Roy hold down the No. 1 position until the end of next year, he will have done something no other fighter in boxing history -- with the arguable exception of Robinson himself -- has ever done. Number one, pound for pound, for a decade.

Max Kellerman is a studio analyst for ESPN2's Friday Night Fights and the host of the show Around The Horn.