Roy Jones Jr.
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2007) |
Roy Jones, Jr. | |
|---|---|
.JPG) | |
| Born | Roy Levesta Jones, Jr. January 16, 1969 |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Junior |
| Statistics | |
| Weight(s) | Light Heavyweight |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Reach | Template:In to cm |
| Stance | Orthodox |
| Boxing record | |
| Total fights | 56 |
| Wins | 52 |
| Wins by KO | 38 |
| Losses | 4 |
| Draws | 0 |
| No contests | 0 |
| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's Boxing | ||
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1988 Seoul Korea | Light-Middleweight |
Roy Jones, Jr. (born January 16,1969, in Pensacola) is an American boxer. He was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 1990s by the Boxing Writers Association of America.
As a professional he captured IBF championships in the middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and was regarded as the #1 fighter in these three weightclasses by all leading magazines such as the Ring Magazine. He also won the WBA heavyweight title in his only fight in this weight class.
He is also noted for holding the WBC, WBA, IBF, IBO, WBF, and IBA light heavyweight championships at the same time.
Amateur career
Jones had a very successful career as an amateur boxer - he won the 1984 United States National Junior Olympics in the 119 lb (54 kg) weight division, the 1986 United States National Golden Gloves in the 139 lb (63 kg) weight division and the 1987 United States National Golden Gloves in the 156 lb (71 kg) weight division. As an amateur, Jones ended his career with a 121-13 record.
Jones represented the United States at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games where he won the silver medal. Jones dominated his opponents, never losing a single round on route to the final. His participation in the final proved to be hugely controversial when he lost a highly disputed 3-2 decision in the final. Jones lost to South Korean fighter Park Si-Hun, despite pummeling Park for three rounds, landing 86 punches to Park's 32. Allegedly, Park himself apologized to Jones afterwards. One judge shortly thereafter admitted the decision was a mistake, and all three judges voting against Jones were eventually suspended. Most observers still believe the judges were either bribed or otherwise coerced to vote for the local fighter by Korean officials. However, the official IOC investigation concluding in 1997 found that 3 of the judges were wined and dined by Korean officials, but the IOC still officially stands by the decision. Jones was awarded the Val Barker trophy as the best stylistic boxer of the 1988 games. The incident, along with another highly disputed decision against American Michael Carbajal in the same games, led Olympic organizers to establish a new scoring system for Olympic boxing.
After the 2002 Winter Olympics scandal where the Olympic committee decided to award gold medals to both Russia's and Canada's figure skating teams after finding that the French judge had been bribed, Jones had hoped that the committee would re-open his case and award him a gold medal, but no such action was taken.
His controversial loss in the gold medal fight caused Jones to question the integrity of his sport and doubt if he would ever participate in boxing again. However the loss had earned Jones more fame and support than he could have ever gained from winning the gold and upon returning home Jones realized the tremendous impact he had on his hometown and country. The overwhelming support he received eventually led to his decision to stay in boxing and begin his professional career. And would become one of the greatest boxer's of all time due to his stamina and power.
Professional career
By the time he turned professional, Jones had already sparred with many professional boxers in the gyms including NABF champion Ronnie Essett, IBF world champion Lindell Holmes and all-time great Sugar Ray Leonard. Jones began as a professional on May 6, 1989, knocking out Ricky Randall in two rounds in Pensacola at the Bayfront Auditorium. For his next fight, he faced the more experienced Stephan Johnson in Atlantic City, and beat him by a knockout in round eight.
Jones built a record of 15-0 with 15 knockouts before stepping up in class, when he met former world welterweight champion Jorge Vaca in a Pay Per View fight on January 10, 1992. He knocked Vaca out in round one, to reach 16 knockout wins in a row. After one more knockout win, Jones went the distance for the first time, against future world champion Jorge Castro, winning a 10-round decision in front of a USA Network national audience.
Three more knockouts in a row followed, after which Jones was given his first opportunity to fight for a world title: on May 22, 1993, he beat future undisputed world middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins by unanimous decision in Washington D.C., to capture the IBF's vacant middleweight title. All three judges scored the fight 116-112. For his next fight, he fought another future world champion, Thulane "Sugar Boy" Malinga, in a non-title affair. Jones beat Malinga by a knockout in six. Jones finished the year with another non-title fight, beating Fermin Chirino by decision.
In 1994 Jones beat fringe contender Danny "Popeye" Garcia by a knockout in six in another non-title bout, then retained the world title against Thomas Tate in two rounds at Las Vegas on May 27. By this point in his career, Jones was considered one of boxing's top four "pound for pound" fighters.[citation needed] On November 18, he and IBF super middleweight champion James Toney, another member of the "pound for pound" contenders, met in an anticipated bout at Las Vegas Jones dropped Toney in round three, won virtually every round, and secured a unanimous decision to win the IBF super middleweight title. His impressive year in the ring was tainted when shortly after his fight with Tate, he was caught by police in the Bahamas and accused of carrying a gun at Nassau's airport.
In 1995, Jones defended his IBF super middleweight title successfully three times, knocking out Antoine Byrd in round one, former Lightweight and Junior Middleweight World Champion Vinny Pazienza in round six, and Tony Thornton in round two.
Career from 1996 to 2002
In 1996, Jones maintained his winning ways, defeating Merqui Sosa by a knockout in two, future world champion Eric Lucas in round 11, Bryant Brannon in round three, and former multiple world champion and eventual hall of famer Mike McCallum by a decision in twelve rounds to become a member of boxing's exclusive group of world champions in three weight divisions by winning the vacant WBC light heavyweight championship. When he boxed Lucas, he became the first athlete to participate in paid basketball and boxing events on the same day. He had played a game in Alabama in the morning and defended his title in his hometown that evening. He also held a press conference in the ring just before the fight started where he would take questions whilst on his own on a chair in the middle of the ring.
1997 saw Jones suffer his first professional loss, against Montell Griffin, via disqualification. Jones was ahead on the scorecards and had Griffin on the canvas early in round nine. As Griffin was on the canvas, Jones hit him twice. Subsequently, Jones was disqualified and lost his title. Jones sought an immediate rematch and regained the world light heavyweight title easily, knocking Griffin down within the first 20 seconds of the fight, then ending the fight by knocking Griffin down again just over two minutes in.
In 1998, Jones began by knocking out former light heavyweight and future cruiserweight champion Virgil Hill in four rounds in a non-title bout at Biloxi, Mississippi with a sharp right hook to the body. He followed that with a win against the WBA light heavyweight champion, Puerto Rico's Lou Del Valle, by a decision in 12 on July 18, to unify the WBC and WBA belts. Jones had to climb off the canvas for the first time in his career, as he was dropped in round eight, but continued to outbox and punish Del Valle throughout the rest of the fight and gained a unanimous decision. Jones then followed with a defense against Otis Grant. He retained the crown in which he knocked Grant out in ten rounds.
Jones began 1999 by knocking out New York City police officer Rick Frazier. After this, many boxing critics[who?] started to criticize Jones for fighting overmatched mandatories who few had ever heard of. Roy Jones continued a career of low PPV numbers. He was also criticized for never fighting Dariusz Michalczewski, an unbeaten Polish fighter who had been stripped of the WBA & IBF championship belts in 1997 without losing them in the ring. In Jones' only other fight that year, on June 5, he beat the IBF's world champion, Reggie Johnson, by a lop-sided 12-round decision to add that belt to the WBC and WBA belts he already owned in the division.
2000 began with Jones easily beating the hard-punching David Telesco via a 12-round decision on January 15, at Radio City Music Hall to retain the light heavyweight world championship. Jones reportedly fractured his wrist a few weeks before this fight. He entered the ring surrounded by the famous group of dancers, The Rockettes. Jones provided a devastating knockout for the crowd. His next fight was also a first-time boxing event for a venue, as he traveled to Indianapolis and retained his title with an 11-round TKO over Richard Hall at the Conseco Fieldhouse.
A post-fight drug test showed Jones and Hall both tested positive for androstenedione, which is a banned substance by the IBF. Androstenedione is a natural steroid hormone that was commonly available over the counter as a supplement until 2004 when the FDA made the over the counter sale of androstenedione illegal. Jones admitted to taking the product "ripped fuel" which was sold in GNC and every nutritional supplement outlet. Jones was able to keep his title and was not fined or suspended for the positive test. All of Jones' other post-fight drug tests before and after have come back clean. Jones ended the year with a 10-round stoppage of undefeated Eric Harding in New Orleans.
In 2001, Jones released Round One, The Album, a rap CD, his most noticeable song on it being Y'all Must've Forgot, probably referring to the fact that some critics who used to point him out as the world's best fighter pound-for-pound were now criticizing his quality of opposition.[citation needed] That year, he retained the title against Derrick Harmon by a knockout in ten, and against future world champion Julio César González of Mexico by a 12-round unanimous decision.
In 2002, Jones retained his title by knocking out Glen Kelly in seven rounds. Jones then defeated Clinton Woods by technical knockout.
Heavyweight Champion
On March 1, 2003, at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Roy Jones would defeat John Ruiz by a 12-round unanimous decision for the WBA heavyweight championship. Jones officially weighed in at 193 lb (88 kg) and Ruiz at 226 lb (103 kg). Jones became the first former middleweight title holder to win a heavyweight title in 106 years. Jones also became the first fighter to start his career as a jr. middleweight and win a heavyweight title. Jones decided to keep campaigning as a light heavyweight and eventually relinquished the WBA heavyweight title without ever defending it.
Jones vs. Tarver I & II
On November 8, 2003, Jones recovered his old belt with a 12-round majority decision over Antonio Tarver. This was a very close fight with Jones looking sluggish and tired throughout due to being badly weight drained after having to drop back to 175Lbs from 193Lbs of solid muscle. He did this in too short a time and was as a result a shadow of his former self. Tarver was able to catch him on the ropes repeatedly but Jones maintained his composure, particularly during the later rounds of the fight. Jones won by majority decision, the judges giving him 117-111,116-112 and 114-114.
On May 15, 2004, Jones faced a rematch with Tarver. Jones was heavily favored to win, but Tarver scored a KO at 1:41 of the second round. Jones had won the first round, but in the second, as Jones tried a combination, he was caught by a big counter-hook left from Tarver. Jones got on his feet by the count, but for the first time in his career was ruled unable to continue by referee Jay Nady. This showed that the drastic weight loss had robbed Roy of not only his stamina as was displayed in their first fight, but also his chin.
Glen Johnson
On September 25, 2004, Jones attempted to win the IBF light heavyweight title from Glencoffe Johnson in a match in Memphis, Tennessee. Johnson knocked out Jones 49 seconds into the ninth round. Jones laid on the canvas for three minutes after being counted out. Johnson was ahead on all three judges’ scorecards at the time of the knockout (77-75, 77-75, 78-74) and had landed 118 punches to Jones’s 75. Jones used the ring's canvas that night as a billboard for his upcoming rap CD, which came out on November 1. Roy again had no energy and spent most of the fight against the ropes, Jones in his prime would mostly control the fight from the center of the ring and would only go to the ropes to play around with his opponent.
Jones vs Tarver III
After almost a year away from the ring, focusing on training and working as an analyst for HBO Boxing, Jones scheduled a third fight with Antonio Tarver, on October 1 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida, which aired on HBO PPV. For only the second time in his career, Jones was considered an underdog going into the fight. Tarver won by unanimous decision (117-111, 116-112, 116-112). In the post fight interview, Jones stated that he was still one of the best fighters in the world, and the fight was a warm-up for more fights to come.
Fallout with HBO
After the loss in the third Tarver bout, Jones resumed his duties as commentator for HBO Championship Boxing, calling the Floyd Mayweather Jr-Sharmba Mitchell fight on November 19, 2005, and the Jermain Taylor-Bernard Hopkins rematch on December 3, 2005. His return to the network was short lived, as Jones was fired from his ringside analyst role by HBO in January 2006 due to his reported lack of commitment to attending production meetings for the network.
Comeback Trail
Back to winning ways
On December 23, 2005, it was announced that Jones would face Bernard Hopkins on March 11, 2006, in a rematch 11 years in the making. However, due to monetary issues, this fight did not take place.
Jones then reached an agreement to fight Prince Badi Ajamu on July 29, 2006, at the Qwest Arena in Boise, Idaho. Jones defeated Ajamu by a unanimous decision.
Jones fought the then undefeated up-and-comer, Anthony Hanshaw, on July 14, 2007, at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi. Jones won the bout by unanimous decision and winning the IBC light heavyweight title.
Early this January, Jones revealed that he desires to fight Joe Calazghe, the undisputed Super Middleweight Champion. He stated that he knows he may have to go after Calazghe as he has the Super Middleweight belts which he would most like to win back. Jones also admitted that the only way for him to beat Calazghe was to knock him out, which has never been done before in Calazghe's career professional career even though he has been knocked down once. Jones also stated that he did not believe that Calzaghe's next opponent and fellow American Bernard Hopkins does possess the hitting power to beat Calazghe by knockout.
Felix Trinidad
After the fight with Hanshaw, there was speculation that Roy and Felix Trinidad would engage in a super-fight in early 2008. On August 13, 2007, it was confirmed that both he and Trinidad signed for a bout on January 19 which will be at 170 lb. The venue for this event was Madison Square Garden in New York City.[1]
Trinidad was sharp early on in the fight despite Jones blocking a significant number of shots with his gloves held high. Jones laid on the ropes in round three, taunting Trinidad to attack his body, but Trinidad remained patient. Jones had a solid round four, landing some clean shots. Jones seemed to be walking down Trinidad as the bout progressed, while Trinidad concentrated on the body. Jones dropped Trinidad in round seven with a right hand to the temple, and seemed just too strong for Trinidad in the ensuing rounds as he pressed the action in rounds eight and nine. Jones floored Trinidad again at the end of round ten with a flurry of left hands, as Jones would go on to defeat Trinidad by unanimous decision.
Question Marks About The Roy Jones Legacy
By 1995 Benn had made 10 defences of his WBC title. Benn hadn't lost for 5 years (since he lost his World Middleweight title to Eubank in 1990) and he was rated #2 at 168 behind Jones Jr who was the #1 lb4lb fighter in the world. Benn defeated McClellan in 1995 who was the #2 lb4lb fighter in the world at the time (McClellan defeated Jones Jr at the 1988 Golden Gloves and was number one at Middleweight ahead of Jones Jr in 1993 and 1994). Jones Jr didn't fight Benn. No excuses.
Eubank was rated #3 at 168 in 1995 (behind Jones Jr and Benn) until he lost to Collins. Collins was rated #2 at 168 behind Jones Jr in 1996. Jones Jr didn't fight Eubank or Collins either. He chose to fight Bryd, Thornton and Lucas instead and none of them were even ranked in the top 10 at 168 at the time of fighting Jones Jr.
A top ranking boxing journalist said...
Sadly, rather than pull out the broom stick and attempt to clean out the rest of the super-middleweight division, Jones opted to defend his IBF strap five times against sub-par competition. Instead of facing the tall, dangerous southpaw Frankie Liles (scored a standing 8 count on Jones in the amateurs), the self-styled slickster Chris Eubanks (longest-reigning super-middleweight champion), the rugged warrior Steve Collins (first man to defeat Eubanks), the menacing malice Nigel Benn (WBC champion), the super-punching Gerald McClellan (who beat Jones in the amateurs), or the sometimes awesome Michael Nunn (Jones’ mandatory in the late 90s), he sparred against the mediocre Antoine Byrd, Vinny Pazienza (blown-up lightweight), Tony Thornton (ah, the 'punching postman'), Merqui Sosa (who?), Eric Lucas (who?), and Bryant Brannon (who?). Take a close look and you’ll see that the former bunch make the latter look like a Mercedes stacked up next to a Ford Pinto.
Whether the above reduces the legacy of Roy Jones or not is very much in the eye of the beholder given the obvious natural talent and achievments of the boxer.
Professional boxing record
Controversy
In an interview in the March 2003 issue of Esquire, Jones indicates that he prepares roosters to engage in cockfighting, which is a violation of the law in 48 states, including Florida, where it is a felony. Jones, who has also posted an extensive essay in praise of cockfighting on his official website, is quoted in Esquire as saying, "I give my roosters the best of food. I give them the best of care. I give them everything they want before I ask them to sacrifice. Get a rooster comfortable and he’ll fight his ass off."
Music career
Roy Jones Jr. |
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Jones started his rap music career in 2001 with his successful album, titled Round One: The Album and the debut single, "You all Must've Forgot". In 2004, Jones formed a group - Body Head Bangerz and released an album. The album, Body Head Bangerz: Volume One, featured B.G., Juvenile, Bun B of UGK, Petey Pablo, Lil' Flip, and Mike Jones among others. It was also announced that Jones was working on a Volume Two album due to be released early 2008[citation needed].
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson used Body Head's song "Can't Be Touched" at UFC 75.
Discography
Album
| Album information |
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Round One: The Album
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| Album information |
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Body Head Bangerz: Volume One
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Solo singles
- 2001: "Y'all Must've Forgot"
- 2001: "And Still"
Featured singles
- 2004: "I Smoke, I Drank" (Body Head Bangerz featuring YoungBloodZ)
- 2004: "Can't Be Touched" (Body Head Bangerz featuring Trouble Tha Truth)
Filmography
- The Devil's Advocate (1997) - uncredited
- New Jersey Turnpikes (1999) - unknown
- The Wayans Brothers, Rope-a-Dope (1999) - himself
- The Matrix Reloaded (2003) - Captain Ballard
- Enter The Matrix (2003) - Captain Ballard
See also
References
- ^ ESPN (2007-08-13). "Jones-Trinidad to take place in January". ESPN. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
External links
- Roy Jones Jr. Fight-by-Fight Career Record
- Boxing record for Roy Jones Jr. from BoxRec (registration required)
- Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from December 2007
- 1969 births
- American boxers
- African American sportspeople
- American rappers
- Boxers at the 1988 Summer Olympics
- Doping cases in boxing
- Heavyweights
- IBF Champions
- Light-heavyweights
- Living people
- Middleweights
- Olympic boxers of the United States
- People from Pensacola, Florida
- Southern hip hop musicians
- Super-middleweights
- WBA Champions
- WBC Champions