Roy Jones Jr.

Roy Jones, Jr. is a man who defies definition. A five-time world champion boxer in four different weight classes; a world-class boxing promoter; a superb athlete in all arenas; a hit music performer and manager; and a television and motion picture actor; in short, Roy Jones, Jr. is a renaissance man for his era and a legend for eras to come. Against a backdrop of battle-scarred mountains and Far East mysticism, Roy Jones Jr. first burst upon the world following a shockingly controversial defeat in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Until then, he was just the best amateur junior middleweight in the world, a 156-pound kid from Pensacola, Florida with great deal of promise but a limited recognition factor. Then, three judges mugged him.

After watching (via NBC television) Jones soundly defeat hometown favorite Si-Hun Park in the light middleweight final, the world was stunned when the South Korean boxer was given the gold medal by a score of 3-2. As one boxing expert moaned: "Those blind bums would have given Custer a gold medal after the Little Big Horn."

One judge immediately admitted the error of his ways; later, after a serious discussion with his superiors, he recanted. In an attempt to cover up the blatant crime, the Olympic officials exposed it further by awarding Jones the Val Barker Trophy, given to the Games outstanding boxer. Logic is not an Olympic sport.

Undaunted, while Park took his tarnished gold medal and slipped into obscurity, Jones returned home to begin a brilliant professional campaign that would carry him to six world championships, including the most radiant of them all, the heavyweight title. Jones spent the better part of a decade regarded as the premier pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

Jones was Ring magazine's "Fighter of the Year" in 1994 and was voted the "Fighter of the Decade" in the 1990's by the Boxing Writers Association of America. He's the former IBF middleweight champion, IBF super middleweight world champion and former undisputed light heavyweight champion. He made 11 successful defenses in unifying the 175-pound division before moving up to heavyweight to fight John Ruiz. On March 1, 2002, Jones became the first former middleweight champion to win the world heavyweight crown in over 100 years.

His only loss during the '90's came stunningly and surprisingly. Jones was victimized by a controversial late hit in a WBC light heavyweight defense against Montell Griffin on March 21, 1997 in Atlantic City. Leading on all three scorecards and already having floored Griffin twice, Jones was anxious to finish him and had him in trouble near the end of the ninth round. Two glancing shots to an exhausted, kneeling Griffin as the bell sounded disqualified Jones.

Jones' character and sense of fair play triggered the following response to his lawyer/advisor Fred Levin after the fight. "Get me the rematch. Do it now. I want it to be my next fight. Give him anything he wants. I don't care what it costs."

Revenge was swift and devastating when Jones regained his WBC belt with a first round thrashing of Griffin, decking him twice before mercifully ending it at the 2:31 mark.

"Losing that first fight to Griffin was nearly as disappointing as losing the Olympic gold medal," Jones said. "When I fought him the first time, I was just trying to beat him. When we fought the second time, I would not argue if people suggest that there was more than just winning on my mind."

Jones gave a hint that he was embarking on a legendary fistic career in 1979, when, at the age of 10, he administered a sound beating to a 14-year-old who outweighed him by 16 pounds. It was Jones' first amateur fight; he weighed just 69 pounds. Before he was done fighting for cups and silver baubles, he would win two Golden Gloves junior welterweight titles and 121 of 134 bouts.

On May 6, 1989, fighting before a hometown crowd in Pensacola, Jones stopped one Ricky Randall in the second round. This time when he stepped from the ring, instead of a trophy, they handed him a check. "I loved fighting," he remembers with a grin, "I just figured it was time I started getting paid to do it."

Quickly his record grew: four wins in 1989, seven in 1990, four more in 1991, and another five in 1992. Only one of his 20 victories went the distance. All but four of the wins came in Pensacola, a fact hammered by a small army of critics. Ignoring the cries for him to fight tougher opponents in larger arenas, Jones steadily honed the skills that would make him the most feared fighter in the world.

"I know where I am going and no one is going to hurry my getting there before I am ready," he told a small circle of friends. On the night of May 22, 1993, Jones began his assault of sitting world champions. By then he had tested his blurring combinations, the dazzling jab and the brilliant footwork against such as Jorge Vaca (49-8-1), Jorge Castro (71-3-2) and Glenn Thomas (24-0) and knew he was ready.

His opening target was Bernard Hopkins, who boasted (often) of a 22- 1 record. They met in Washington, D.C. The prize was the vacant IBF middleweight championship. When the last shot had been fired, all three judges voted for Jones.

Once out of the starting blocks, Jones moved quickly. A blurring left hook kayoed top contender Thomas Tate in the second round of his first middleweight defense on May 27, 1994 before Jones' signature fight came against favored, unbeaten super middleweight champion James Toney on Nov. 18, 1994.

In a sensational display, Jones tormented Toney with a dominating performance that featured a taunting move by Jones that Toney tried to mimic, only to have the challenger land a solid blow that sent the champion reeling against the ropes in the third round. Jones got credit for a knockdown and went on to sweep all three judges scores to claim another title.

Ever looking upward, Jones scored a 12-round unanimous decision over Mike McCallum to win the interim WBC light heavyweight championship. Before he was done sowing havoc among the 175-pounders, Jones put the division tidily under one flag (WBC, WBA and IBF). In his wake, he left 13 challengers bent and bloodied.

On March 1, 2003, Jones left his mark firmly in boxing history by becoming the first middleweight to win the heavyweight championship since Bob Fitzsimmons turned the trick in 1897. Giving away almost 30 pounds to John Ruiz, Jones earned $10 million to score a remarkable easy 12-round decision. He won eight rounds on one scorecard, nine on a second and an amazing ten on the third.

"I know what people are going to say, but there is nothing wrong with John Ruiz," said Jones. "Like a lot of other guys I fought, he was just slower than me. And I kind of out thought him."

"What's next?" a visitor asked the 34-year-old ruler of all the WBA heavyweights. "I'll think of something," said Jones with a wide grin.

Following the celebratory win over Ruiz, Antonio Tarver was seated, along with the media, in the post-fight press conference. "I want my shot at history, Roy." Roy eventually had heard enough and on November 8, 2003 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Jones met the unified light heavyweight champion, Antonio Tarver. Jones won a 12 round majority decision. It was Jones' first fight at light heavyweight since beating Ruiz. He had to drop over twenty-five pounds to make the weight and looked physically drained. Jones had to dig down deep, arguably the deepest in his career, to rally during the last two rounds to win.

The Jones-Tarver rematch took place on May 15, 2004, again at Mandalay Bay. The action was just starting to warm up when Tarver scored a knockdown midway through the second round. He got up just after the referee reached the count of 10 and waved the fight over. After the fight, Roy said, "There ain't no excuses on my part. I come out and do what I do. Guys always get up to fight Roy Jones. It happens like that. I'm a warrior and I'm going to fight. It happens to the best of us."

Surprisingly, Jones returned to the ring almost immediately. Not for a tune-up fight, but to fight for a world title. Because that is the only thing Roy Jones knows what to do, fight for world titles. He fought Glen Johnson for the IBF light heavyweight title on September 25, 2004 in Memphis. For only the third time in fifty-two fights, the bout finished in Jones' opponent's favor.

Thinking of new ways to astonish his legions of followers had never been a problem for this superb athlete. One only has to go back to June 15, 1996 to find a stunning example of Jones' incredible athletic ability and stamina. A few hours before defending his IBF super middleweight championship against Eric Lucas, Jones spent 15 grueling minutes playing for the Jacksonville Barracudas of the United States Basketball League. He scored six points.

Defeating Lucas took a little longer. "He was a bit stubborn," said Jones of the Canadian would go on to become a WBC super middleweight champion five years later. He stopped Lucas in the 12th round. "That is the last time I do that. It was one long day."

Like basketball, fishing, hunting and raising his beloved fighting cocks, music is another of Jones' loves. Several of is own recordings, including the popular The Album: Round One, have been distributed under his own Body Heat Entertainment label. He also manages several talented groups.

A proven motion picture and television talent, Jones has had parts in The Sentinel, Living Single, Watcher, In Living Color, Married With Children, Dateline, Arliss, The Wayan Brothers and such films as The Devil's Advocate, New Jersey Turnpikes and the final two films of The Matrix trilogy, recently completed in Australia. Jones also appears on the new video game based on The Matrix. Jones' own video game Knock Out Kings, from EA Sports, makes its debut this fall.

With all of that, this energetic young superstar, a proud father of three sons, still finds the time to devote many hours speaking to America's youth on the value of education and the perils of drugs. He has also been an advocate of boxing reform, where he has testified at U.S. Senate hearings on behalf of his fellow boxers.

"When you have been blessed as I have been," said Jones, "you have to give something back. If some day I find that I have turned around the life of some troubled young man or woman, I will accept that as an award as great as any I have ever received."
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Roy Jones, Jr. is a man who defies definition. A five-time world champion boxer in four different weight classes; a world-class boxing promoter; a superb athlete in all arenas; a hit music performer and manager; and a television and motion picture actor; in short, Roy Jones, Jr. is a renaissance man for his era and a legend for eras to come. Against a backdrop of battle-scarred mountains and Far East mysticism, Roy Jones Jr. first burst upon the world following a shockingly controversial defeat... více