Just turning 49 on January 16th the four division world champion Roy Jones, Jr., 65-9 (47), will be having his farewell fight on February 18th at the Civic Center in his hometown of Pensacola, FL. His opponent will be Scott Sigman, 30-11-1 (16), from Lynchburg, VA, for the World Boxing Union (German Version) Cruiserweight title which he won in December of 2013.
Jones in the amateurs was 121-13, won the Val Barker Trophy at the 1988 Olympics in South Korea though only receiving a Silver Medal. This was due to the controversial decision he lost 3-2 to Park Si-Hun of South Korea. He had won three bouts 5-0 and scored a first round knockout leading up to the final event. One of the judges Hiduad Larbi of Morocco had it 59-58 as did Alberto Duran of Uruguay. Bob Kasule of Uganda also voted for the South Korean.
It was reported that Larbi said “the American won easily, so easily, in fact, that I was positive my four fellow judges would score the fight for the American by a wide margin. So I voted for the Korean to make the score 4-1 for the American and not embarrass the host nation.” To that Larbi said “I am aware of the comments attributed to me by various press bodies, and I dispute every point of these.”
In 1996 Andrew Jennings, a British journalist, claimed to have documents from the former East German secret police, the Stasi, that showed that boxing matches at the Seoul Olympics were rigged by judges. According to Jennings, judges, they were paid $300-$500 to fix matches.
According to Compu-Box Punchstats Jones out landed his opponent Park Si-Hun 86-32 in punches landed. Jones waited until June 6th, 1989 to turn professional at the same Civic Center in Pensacola in will have his final fight. He won his first seventeen fights by stoppage including over WBC World Welterweight champion Jorge Vaca and WBA World Middleweight champion Jorge Castro.
In May 22nd 1993 Jones won his first world title defeating Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins for the vacant IBF Middleweight title at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC. On November 18th 1994 he won the IBF Super Middleweight title defeating James “Lights Out” Toney at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV.
Jones won his first thirty-four fights before losing to Montell Griffin, on March 21st 1997 by DQ for the WBC Light heavyweight title, after hitting Griffin after knocking him down for the second time in the fight at the Taj Majal Hotel & Casino, in Atlantic City, NJ. Within five months on August 7th Jones got his revenge knocking out Griffin in 2:31 of the first round at the Foxwoods Resorts, in Mashantucket, CT. In winning the WBC Light Heavyweight title it was Jones third division he won world titles.
In Jones next fight in April of 1998 he knocked out former world champion Virgil “Quicksilver” Hill at the Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, MS. In March of 2003 he won the WBA World Heavyweight title defeating John Ruiz at the Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV.
Jones has won eleven of his last twelve fights and will be fighting for the 75th time in just short of twenty-nine years of boxing.