Roy Levesta Jones Jr. (born January 16, 1969) is an American former professional boxer that competed from 1989 to 2018, and again in 2023. He held multiple world championships in four weight classes, including middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight. As an amateur he represented the United States at the 1988 Summer Olympics, winning the light middleweight silver medal.
Jones is considered by many to be one of the greatest boxers of all time, pound for pound, and left his mark in the sport's history when he won the World Boxing Association (WBA) heavyweight title in 2003, becoming the first and only boxer to win the heavyweight title starting his career as a junior middleweight. This also made him the second of only two former middleweight champions to win a heavyweight title, 106 years after Bob Fitzsimmons accomplished that feat. He is also one of only two heavyweight champions to have begun his career below middleweight, the other being former welterweight Tommy Burns, who won the title 97 years prior, thus being the second-lightest boxer to eventually become heavyweight champion.
From 1999 to 2002, he held the undisputed championship at light heavyweight. As of June 2026, Jones holds the record for the most wins in unified light-heavyweight title bouts in boxing history, with twelve. He is the first fighter in CompuBox history to have his opponent not land a single punch for an entire round. The Ring magazine named him the Fighter of the Year in 1994 and the World Boxing Hall of Fame named him the Fighter of the Year in 2003. He is also a three-time winner of the Best Boxer ESPY Award (1996, 2000 and 2003). The Boxing Writers Association of America and The Sporting News named him as the Fighter of the Decade for the 1990s.
Roy Jones Jr. was born to a family with a boxing tradition. His father, Roy Jones Sr., was a Vietnam war veteran who was awarded a Bronze Star for valor after he rescued another soldier. Jones Sr. was a middleweight boxer as well.
Jones 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) division, and the 1987 United States National Golden Gloves in the 156 lb (71 kg) division. As an amateur, he ended his career with a 121–13 record.
Jones represented the United States at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games in the 156-pound weight class, being the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team, where he won the silver medal.
1/16: Defeated M'tendere Makalamba (Malawi) KO 1 (1:44)
1/8: Defeated Michal Franek (Czechoslovakia) by unanimous decision, 5–0 (Franek was given a standing eight count in the 1st rd; and at the 2:33 of the 2nd rd)
1/4: Defeated Yevgeni Zaytsev (Soviet Union) by unanimous decision, 5–0 (Zaytsev suffered a broken nose in the 1st rd)
1/2: Defeated Richie Woodhall (United Kingdom) by unanimous decision, 5–0 (Woodhall suffered a broken nose in the 2nd rd)
Finals: Lost to Park Si-hun (South Korea) by split decision, 2–3 (Park was given a standing eight count at 2:11 of the 2nd rd)
Jones did not lose a single round en route to the final. His quarterfinal match-up with Soviet boxer Yevgeni Zaytsev was the first U.S.–Soviet Olympic bout in 12 years (because each country had boycotted one Summer Olympics during that period). The final was met with controversy when Jones lost a 2–3 decision to South Korean fighter Park Si-Hun despite pummeling Park for three rounds, landing 86 punches to Park's 32. Reportedly, Park himself apologized to Jones afterward and the Italian referee Aldo Leoni, while raising Park's hand, told Jones that he was dumbstruck by the judges' decision, murmuring: "I can't believe they're doing this to you." One judge shortly thereafter admitted the decision was a mistake and all three judges voting against Jones were eventually suspended. Marv Albert, calling the bout on American television for NBC, reported that two judges from Communist countries, Hungary and the Soviet Union, scored the bout in favor of Jones, while those from Morocco and Uruguay favored Park. The fifth judge, from Uganda, scored the bout as a draw, leaving the outcome to be decided on other criteria.
An official IOC investigation ending in 1997 found that, although the offending judges had been wined and dined by South Korean organizers, there was no evidence of corruption in the boxing events in Seoul. Jones was awarded the Val Barker trophy as the best stylistic boxer of the 1988 games, which was only the third and to this day the last time in the competition's history when the award did not go to one of the gold medal winners. The Val Barker trophy is awarded by the AIBA, an organization not directly connected with the Olympic authorities. The incident led Olympic organizers to establish a new scoring system for Olympic boxing.
The U.S. Olympic Committee called for an investigation in 1996 after documents belonging to East Germany's Stasi secret police revealed reports of judges being paid to vote for South Korean boxers. East Germany ended the Seoul Olympics in second place on the medal table, ahead of the United States by one gold medal.
Jones and Park met face to face in May 2023, with the South Korean boxer giving his Olympic gold medal over to Jones as a gesture of justice over the controversy.
On turning professional, he had already sparred with many professional boxers, including NABF Champion Ronnie Essett, IBF Champion Lindell Holmes and 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, beating him by a knockout in round eight.
Jones built a record of 15–0 with 15 knockouts before stepping up in class to meet 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 KO, 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.
Jones made his first attempt at a world title on May 22, 1993. He beat future Undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins by unanimous decision in Washington, D.C., to capture the IBF middleweight championship. Jones was ahead on all three judges' scorecards (116-112 three times). Jones landed 206 of 594 punches (35%) and Hopkins connected on 153 of 670 (23%). Jones claimed he had entered the bout with a broken right hand, but still managed to outpoint Hopkins and secure a unanimous decision win. Jones reminded the world of this claim on his hit single "Ya'll Must've Forgot" later in his career.