Roy Jones Jr.

High school

Washington High School

Hall of Fame

⭐ International Boxing Hall of Fame

Roy Levesta Jones Jr. was born on January 16, 1969, in Pensacola, Florida, and attended Washington High School before entering the 1988 Seoul Olympics as a member of the U.S. amateur boxing team. At those Games he delivered what many observers believe was the finest boxing performance of any American amateur in Olympic history — dominating the South Korean fighter Park Si-hun so thoroughly over three rounds that the fight was not competitive — only to be robbed of the gold medal in one of the most notorious judging controversies in Olympic history. Three of the five judges awarded the bout to Park, despite the fact that Jones had landed 86 punches to Park's 32 in the final round alone. The scandal led to a reform of Olympic boxing scoring. Jones channeled that injustice into a professional career of almost unprecedented excellence: at his peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he was the most dominant pound-for-pound fighter in the world, holding world titles simultaneously at middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight, and even capturing the WBA heavyweight title in 2003 at a natural weight of 193 pounds — the first light heavyweight champion to move up and win the heavyweight title in 106 years. His hand speed, footwork, and reflexes were considered by many contemporaries to be the finest combination of physical gifts ever assembled in a professional boxer. He finished with a professional record of 66-9, with 47 knockouts. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2021. Born and raised in Pensacola, Florida.