One of the all-time injustices of Olympic boxing has, at least symbolically, been corrected.
In a meeting that was 35 years in the making, Roy Jones Jnr and Park Si-Hun met face to face in May 2023, with the South Korean boxer handing his Olympic gold medal over to Jones. The two met in the light middleweight gold medal match of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea. Jones dominated the fight, outlanding his opponent by nearly triple, but losing a 3-2 decision that has been decried as perhaps the worst in Olympic boxing history. Park, for his part, acknowledged Jones’ dominance in the fight afterwards, lifting up a dejected Jones in the ring.
Two of the judges who scored the fight for Park were banned from judging Olympic boxing, and the scoring system was changed in an attempt to prevent future controversies.
Now, Jones says he is considering working on a documentary that touches on, in part, the Olympic controversy and how he overcame that to become a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest boxers of the 1990s.
According to a release that was issued Wednesday, Park traveled to Jones’ ranch in Pensacola, Florida on May 30, 2023 for a surprise visit with his former rival. Park, who had dealt with depression and had attempted suicide in the years after his Olympic gold win, handed over the medal to Jones, and held up his hand as the rightful winner.
“I had the gold medal, but I wanted to give it back to you. It belongs to you,” said Park, now 59, who was translated by his son. "This gold medal is your problem now.”
Jones, 56, didn’t let the disappointment from Seoul slow him down, winning world titles at middleweight, super middleweight and heavyweight, while cleaning out the light heavyweight division in dominant fashion. Jones’ last official fight was in 2023.
Prior to the Olympics, Park had been a respected amateur, winning gold at the 1985 and 1987 Asian Championships. He never turned professional, and instead became a gym teacher.
