As his career comes to a close this coming Thursday in Pensacola, Florida - former four division world champion Roy Jones Jr. reflected back on some of his key career moments.
Jones, 65-9 (47KOs) will take part in a cruiserweight bout against Scott Sigmon, 30-11-1 (16KOs). The contest is scheduled for ten rounds and is being carried by the UFC's streaming service, Fight Pass.
He views his coming out party as the contest with James Toney, which took place on Nov 18, 1994 for the IBF super middleweight title.
At the time, everyone expected a very close contest between two of the best boxers, pound-for-pound.
But many saw Toney as the favorite coming in, but Jones dominated the contest from bell to bell.
“I was already a world champion, but he was the boss. James Toney was The Man at that time, they were calling him the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and to be the man you have to beat The Man. I couldn’t just get a win, I had to dominate him and show the world that not only was he not the best pound-for-pound, but there was no-one else close to Roy Jones Junior," Jones said.
"And that’s what happened. I annihilated the man, dominated him. That was my coming-out party, I showed all my weapons in that fight, I showed everyone, no, hey, this is what the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world really looks like!”
And the second fight on Jones' personal career defining list is when he jumped from light heavyweight to heavyweight to challenge John Ruiz for the WBA world title on March 1, 2003.
“I wanted to be a world champion my whole life but I never once thought of the heavyweight title until it presented itself. This was something that God gave me, way and above more than I ever asked for or expected. It was the chance to make history, to do something nobody would dream of me doing," Jones said.
“This was history, the first fighter to jump from middleweight to win the heavyweight title in over 100 years. John Ruiz had no clue what he was dealing with or what he was facing. He found out the hard way.”
