Junior Jones

Professional career

Jones made his professional debut on June 8, 1989, scoring a first-round technical knockout against George Young. He won his first 32 professional boxing matches. Jones defeated Jorge Eliécer Julio to win the WBA bantamweight title on October 23, 1993. Jones made one successful defense, but lost his title after being stopped in eleven rounds by John Michael Johnson on April 22, 1994; Jones had previously defeated Johnson by unanimous decision (UD) on August 10, 1989.

More than two years later, on November 22, 1996, Jones scored his most significant victory by handing then-undefeated Mexican boxer Marco Antonio Barrera his first loss to win the WBO super bantamweight title, thus becoming a two-weight world champion. A controversy arose at the end of their fight when Barrera's cornermen entered the ring after he had been knocked down in the fifth round. This forced the referee to disqualify Barrera rather than award a TKO to Jones. On April 18, 1997, Jones won a close UD in their rematch to defend his title.

On December 19, 1997, Jones lost the title after being stopped in four rounds by 1988 Olympic gold medalist Kennedy McKinney. In his next fight, on September 12, 1998, Jones was again stopped in the fourth round, this time by WBC super bantamweight champion Érik Morales. On April 10, 1999, Jones won the vacant IBO featherweight title with a late stoppage of Richard Evatt in the eleventh round. In his first defense, on April 29, 2000, he lost the title to IBF featherweight champion Paul Ingle in an eleventh-round stoppage. Jones won three matches in a row, before losing his final boxing match to Ivan Alvarez in 2002.

Professional boxing record