Roy Levesta Jones Jr. is an American professional boxer who holds dual American and Russian citizenship. He has held multiple world championships in four weight classes, including titles at middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight, and is the only boxer in history to start his professional career at light middleweight and go on to win a heavyweight title. As an amateur boxer he represented the United States at the 1988 Summer Olympics, winning a light middleweight silver medal after one of the most controversial decisions in boxing history.
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 WBA heavyweight title in 2003, becoming the first former middleweight champion to win a heavyweight title in 106 years. In 1999 he became the undisputed light heavyweight champion by unifying the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles. During his prime, Jones was known for possessing exceptional hand speed, athleticism, footwork, explosiveness, punching power, movement and reflexes.
As of February 2018, Jones holds the record for the most wins in unified light heavyweight title bouts in boxing history, at twelve. He is ranked by BoxRec as the 29th greatest pound-for-pound fighter of all time. The Ring magazine named Jones the Fighter of the Year in 1994, and the World Boxing Hall of Fame named him the Fighter of the Year for 2003. He is also a three-time winner of the Best Boxer ESPY Award (1996, 2000, and 2003). The Boxing Writers Association of America named him as the Fighter of the Decade for the 1990s.
Jones currently has the longest professional career of any heavyweight boxing champion, having boxed for over 33 years since 1989 (12,384 days). This record was held previously by Jack Johnson, who also boxed for 33 years between 1897 until 1931 (12,231 days).
