Reggie Jones (boxer)

Reggie Jones
Jones in 1972
Born1951 (age 72–73)
Newark, New Jersey, U.S.[1]
Statistics
Weight(s)Middleweight
Height174 cm (5 ft 9 in)
Boxing record
Total fights26
Wins16
Wins by KO8
Losses9
Draws1
Medal record
Representing  United States
Pan American Games
Bronze medal – third place Cali 1971 -71 kg

Reginald Dennis "Reggie" Jones (born 1951) is a retired boxer from the United States, who represented his native country at the 1972 Summer Olympics. There he was controversially eliminated in the second round of the light middleweight division (– 71 kg) by Valeri Tregubov of the Soviet Union in a fight he was generally accepted to have won.[2]

Born in Savannah, Georgia, Jones moved to Newark as a child, attending the public schools and graduating from Weequahic High School in 1969, where he played basketball and football, as well as running on the school's track team.[3]

Jones took up boxing at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba while serving in the U.S. Navy. He won a bronze medal at the 1971 Pan American Games, two Marines and Interservice titles, and two North Carolina AAU titles. He turned professional after the 1972 Olympics, and became the New Jersey State Middleweight Champion when he beat Bobby Patterson over 12 rounds. He would hold that title for the next two years, before he lost to fellow 2010 Inductee Rusty Rosenberger.[1] After retiring from boxing he settled in Summit, New Jersey, to become a social worker with the Essex County Division of Welfare and then for 31 years with the New Jersey Division of Youth & Family Services, until his retirement in February 2016.[4]

  1. ^ a b Reggie Jones. sports-reference.com
  2. ^ "Schande! Schande! Schande!". TIME. September 11, 1972. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
  3. ^ Reggie Jones, New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame. Accessed November 23, 2017. "Reggie was born in Savanna [sic], Georgia. He came to Newark at the age of 9. He attended Avon Elementary School and Clinton Place Junior High. He is also a 1969 graduate of Weequahic High School."
  4. ^ Carter, Barry. "Former Olympic fighter sees gold in young Newark boxer's future", The Star-Ledger, August 16, 2016. Accessed November 23, 2017. "But Jones, a then-21-year-old Marine lance corporal, did everything right against Valeri Tregubov in their light-middleweight bout.He was in shape. He was aggressive. He cut off the ring, demonstrating how he did it before we watched the Stevenson fight at his home in Summit."