Jones, Colin (boxer)

Colin Jones was born March 21, 1959 in the town of Gorseynon , Swansea County, Wales . He began to actively engage in boxing from early childhood, was trained at the Penirheol boxing club.

Amateur career

In 1976, at the age of seventeen, he won the championship of England among the welterweight champion and, thanks to a series of successful performances, won the right to defend the country's honor at the Montreal Summer Olympics - he became the youngest British boxer to ever compete at the Olympics (his record was beaten only in 2004 by Amir Khan , who turned out to be several months younger). However, he did not perform very well at the Games, he only won against the Irishman Kristi Maklokhlina , while in the second match he was defeated by the representative of Romania Viktor Zilberman , who became a bronze medalist. Also this season he took part in a match meeting with the England team, losing to the Englishman Paul Kelly.

After the Montreal Olympics, Jones for some time remained in the main part of the Welsh national team and continued to take part in major international tournaments. So, in 1977 he again became the boxing champion of the country and visited the European Championships in Halle , where he was stopped at the preliminary stage by Yugoslav Zdravko Basich ^[1] .

Professional career

Leaving the national team, in October 1977, Colin Jones successfully debuted on a professional level. Over the next three years, he won sixteen victories, without having suffered a single defeat, including winning and defending the British welterweight title. He also won and defended the vacant Commonwealth Champion title. He quickly gained a reputation as one of the strongest punchers of his generation, since most of his fights ended with knockouts.

First lost in September 1981 to a little-known boxer Curtis Ramsey - in the third round he was disqualified for hitting a fallen opponent.

In November 1982, in a duel with Danes Hans Henrik Palm, he won the European Boxing Union (EBU) champion title.

With 24 victories and only one defeat on his track record, in 1983 Jones won the right to challenge the vacant world boxing council (WBC) welterweight title. The champion fight took place in the USA, the undefeated American Milton McCrory became his rival - the boxers spent all twelve rounds in the ring, but could not identify the winner - as a result, the judges recorded a draw and the belt remained vacant. A few months later in Las Vegas, a second battle took place between them - it also lasted all the allotted time, but this time the judges gave McCrory a separate victory. Despite the defeat, according to the results of this confrontation, BBC journalists recognized Jones as the best athlete in Wales this year ^[2] .

Subsequently, Colin Jones won two victories and in early 1985 received another chance to become the world champion - the unbeaten American Donald Curry came to him to Great Britain, who owned the titles of the World Boxing Association (WBA) and the International Boxing Federation (IBF). The fight between them was stopped in the fourth round due to the fact that Jones opened a strong dissection on the bridge of his nose, and he was counted as a technical knockout. Shortly after this fight, he decided to end his career as a professional boxer.

Further Life

After completing his sports career, Jones took up coaching activities, in particular, he played the role of assistant coach of the national team of Wales, Tony Williams at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

He also worked as a commentator on Welsh television, and was repeatedly invited to conduct boxing broadcasts as an expert.

• Colin Jones - Olympic stats on Sports-Reference.com
• Colin Jones - professional boxing statistics for BoxRec