Mike Jones

This article is taken straight from My Helium piece on Mike.

When boxing fans think of the current welterweight division, the first names to spring to mind are Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, though with both these two in their 30's, same as Shane Mosley, it's likely that a new wave will start to emerge. The first of this “new wave” is Andre Berto, closely followed by the likes of Saul Alvarez and Selcuk Aydin, though a name that seems to generally over looked is unbeaten 27 year old Mike Jones.

Jones, a solid amateur who amassed a 60-6 record in the unpaid ranks has followed in the footsteps of many other fighters from his home city and is trying to add his name to the illustrious list of boxing legends of Philly. Having made his professional debut in 2005 Jones has seen himself climbing up the world rankings, taking step after step in the direction of a world title fight that he seems to be on the verge of deserving. With his career in the hands of Peltz Boxing they seem to be guiding him to the top and leaving their doors open on the way up there for the likeable and tall powerful fighter.

In his debut at the age of 22, Jones took out Jason Thompson in the 2nd round, the first of 12 straight stoppage wins to open his career, with only one of those opponents getting beyond 3 rounds with Jones. By then he was slowly gaining ground as one to watch, though he was making light work of relatively poor opponents and it was a matter of time before he was to be matched against a solid opponent. The first man to force Jones to hear the final bell was Germaine Sanders, in a fight that Jones won over 8 rounds, though some questioned his stamina and skill he managed to win it by 4 points on all 3 cards. His following fight also went the distance as he posted a shut out over Gilbert Venegas, since then though Jones has been tested over and over passing every test so far.

Having picked up both the WBO NABO and the NABA welterweight titles he has acquired high ratings with the WBO (where he is #3) and the WBA (also #3) as well as the IBF and WBC (#7 with both). Though it's not just the fact he has those two belts which is interesting but also the opponents he has been facing in recent times, which have included Raul Pinzon, Henry Bruseles (who had been unbeaten since a 2005 loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr) and most recently Hector Munoz to help him compile a 21-0 record with 17KO's.

Now preparing for his 22nd fight in which he is to face Irving Garcia, a man who challenged for the WBA Interim Welterweight title in 2008.A comprehensive win over the 17-4-3 Garcia will hopefully help keep Jones amongst the top ranked fighters, even if he is unlikely to get a world title fight for quite some while.

Sources:
Boxrec.com
peltzboxing.com



Mike fights this coming Friday folks :-)