Roy Sone

Next up for Jones was the undefeated 29 year old Anthony Hanshaw (24-0-1, 14 KOs), on July 14, 2007, at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi. Hanshaw was ranked 11th by the IBF at super middleweight. Hanshaw was knocked down in the 11th round. Jones won the bout by unanimous decision (114-113, 117-110, 118-109) to claim the vacant International Boxing Council light heavyweight title.

Jones took on Prince Badi Ajamu (25-2-1, 14 KOs) on July 29, 2006, at the Qwest Arena in Boise, Idaho. Jones defeated Ajamu by a unanimous decision (119-106, 3 times), winning the WBO NABO light heavyweight title. Ajamu won the first round on all three official scorecards, however it was the only round he won. Ajamu also lost two points for repeated low blows in round seven and one more in round eight.

On December 30, 2017 Jones announced that he would return to the Bay Center in Pensacola, Florida to headline the Island Fights 46 on February 8, 2018. Jones had previously headlined Island Fights, which is a show that included both boxing and MMA bouts. Speaking of the event, Jones said, "My last day at the Bay. It's my last one for the bayfront ... Civic Center, Pensacola, Bayfront Arena, whatever you want to call it. So if you want to come to see my last day in Pensacola, be there February 8. That's my last one there." He stated it would be his final fight. Jones announced Scott Sigmon (30-11-1, 16 KOs) as his opponent for the 10 round bout. Jones ended his boxing career defeating Sigmon via a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision, also winning the vacant World Boxing Union cruiserweight title in the process. All three judges scored the fight 98-92 in favour of Jones. Jones started off the better boxer landed upper cuts and hooks and remained in control throughout the fight. Jones landed an uppercut in round 5 which knocked Sigmon's mouthpiece out. In round 6, Sigmon began throwing more punches, although they were weak combinations easily blocked by Jones. Jones was also able to counter most of the shots Sigmon threw. After the fight, Jones stated he had fought with a bicep injury. He also called for a boxing match against 42-year-old former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. In the post-fight interview, he said, "I knew Scott was tough, I knew Scott was game and I knew Scott would keep coming. However, I don't make excuses, but last week I tore my biceps in my left arm again and I refused to pull out. Other than that [fight], chapter closed."

Roy Jones Jr. and Bernard Hopkins (50-5-1, 32 KOs) met in a rematch bout, on April 3, 2010 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, 17 years after their first fight. Jones entered with a record of 5-5 in his previous ten bouts dating back to May 2004 whilst Hopkins came in 4-1 since June 2006. After going the distance, Hopkins was awarded with a unanimous decision (118-109, 117-110 twice). Hopkins landed 184 of 526 punches (35%), while Jones connected on 82 of 274 (30%). Hopkins collapsed to his knees in his dressing room, drained from a brutal fight and exhausted by the end of his 17-year wait for revenge against Jones. The fight generated 150,000 pay-per-view buys.

Jones won the 1984 United States National Junior Olympics in the 119 lb (54 kg) weight division, the 1986 United States National Golden Gloves in the 139 lb (63 kg) division, and the 1987 United States National Golden Gloves in the 156 lb (71 kg) division. As an amateur, he ended his career with a 121–13 record.

Jones represented the United States at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, where he won the silver medal. He dominated his opponents, never losing a single round en route to the final. His participation in the final was met with controversy when he lost a 3–2 decision to South Korean fighter Park Si-Hun despite pummeling Park for three rounds, landing 86 punches to Park's 32. Allegedly, Park himself apologized to Jones afterward and the Referee told Jones that he was dumbstruck by the judges' decision. One judge shortly thereafter admitted the decision was a mistake and all three judges voting against Jones were eventually suspended. Marv Albert, calling the bout on American television for NBC, reported judges from Hungary and the Soviet Union scored the bout in favor of Jones, while those from Morocco and Uruguay favored Park. The fifth judge, from Uganda, scored the bout as a draw, leaving the outcome to be decided on other criteria.

On turning professional, he had already sparred with many professional boxers, including NABF Champion Ronnie Essett, IBF Champion Lindell Holmes and Sugar Ray Leonard. Jones began as a professional on May 6, 1989, knocking out Ricky Randall in two rounds in Pensacola at the Bayfront Auditorium. For his next fight, he faced the more experienced Stephan Johnson in Atlantic City, beating him by a knockout in round eight.

Jones built a record of 15–0 with 15 knockouts before stepping up in class to meet former World Welterweight Champion Jorge Vaca in a Pay Per View fight on January 10, 1992. He knocked Vaca out in round one to reach 16 knockout wins in a row. After one more KO, Jones went the distance for the first time against Future world champion Jorge Castro, winning a 10-round decision in front of a USA Network national audience.

Jones made his first attempt at a world title on May 22, 1993. He beat Future Undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins by unanimous decision in Washington, D.C. to capture the IBF middleweight championship. Jones was ahead on all three judges scorecards (116-112 three times). Jones landed 206 of 594 punches (35%) and Hopkins connected on 153 of 670 (23%). Jones claimed he had entered the bout with a broken right hand, but still managed to outpoint Hopkins and secure a unanimous decision win. Jones reminded the world of this claim on his hit single "Ya'll Must've Forgot" later in his career.

On November 18, 1994, Jones was set to face undefeated IBF super middleweight Champion James Toney, who was ranked highly in the "pound for pound" rankings. Toney was undefeated after 46 bouts and was rated the best in the world at 168 lbs. Billed as "The Uncivil War", Toney vs. Jones was heavily hyped and on PPV. Jones, for the first time in his career, was the underdog.

In 1995, Jones defended his super middleweight title successfully multiple times. He began the year by knocking out IBF #1 Antoine Byrd in round one. This was the first time a championship fight took place at Pensacola. In a fight billed as 'The Devil & Mr Jones', he faced former IBF lightweight Champion Vinny Pazienza and defeated him in round six, after knocking down Pazienza three times. In the fourth round, Jones became the first fighter in CombuBox history to go an entire round without being hit by his opponent. Pazienza was credited with throwing five punches and landing zero. Pazienza was guaranteed $1.35 million, while Jones, who worked off percentages of the gate and the pay-per-view revenue, was guaranteed at least $2 million. Jones then beat Tony Thornton in round two by KO three months later.

In 1996, High Frequency Boxing's John DiMaio wrote "The early evidence points toward the real possibility that Jones is the greatest talent this sport has ever seen. His skill so dwarfs that of his nearest ranked opposition...that providing competitive opponents is a more challenging dilemma than the fights themselves." The expert opinion of Boxing magazine's Editor, Bert Sugar, is provided on Jones' website: "He possesses the fastest hands in boxing with lightning fast moves and explosive power in both hands." After Mike MacCallum lost the World Boxing Council light heavyweight crown to Roy Jones in a 1996 unanimous decision, he called Jones "the greatest fighter of all time.".

In 1997 Jones had his first professional loss, a disqualification against Montell Griffin (26-0, 18 KOs) at the Taj Majal Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Griffin was trained by the legendary Eddie Futch, who had taught him how to take advantage of Jones technical mistakes and lack of basic boxing fundamentals. Griffin jumped out to an early lead on Jones but by round 9 Jones was ahead on the scorecards by a point and had Griffin on the canvas early in round nine. But as Griffin took a knee on the canvas to avoid further punishment, Jones hit him twice. Subsequently, Jones was disqualified and lost his title. At the time of disqualification, Jones was ahead on two of the judges scorecards (75-76, 77-75, 76-75).

In 1998, Jones began by knocking out former light heavyweight and Future cruiserweight champion Virgil Hill in four rounds with a huge right hand to the body that broke one of Hill's ribs. Jones followed that with a win against WBA light heavyweight champion Lou Del Valle, by a decision in 12 on July 18, to unify the WBC and WBA belts. Jones had to climb off the canvas for the first time in his career, as he was dropped in round eight, but continued to outbox Del Valle throughout the rest of the fight and gained a unanimous decision. Jones then followed with a defense against Otis Grant. He retained the crown by knocking Grant out in ten rounds.

Jones began 1999 by knocking out the WBC number one ranked contender at the time, Rick Frazier. On June 5 of that year, Jones beat IBF champion Reggie Johnson by a lopsided 12-round decision to become the undisputed light heavyweight champion, as well as the first to unify the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles at that weight since Michael Spinks in 1983. Jones dropped Johnson hard in the second round, but backed off and allowed Reggie to finish the fight.

The year 2000 began with Jones easily beating the hard-punching David Telesco via a 12-round decision on January 15, at Radio City Music Hall to retain his titles. Jones reportedly fractured his wrist a few weeks before this fight and fought almost exclusively one-handed. He entered the ring surrounded by the famous group of Dancers, The Rockettes. His next fight was also a first time boxing event for a venue, as he traveled to Indianapolis and retained his title with an 11-round technical knockout over Richard Hall at the Conseco Fieldhouse. A post fight drug test showed that both Jones and Hall tested positive for androstenedione which was available legally over the counter at that time but banned by the IBF. The results of Jones' next two drug tests, which were negative, were sent to the Indiana Boxing Commission. The IBF chose not to take any action against Jones or Hall. Jones ended the year with a 10-round stoppage of undefeated Eric Harding in New Orleans.

Jones started his rap music career in 2001 with his album, titled Round One: The Album and the debut single, "Y'All Must've Forgot". In 2004, Jones formed a group – Body Head Bangerz and released an album. The album, Body Head Bangerz: Volume One, featured B.G., Juvenile, Bun B of UGK, Petey Pablo, Lil' Flip and Mike Jones among others.

In 2002, Jones retained his title by knocking out Australian boxer Glen Kelly in seven rounds via knockout. Jones put both hands behind his back. As Kelly moved in behind a jab, Jones went over the jab with a right to the head. Kelly went down and was counted out. Jones landed 124 of 249 punches (50%) and Kelly connected on 42 of 171 (25%). Before this bout, Jones was controversially awarded The Ring Championship belt, despite Dariusz Michalczewski still being regarded as the Lineal champion in the same weight class.

Jones chose to return to the light heavyweight division and on November 8, 2003 he defeated Antonio Tarver to retain The Ring Light Heavyweight Championship and win Tarver's WBC title, as well as the vacant WBA (Super) title. Jones appeared a lot weaker after coming back down to the light heavyweight division, losing the muscle he gained for the heavyweight fight seemed to have taken a toll on his aging body and his cat-like reflexes appeared diminished. Jones won by majority decision, the judges giving him 117–111,116–112 and 114–114.

On September 25, 2004, Jones attempted to win the IBF light heavyweight title from Glen Johnson in a match in Memphis, Tennessee. Johnson knocked out Jones 49 seconds into the ninth round. Jones lay on the canvas for three minutes after being counted out. Johnson was ahead on all three judges' scorecards at the time of the knockout (77–75, 77–75, 78–74) and had landed 118 punches to Jones's 75. Jones used the ring's canvas that night as a billboard for his upcoming rap CD, which came out November 1.

After the loss in the third Tarver bout, Jones resumed his duties as a commentator for HBO World Championship Boxing, calling the Floyd Mayweather Jr.–Sharmba Mitchell fight on November 19, 2005 and the Jermain Taylor–Bernard Hopkins rematch on December 3, 2005. His return to the network was short lived, as Jones was let go from his ringside analyst role in January 2006. HBO cited his reported lack of commitment to attending the network's production meetings.

After Joe Calzaghe's split from promoter Frank Warren, it was officially announced that Roy Jones Jr. and Joe Calzaghe had reached an agreement to fight for The Ring Light Heavyweight Championship in New York City at Madison Square Garden on September 20, 2008 on HBO PPV. However, Calzaghe claimed injury to his right hand in training, so the fight had to be postponed a couple of weeks, with November 8 being set as the new date.

In December 2009, Roy Jones was set to face Australian boxer Danny Green in Sydney, Australia. In the weeks leading up to this fight, there were reports in the newspapers indicating difficulties getting Roy's sparring partners into Australia. Then on December 2, 2009, following an extensive pre-fight delay due to hand wrap protests, Danny Green defeated Jones via first-round TKO. Jones was initially gracious in his humbling defeat, stating that "We don't make excuses, it was a great performance by Danny." However, less than a month later, Jones would launch a formal complaint, accusing Green of using illegal hand wraps and demanding his loss be overturned, though the decision was upheld. Though Jones' rematch with Hopkins looked to be in trouble following Jones' loss, the two sides would officially come to an agreement in February 2010 for an April 3 bout.

In the first round, Jones caught Calzaghe with an uppercut and knocked him down, as well as cutting the Welshman on the bridge of the nose. However, Jones failed to capitalize on the knock down. In the 2nd round Calzaghe began to control the action and dominated Jones throughout the remainder of the fight. As the fight progressed Jones absorbed more and more punishment and suffered a cut over his left eye. Jones' corner, who had never seen Roy cut before, didn't know how to properly handle the situation and blood covered the left side of his face. Ultimately, Jones lost by unanimous decision, winning only one round (10-8 in the first) on the 3 official judges cards. There was a crowd of 14,152. The fight generated 225,000 pay-per-view buys.

Jones won a 10-round unanimous decision against Max Alexander on December 10, 2011, in Atlanta, snapping a three-match losing streak, and winning the Universal Boxing Organisation (UBO) Intercontinental cruiserweight championship. The three judges scored the bout all in Jones' favour (100-90, 100-90 & 99-91). Jones rarely pressed over the first seven rounds, but put together several combinations in the eighth and 10th rounds to beat Alexander. After the fight, Jones said, "I'm feeling wonderful. I want a cruiserweight title, the world title", said Jones, who weighed in at 189 pounds. "This is just a start. I'm not through yet." The fight was aired live on Internet PPV channel Ustream for $9.99.

After an evenly matched 3 rounds, the 4th round started more in Maccarinelli's favour. Halfway through the round, Maccarinelli dropped Jones with an uppercut. Jones beat the count and carried on for 10–12 seconds more with his gloves to his face, eating several more uppercuts. Against the ropes, he then absorbed a huge right hook which caused him to stiffen and fall face down on the canvas. Referee Ingo Barrabas waved off the fight in what was Jones' 9th career defeat, the 5th by KO.

But his father's violence paid him well—after some quick successes initially in his career including 1984 United States National Junior Olympics victory—Jones' hard work started paying him off. He not only gained fame, but wealth—according to a research, Jones' assets exceeded the amount of $45 million US dollars as of 2012.

On August 19, 2015, Roy Jones met with Vladimir Putin in Sevastopol, Crimea, to ask for a dual Russian-American citizenship. He explained that he often visits Russia for Business activity, and a passport would avoid inconvenient rides. Jones was granted Russian citizenship on September 12. For this he was banned from entering Ukraine. Crimea is since March 2014 under dispute by Russia and Ukraine.

On December 2, 2016, David Feldman Promotions confirmed a fight between Jones and undefeated bare-knuckle fighter and former world title challenger Bobby Gunn would be announced for February 17, 2017 for the vacant WBF Cruiserweight championship at a press conference on December 6 at the Chase Center in Delaware. At the time of announcement, Gunn was a former IBA cruiserweight champion and bare-knuckle heavyweight champion, with a record of 72-0 with 72 knockouts. The fight was made official at the press conference on December 7. Jones spoke of his long-awaited Desire to fight Gunn, "I always do things that people don't expect me to do. I promised Bobby a long time ago that I would give him the opportunity, and I am a man of my word. Come February 17th, I am going to shock the world again." At the official weigh-in Jones came in 199 pounds and Gunn weighed in lighter at 197.4 pounds. In a slow-paced fight, Jones stopped Gunn in the beginning of the 8th round, before Gunn had even left his corner, to win the vacant World Boxing Foundation cruiserweight title. Gunn injured his nose and was out boxed by Jones throughout seven rounds. In the post fight, Jones and Gunn both embraced.

Jones spoke about his Desire to continue his boxing career further, “Anything is possible, I’m not going to make an immediate decision. Why would I stop when I looked that good though?... I want a shot at a cruiserweight title ... I do intend on fighting and we’ll see what happens in the Future. I looked good." Jones later told On The Ropes Boxing Radio, "Yeah I think it’s my last year in boxing, and I tell people all the time." Hinting he may retire at the end of 2017. On December 3, 2017 after Miguel Cotto's farewell fight re-iterated his Desire to continue boxing.

Jones, fighting at the Ķīpsala International Exhibition Centre in Latvia, defeated Courtney Fry (18-5-0) via RTD in the 5th round on July 26, 2014. Jones was ahead on all three judges scorecards by the end of the fourth round, (50-44, 50-44 & 50-45). On September 26, 2014, Jones defeated Hany Atiyo via 1st-round KO after 75 seconds. This fight took place in front of a sold out crowd at The Basket Hall in Krasnodar, Russia. This was a second straight stoppage and fifth consecutive victory for Jones. Jones' next bout, for the first time 4 years, took place in USA at the Cabarrus Arena in Concord, North Carolina and ultimately saw him defeat Willy Williams via 2nd-round TKO. Near the end of the same month on March 28, Jones was again back in the ring, this time against Paul Vasquez (10-6-1, 3 KOs), defeating him via 1st-round TKO for the WBU (German Version) cruiserweight title at the Pensacola Bay Center in Florida. On August 16, 2015, Jones scored his 62nd professional victory and 45th knockout win by defeating Eric Watkins via 6th-round KO.