Mike Jones Continues Rising
By Jared Shelly
Swagger is an attribute that boxers can’t train for. Either you’ve had it since you were young or you developed it by beating opponent after opponent. However Mike Jones got his, he showed it Aug. 29 at the New Alhambra in
Jones made his presence known from the moment he emerged from the dressing room to the eerie and electrifying Phil Collins tune “In the Air Tonight,” wearing a white baseball cap, backward sunglasses and appearing in incredible shape. Swagger.
The 15-0 welterweight from North Philadelphia took on Brazilian Juliano Ramos (15-1) for the NABA welterweight title, and after taking a measured approach to round one, came out landing fierce combinations to start round two.
“I opened him up with a body shot on his left side,” said the 25-year-old Jones after the fight, noting that he tried to pick on the weakness early in the fight.
While Ramos, 28, showed a good chin and landed a few clean right hands, the speed of Jones’ crisp punches began to show a separation in talent. With Jones’ superior skills, it appeared that if—or when—Jones let his hands go free, he could do serious damage.
In round four, it was all Jones who pinned his opponent against the ropes by firing away combination after combination. Ramos looked close to falling, but bell run ending the round.
Jones proceeded with a bit more caution in the fifth, but in the following round, started the barrage with more time left on the clock, and it got to the point where Ramos couldn’t defend the onslaught of punches, forcing referee Steve Smoger to stop the fight.
“I knew I had him hurt, but I didn’t know how hurt he was,” recalls Jones, as a trainer cuts the tape off of his hands. “That’s why I backed off him the first time.”
With his black and gold belt glistening on his waist in the locker room after the fight, Jones said that it is his first belt ever—amateur or professional.
“I’m going to be looking at it all night,” said Jones.
Jones threw his right hand sparingly in the bout, perhaps being cautious since he hurt it in his last fight, held in May against Gilbert Venegas. It was subtle, but in the third round, Jones looked down at his right hand. When asked later if it was hurt during the fight, he said he was at full strength.
“My hands feel great,” he said. “I should have thrown [my right hand] a little more, maybe it would have been a faster fight.”
The knockout was Jones’ 13th in 15 fights and ends a streak of two fights (against Venegas and Germaine Sanders) where Jones won by decision, perhaps silencing critics who wondered if he had lost his knockout power or had the punching strength to tangle with the best in the division. The two decisions and his most current knockout win—his first fight scheduled for 10 rounds—also gave him much needed ring experience. While he only fought 20 rounds in his first 10 fights, he now has 46 under his belt.
Just weeks earlier, promoters J. Russell Peltz, Joe Hand Sr. and Joe Hand Jr. asked fans for suggestions on a nickname, and finally chose “The Messiah.”
While Jones said that he refers to Peltz for decisions on his future, he knows that he wants to keep on climbing in the welterweight division.
“I want to be known all around the world,” he said. “This was a stepping stone.”