Prospect Spotlight - Mike Jones Doing Some Heavy Lifting By Steve Kim (Jan 9, 2008) Send this page to friend Give us your feedback Before he hits Philadelphia’s Joe Hand Boxing Gym in the afternoon, welterweight prospect Mike Jones does some heavy lifting in the morning at the nearby Home Depot. “I drive a forklift," says Jones, who works five days a week from five in the morning till noon. "That's a part-time gig," he points out. His full-time profession is boxing and Jones is a hard-hitting young slugger who sports a record of 12-0 with 12 knockouts. "I would say I'm a very smart boxer, I use my head a lot. I really don't depend on no power," he says of himself. "I don't depend on speed, I really try to figure a guy out and that's how I go about knocking somebody out." But his record contradicts his statement, and that's the precise reason why his promoter, Russell Peltz, is so exited about him. "He can punch," says Peltz, who believes he has a blue-chip prospect on his hands. "That's what you need today to sell tickets nine out of ten times. He's got quiet confidence, he's got good size, he looks like a young Tommy Hearns. I like him." That’s a bold statement coming from Peltz, who's from the old-school. He's not prone to overstatement or hyperbole. A born skeptic (or at least it seems that way), it takes a lot to impress this veteran promoter. He's seen too many touted young fighters turn out to be pretenders. But when it comes to Jones, he seems genuinely excited. “A friend of mine, Doc Nowicki, who managed Miguel Figueroa, called me one day and said he signed these two young welterweights. One was Kassim Wilson, a left-hander who was a pretty good boxer. And the other was Mike Jones, who they say can punch. So he said, 'Let's see what they got.' I didn't know, so I put Mike Jones in his pro debut with Jason Thompson, who was the New York Golden Gloves champion the year before and who was 1-0 as a pro, because I wanted to find out right away what we had and he knocked Thompson out in the second round. And a lot of people in New York City were shocked. And I said, 'I must have something here." His manager is equally as effusive when it comes to their prospect. "Mike Jones is the whole package," Nowicki says. "First of all, he's a natural when it comes to boxing. He doesn't have to be taught a lot of things in the gym. Yeah, there's some fine-tuning, but everything he seems to do naturally. He throws his punches correctly, he doesn't throw wild, he has perfect balance, he doesn't rush a lot of things. He listens to his trainer totally, and he believes in him. They have a great bond." By 'whole package', Nowicki points to the fact that in addition to his job, Jones - who he describes as a "terrific kid" - lives at home with his future wife and two kids and has a stable life. "He doesn't hang on the corners, he doesn't hang with bad people. You won’t hear a curse word out of his mouth. He's just genuinely a nice person. And another thing, you have to throw him out of the gym. The kid loves to train," Nowicki says. Jones, who is 24, has a regimented day, devoid of the down time that plagues many other young fighters. After waking up in the early hours to get to his shift, he then goes to do his daily running at the track in the early afternoon before going home to feed his kids, take a nap, then head out to the gym before coming back home for dinner and hitting the sack by ten. "I'm a stay-at-home type of guy, anyway," he says of his hectic schedule. “I've always been like that, like a real loner. I don't have too many friends. I like chillin' with my family and closet friends." Having a job hasn't made him any more focused on the bigger picture. "Not really," claims Jones, "my mind is pretty much set on being disciplined and always has been." Jones says he participated in all the regular sports as a kid, but was attracted to boxing because of his physical nature. The first gym he ever stepped into was Joe Frazier's. He has only vague memories of his first sparring session. "First time I boxed? Let me see... I know it wasn't good. I know I got my behind tore up," he says with a laugh. But he's come a long way since. Those who have seen him, like Teddy Atlas, ESPN2's color commentator, have come away impressed. “So far, so good, there's nothing but good when you look at him. In every area, if he was a baseball player you'd say he's a five-skill player. First of all, he's got size, he's got really good physical attributes and pure physical size. He's really big for a welterweight and he's got reach, he's got height, he's strong. He's got good skills. I mean, physically, it's there. "He knows how to fight, he's technically got a real good base, he knows what he's doing in the ring. He looks like he can fight outside, looks like he can fight inside when he has to. He looks like he has an appetite to do either one of those. He looks like when he's been tested with pressure he doesn't disappear, so far. “He hasn't been in there with trash, either. So he's been in there with a couple guys where going into the fight, the people weren't sure how it was going to come out. They weren't sure they could just send this one in. There was some thinking as to, 'Hey, how's he going to come through this fight? How difficult is it going to be? What will we see tonight?' And what they saw was nothing but good things. In the early part of his career you've seen him with enough different guys and enough guys with some ability where you can feel really, really good about the future of this fighter. As a matter of fact, he's the kind of guy that I want to see. I want to see how good he is. I want to see how he develops, I want to see where he can go. He's got an excitement to him because he's got ability." The caveat in all that praise is 'so far'. Like many other fledgling prizefighters, he has been judiciously matched and carefully maneuvered. 2008 is the year where they start to step Jones up and give him the much-needed seasoning all prospects need. Peltz says the gameplan for this upcoming year is to, "Try and keep him busy in eight-rounders as long as possible for the experience because he's only boxed less than 24 rounds in 12 fights and the longest he's gone was five rounds and everything else was three or less. So I want to see if I can get him experience. The problem is he's better than a certain level of fighter right now." But Jones isn't worried about the lack of rounds he's put in thus far. "I feel very comfortable, reason why is because I work so hard in the gym and out of the gym," says Jones, who is trained by Vaughn Jackson. He says the first thing he does every morning as he wakes up is shadowbox. "I try to dedicate myself all day to training, not just in the gym." As of now, Jones is a bit of a secret, as he hasn't been televised, but Peltz says there is no rush to get him on the tube. "I had some inquiries from promoters who were running fights on ShoBox, but when you think you have the real thing you want to do it the right way," he says. "I didn't want him to be rushed. That's one of the reasons that we've been giving him experience out of town. He's fought in Spokane, he's fought in Vegas, he's fought in Niagara Falls. I think that's important also." Nowicki says that Jones, who's nursing a bit of a hand ailment, could be headlining an ESPN2 Friday Night Fights show in late March. They plan to keep Jones busy this year once he's up and running, with or without TV, at the New Alhambra in Philadelphia, where Peltz says he has six shows planned for '08. And he could be what 'the City of Brotherly Love' hasn't had in a while - a legitimate ticket seller. "I think if he's the real thing, he will help bring the crowds back in Philly," Peltz states. Unlike a Kassim Ouma, whom Peltz developed and then signed a co-promotional pact with Golden Boy Promotions to grease the skids to get televised, he'll do no such thing with Jones. When you think you have the Hope Diamond or the next 'Hitman' you don't share. "I think if his chin holds up, if he can take a punch, I think he's going to be world champion because offensively it doesn't get any better," says Peltz. "I mean, he's not perfect but he's got a killer instinct, he's a good finisher and he's got power and size. I hate to get that excited, I really do because I've been disappointed so many times, but I've spent some time with him, he thinks he can beat anybody in the world but he's not a bragger. I just like him, I like his power, I like his size." Jones believes he's not that far away. "I feel I'm very close, I could be about two, three fights away. It just depends on who they put me in there with." And he feels he won’t be an unknown for long. "By the end of this year I feel like I should be known nationwide. Everybody should know me," he states with confidence. And with that, his days of moonlighting could be coming to an end. "When I'm comfortable money-wise," he says, "I'll be able to leave that game and really box, 24 hours a day." For Questions or Comments E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com Today's Boxing Press Discuss this Topic - Go to the forums