Leroy Jones

By Bennie

Leroy Jones missed out on the mysterious quality known as a little bit of luck on a cold night 30 years ago. Leroy took a thumb in the eye from Larry Holmes in the eighth round of their Las Vegas encounter in March 1980 and, while he bravely stayed on his feet, he had to be rescued as the spiteful Holmes teed off on him in a corner. That was it; Leroy’s challenge for the world heavyweight title was over, along with the very rest of his boxing career. Jones, at the age of 29, had suffered a detached retina.
Nobody seems to know what the big Denver man did in his post-boxing years. Leroy certainly kept his nose clean, probably raised a family, probably held down a job. You want to think he was happy; you want to think he did good things. He was "big, strong, tough", said Holmes in 2003. "He was bigger than me. He was 245 pounds, 6ft 5ins or 6ft 6ins, but I was quicker and punched harder." In fact, Jones was surprisingly fluid for such a big man, with surprising speed and ability, but Holmes is one of the greatest heavyweights of all time and he pounded on Jones as he would pound on Muhammad Ali just a few months later. (Forget those who say Holmes held back against Ali, he didn’t.)
You know, Leroy only ever lost to Holmes in 26 fights, which only exarcebates the way his career came to such a sudden end. His best win was a 12-round decision over Mike Weaver in 1978 in Las Vegas, a year before Weaver took Holmes to the well in a fantastic battle at Madison Square Garden. Jones also scored decent wins over Jody Ballard, Larry Frazier and Harry Terrell.
Nobody seems to know how he lived or even how he died earlier this year at the age of 60. We do know that he boxed between 1973 and 1980 and went all the way to a shot at the world heavyweight title. We also know he joined the masses thinking over and over, 'if only'.