Middleweight Amari Jones: 'I Feel Like Beating A Former World Champion Only Solidifies My Career'

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Middleweight Amari Jones is ready to solidify his ascent to a main-event fighter in his own way.

Jones faces the former IBF titleholder Vincenzo Gualtieri in a 12-round fight from the SAP Center in San Jose, California. Jones, 16-0 (14 KOs), will be getting a homecoming fight of sorts. Jones is from Oakland, California, and his family runs Lion’s Den Boxing Gym in Pittsburg, California. The bout is hoped to be the start of a new era of Bay Area boxing. The Amari Jones era.

Jones, a former national champion amateur boxer, who trained with Devin Haney for a good period of time, now trains in Hayward, California, with Virgil Hunter. This is an opportunity to launch his career to the next level.

Gualtieri, 25-1-1 (8 KOs) is the former IBF middleweight titleholder. The 33-year-old from Wuppertal, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, lost the belt in his very next title defense to Janibek Alimkhanuly in a unification bout. He was stopped in the sixth round. It stands as his lone loss. He has since won four fights.

Photo by Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy/Getty Images

“I feel like beating a former world champion only solidifies my career,” Jones told FightsATW. “I know he knows it’s his last shot.”

The bout symbolizes Jones to the core. It is a high-risk fight, a big step-up for a young up-and-comer. Yet rather than talking about it, he wants to show that he is ready to contend against the best in a barren middleweight division that no longer has big names like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin.

“I take what I receive,” Jones said of his mild-mannered nature at the press conference. “He is not giving anything, so why would I be boisterous, loud, and obnoxious for no reason?”

Jones, who has stopped his past two opponents, including Luis “Cuba” Arias in February, aims to ascend to a new level. The goal for the Bay Area resident is to become a consistent main-event fighter and to capture a title. He might even reignite interest in Bay Area boxing.

“The story of the fight is there is a new champion to come out of Oakland,” Jones said. “We haven’t had one since Andre Ward, and I feel we are overdue.”