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Poisoned?
15 Rounds by Steve Kim (August 12, 2002)

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Garry Gittelsohn was fond of saying in years past that his first call in the morning and his last call at night were always directed towards one person - Junior Jones. Gittelsohn, had managed the former two-division champ throughout his professional career and developed a manager/fighter relationship that was as close as any in the sport.

Through the shocking losses to John Michael Johnson and Darryl Pinckney, to his two big wins over Marco Antonio Barrera and then his last ditch effort to capture his third world title against Paul Ingle,Gittelsohn and Jones were in it together. It looked like Jones had seen the end when he failed to capture the IBF featherweight title from Ingle. His career would fall short of the Hall-of-Fame expectations he came in with but it was an exciting career that Jones and Gittelsohn could be proud off.

But a year after his defeat at the hands of Ingle, he would he go ten rounds against Manuel Sepeda in winning a decision. And then last October he would stop journeyman Mike Juarez in seven. Gittelsohn and Jones would have loud arguments as to the merits of this 'comeback' but it came to a head when Gittelsohn found out last week that Jones was scheduled to face Lamont Pearson on September 26th in Glen Burnie, Maryland at the 'Ballroom Boxing' series. It would be the same night that Gittelsohn would have two of his young prospects - Clarence Vinson and Jerson Ravelo in action on that very same card. The irony was dripping.

"I pulled Clarence and Jerson off the card because I didn't even want to be on the Eastern seabord when Junior was fighting this kind of fight," said a disgusted Gittelsohn. "I mean, there was no upside to this fight and the idea that some who I had invested 15 years of my life in developing and nurturing and loving - would be involved in this kind of fight where, A: he could get hurt and I was very seriously concerned about that because I think he's high-risk fighter and B: that he would accept this kind of risk with no reward whatsoever. My understanding was that the purse was $4,000. I mean there's nothing but a train wreck to come off this and I didn't want to be anywhere near it because I knew that if anything did happen people would ask, 'What did you do, Gary?' I would be able to have to say that I did something to try and stop it."

Gittelsohn had advised Jones to retire after his defeat to Ingle. At one time Ingle would have been easy -pickings for him, but the 2000 version of Jones would get stopped by the determined Ingle in the eleventh round.

"I told him after that fight," explained Gittelsohn, who also manages Brian Viloria. "I thought it was time to call it a day. I was reluctant to do so before then. But to me that was the seminal event, the event that determined to me that Junior's skills had eroded."

And since that point, Jones has fought on without Gittelsohn.

"He's done it against my wishes and he's done it in spite of my protestations to him and I would find out from other people when he was fighting," Gittelsohn says. "It was basically done without consulting me and that was fine because I didn't want any part of it. He's a grown man and he can make his own decisions, it's just very painful to me, I though I was making progress because he hadn't fought since last October.

"I had been consulting with him on ending his boxing career with the idea he would transition into civilian life in the boxing business."

It's easy for managers and promoters to tell fighters to retire. Fighters, unfortunately, are the most interchangable aspect of this sport. Fighters come and go; managers and promoters, it seems, are forever. It's easy for them to end a career, they have other fighters to work with and other fights to make. Fighters, are oftentimes left with nothing but memories of their careers and a harsh introduction into the real world. Gittelsohn, would do his best to help Jones once his fighting days were over.

"At first I said to Junior, 'Y'know, fighters respect you and they look up to you and your accomplishments. You're a very likable person and maybe it would be a good idea if we could identify some fighters we could manage and have some fun doing it. You've been in the business awhile, you've seen it at the very highest levels, it would be a good idea to get involved managing fighters. I wouldn't ask you to put up any money, I would do that and we would go 50-50 and really work on this.'

"That didn't seem to entice him, but he did indicate he would like to train a fighter. And he first told me that he would love to train Jerson Ravelo but by that point I had already got Mark Breland with Jerson and I couldn't comfortably remove Mark in favor of Junior. But I said, 'It's going to take some time to establish yourself as a trainer. Get into a camp, you work with a fighter, get his confidence and then eventually you become either part of the training team or maybe the
principle trainer' and that's what I intended to do
with Clarence."

Jones would work the corner for Vinson on July 20th in Indianapolis. But it's ironic to note that it was this very relationship that led to Jones being scheduled against Pearson. And not only did it further fracture the relationship between the fighter and his former manager, but it may have ruined the relationship that was devloping between DiBella Entertainment - with whom Vinson and Ravelo are signed with - and Ballroom Boxing, which had used DiBella's fighters regularly in the past.

Mike Marchionte, the matchmaker for DiBella, explains: "Basically what happened was that Clarence headlined the show in Glen Burnie a month or so ago and he brought in Junior Jones in as a celebrity guest. These guys had never seen Junior unless they tuned into HBO when he was fighting. Now, all of a sudden he's walking around their venue and apparently they struck up somewhat of a relationship with him and we find out a few nights ago that Junior, on his own walked into Ballroom Boxing in Glen Burnie and signed a contract to fight Lamont Pearson in a ten-round fight for $4,000 and I also heard it could be for $3,500, I haven't seen the contract.

"But anyway Gary wanted me to look into it, so I called Scott Wagner (president of Ballroom Boxing), I said, 'Scott, what's going on?' He said, 'Well, Dave my assistant and Junior are very good friends now. They're on the phone all the time and we want to help Junior.' I said, 'Well, if you want to help him why you putting him in a war for $4,000 with a kid that can potentially hurt him?' And he really didn't have an answer for that and I got back on the phone with Gary and Gary explained to me his thoughts and feelings. And he said,' Mike, listen, these guys betrayed our relationship. They knew I was involved with Junior in his whole career and out of courtesy they should have said that Junior is inquiring about a fight or Junior wants to fight on one of our fights."

In the aftermath of all this, Jones will not be fighting Pearson on September 26 in Glen Burnie, instead he will now be facing Johnny Walker on August 29th in Tampa, Florida. But one of the questions that still lingers is, who approached whom about a fight?

"Scott Wagner made it sound like Junior was pestering them for a fight," said Marchionte. "So were getting conflicting stories. Junior tells Gary that it's the other way around. So anyway, I agree with Gary 100-percent, they should have called this office, DiBella's office or Gary and said, 'Hey, Junior's intersted in fighting. What are your feelings on that?' Because of our relationship with them, not because Gary has paper on Junior or anything like that. I know he doesn't, but Gary feels they backdoored him and Gary invited Junior down there and he feels that Junior in a sense betrayed him."

So did Ballroom Boxing take advantage of a fighter who was desperate for a fight? After all, not only is Pearson a local fighter, but Ballroom Boxing's matchmaker Chris Middendorf works for Keystone Boxing, which promotes Pearson. And Pearson is a natural 130-pounder, who up until his upset loss to Orlando Salido was the IBF's leading contender at jr. lighweight. Jones, in his best days, fought between 118 and 122 pounds.

"I didn't make this fight," claimed Middendorf. "Junior went directly to the promoter and said, 'I want to be on this card. My girlfriend lives here, I want to fight here, I'll fight anybody' But it's just one of those things where different people have other idea's for Junior."

According to Wagner, when Jones first came to Glen Burnie in March as a guest of Gittelsohn and Vinson, he met a girl with whom he struck up a relationship with and that he started to come around more frequently as his girlfriend and his assistant ran in the same circles.

"Junior wanted to fight in the Ballroom," claimed Wagner, "and he called repeated times asking my assitant for fights."

But according to Jones, they met halfway.

"What happened was that Ballroom Boxing approached me months ago about whatever, doing a fight there. I said, 'Right now, I have a few things on my slate but when I clear it, I'd love to fight at Ballroom Boxing.' Then there came a time I didn't have anything planned. I called them and said,' I'd love to do one of your shows' He (Wagner) was happy, he was obliged to it, but they approached me first about the whole thing and it stuck to my mind that whenever I have a clear slate, I'd call them and I did."

On paper it looks like a mismatch. Not only for the reason's stated above but the fact that Jones for many years, even before the bout with Ingle, looked like he had the symptoms of being a 'shot' fighter. From his upset loss at the hands of Kennedy McKinney (which followed his consecutive wins over Barrera) he displayed shaky legs and dulled reflexes in subsequent bouts against Richard Evatt and Tom Johnson. His ability to take good solid punches also seemed to wane. At what point do promoters have to take the bull by the horns and restrict fighters from participating on their cards?

"The last thing you want to do is knowingly put someone in the ring that could get hurt," said Wagner. "Whether it's a mismatch or somebody that's beyond their best days. What we did was inform the commission of what we wanted to do. I knew from Junior he'd been thorougly tested in Nevada by Marc Ratner, before and after his last fight. We got on the phone with Marc and he gave him a clean bill of health, he said, 'Junior can fight in Nevada and as far as I'm concerned in any state in the country'

"So with that we ordered his last three fights and looked at them. I mean it's the commision's decision at the end but I want to have a part of the decision also because if I see something I don't like or hear something I don't like, that's the last thing I want to do.

"People who know him better that I do are telling him not to fight, well then, I certainly don't want to tell the kid to fight whether it's Junior or anybody."

Wagner says that Jones wasn't being brought in merely to be an easy 'name' opponent for Pearson, despite the dual roles that Middendorf plays.

"Basically, Ballroom Boxing, were a nuetral boxing promotion, we try to put on competitive, even fights. None of the fighters we use, we have any involvement with whatsoever. We run six times a year, we produce the show ourselves and rebroadcast them. Our angle is the live event and the promotion and the television show - not going down the road with fighters."

And Pearson, a local kid and a contender against a former (yet faded) champion, is good TV, if not a good fight.

"I didn't want to get into a pissing match with Lou DiBella," continued Wagner." I have the highest respect for the guy and everyone in his organization including Mike and then Gary, the whole group of them. Believe me, if I would have known at the beginning - and this was playing out for a couple of weeks - that I would have shook those guys up, I would have bailed on it."

But it maybe too late for that.

"Yeah, pretty much," said Marchionte. "We feel that they went around us, we just don't like to do business with people like that. We thought we had a great relationship with them and at one time we thought they actually had one of the club shows in boxing - they still do. We thought they were a pleasure to work with and everything was above board. There were never any issues, they accomodated us when we were down there and we brought a lot to the table too. Lou would go to all the events and get them a lot of print and we just can't understand why they did this. As of right now the relationship is strained and I don't see us doing anything else."

But then again, it was DiBella - who, while at HBO, said that Hasim Rahman would never fight on HBO airwaves ever again after 'the Rock' bailed out on his originally scheduled bout with David Tua in September of 1998 - that had Rahman on his network just several months later versus Tua. So there is hope for Ballroom Boxing. Never say 'never' in boxing.

Meanwhile, Jones wonders what the fuss is all about. He doesn't even see why is former manager is so concerned.

"I have no idea," said Jones, who is nicknamed 'Poison', "but my thing is you gotta respect me. You may not like or approve of what I do, you gotta respect it. Gary has no respect for me so I just don't have a hard heart towards it. I just let him have his opinion and let everyone else have their opinion. I just got to do what I think is the best thing for myself."

After all, he is a grown man and it is his life.

"All I'm saying is regardless of what I do, if you don't like it, respect me for it, regardless. My thing is, real friends, regardless of what you don't like, you're going to stick with that person's side, regardless of what they're doing. You're the friend, you keep opinions to yourself. I don't think he's a friend. I thought he was, but regardless of how much you care, you gotta respect what they do because this is there life."

But doesn't the prospect of training and managing fighters interest him in the least? You figure it's an easier way to make a living than still taking punches.

"It interests me," admits Jones," but you can't force me to do something. What does training and managing have to do with me fighting? My thing is, it's his way of not just telling me I should be training and managing but I think his way of trying to stop me from fighting myself. I don't think that's right. I'd love to train and manage, that's not a problem. But my thing is, I got an itch I need to scratch and I'm gonna do it.

"I'm still wise enough to know that you can't fight forever. There comes a point in time where you have to retire, you have to stop fighting, or whether it's baseball, basketball, you have to pursue other things. I know I'm approaching that point in my life very quickly. My thing right now, I can stil fight and I want to fight - that's the bottom line.

"Gary's a hypocrite because I feel that if I had beat Paul Ingle and I was still champion, no one in the world would be talking about retiring to this day, ever. That wouldn't be an issue. So I lose to Ingle and now it's retire, retire, retire. C'mon, that's not right."

But Teddy Atlas, who trained Jones for that fight against Ingle, gave Jones the same advice that Gittelsohn did.

"I told him in the lockeroom that I thought he gave a great effort and did the best he could and came very close to winning another world tile and he definitely did himself proud with that effort. Being that he came up short and what I thought he had left, I didn't think he would get back to the level that made sense in a tough business - a level to make it worthwhile for him."

Does Atlas see a physical decline in Jones like many others?

"Yeah, his legs don't respond well, his legs had the look of a fighter getting on and getting worn, they weren't stable or steady or reliable as they used to be - or they needed to be. That's one of the things you recognize if you've been around the business a long time - the legs and how they act and don't act anymore. And his durability wasn't the same level as years earlier as far as being able to handle what you need to sometimes. It had definitely declined to handle punches that he had handled years earlier."

But it has to be mentioned that Jones is medically cleared to continue boxing. Marc Ratner, the highly respected executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commision says there is nothing holding Jones back from continuing his career.

"The guy he fought was not a good fighter," said Ratner, of Jones' last bout against Sepeda in Las Vegas. A fight that Ratner viewed on videotape due to his commitment to the Mt. West conference where he referee's college football games. "Junior stopped him in seven, won most of the rounds, did not have a problem here. But was it against top-rated competition? No.

"Is he the same guy who knocked out Barrera? No. But I think that his reflexes are a little slower but I think he can still fight."

And Ratner points out that Jones has passed all the required tests.

"He has taken all of those kinds of things at Columbia University and passed everything with no problem."

But merely passing those types of diagnostics isn't enough to keep a boxing license says Ratner.

"Augie Sanchez," Ratner, points out as an example, "he had passed the medical tests but but we denied him a license here. When you look at the devastating knockouts where he doesn't get up for two minutes, there something there that we can't medically find, but there's something.

"You have to look at each case seperately. Junior, at least to my knowledge never showed any of these kinds of things."

Jones, is and always will be a 'fighter's fighter' a guy that was always willing to go out on his shield. And like most prizefighters, they are often the last one's to know when it's time to hang'em up. All fighters should have the opportunity to walk away with their pride and dignity intact. But at what point should that decision be taken away from them? Jones,is a fighter, and he wants to fight on. It shouldn't surprise anybody in the least. Gittelsohn has a reputation for being among the most honest, scrupulous and caring people in the business, his reaction to Jones's continued fighting doesn't surprise anybody that knows him. But it's clear that what was once as close a relationship as you could get has been damaged, maybe forever.

"Well, forevers a long time," said Gittelsohn, "but it's been damaged, it's been seriously damaged. I'm deeply hurt by the kind of sneaky way he went about this and I'm also distressed that he doesn't understand that I have his best interest at heart. If if I didn't, if I was another one of these meat-merchants, I would have encouraged him to go on after Paul Ingle and I would have continued to take a percentage of his purse as so many of these other guys do. I would say to him what he wanted to hear,' You still got your stuff' and instead of trying to stop it, I would do what these guys do, they use his name as a trial-horse for other fighters to exploit."

So how does Jones see their relationship?

"It's hard to say," says Jones. "Sometimes it's on and still very close and sometimes we're not. I guess we have a divided opinion on whether I should fight or shouldn't. That's when our personalities and opinions clash because I feel he don't respect me for what I want to do."

Does he really think he 'still got his stuff' at the world class level?

"Of course," answered Jones. "Why would I be doing this? If I couldn't fight at the world class level, it's crazy to fight for nothing."

Of course, some would say it would be crazy for him to try and compete at that level because that's where he could really get hurt. It's interesting to note that Roy Jones is currently promoting him. Yes, the same Jones who speaks of fighter safety, fighters getting exploited and then oftentimes uses this as a crutch to avoid tough fights for himself. The hypocripsy is sickening isn't it?

But Jones is giving himself a little more time.

"I'm only 31, but I'm only giving it two more years. After two more years by the time I'm 33, approaching 34, if it doesn't happen by 33, I know for sure that's it for me. There's no more comebacks, nothing."

Some would say that two years too many. But, then it's his choice.

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