Paul Jones (boxer)

Paul "Silky" Jones (born 19 November 1966 in Sheffield, England) is a former World Boxing Champion, who is known as Silky for his quickness and defensive prowess. He has a combined professional record of 31-12-1 (15 KOs) in the welterweight, light-middleweight, middleweight, and super middleweight divisions. He defeated rugged American Verno Phillips for the Light Middleweight World Championship on 22 November 1995 and was stripped of the title in February 1996. Philips would go on to achieve World Championship status another three times.

Early years
Jones entered turned pro in 1986, winning his first professional bout against Paul Gillings. Jones then participated in 4 more fights before moving to Toronto in order to gain experience, where he achieved 3 winning bouts including a 3rd-round KO against Tony Collier. Paul then returned to the UK and participated in 8 more fights before winning his first title against Jason Rowe. After the fight Jones was quoted as being happy for winning the title but said he would never defend it as he was going on to bigger and better things. On 14 April 1995, Jones won the WBO's Intercontinental title against Damien Denny, earning him the "KO of the year award". This then placed Jones as number 2 in the WBO rankings. Jones defended the title twice, remaining undefeated for more than 3 years.

Capturing the Light Middleweight title
In 1995, Jones had a chance to compete for the championship. He entered the fight as the heavy underdog but surprised the boxing world by dominating the match. He won the WBO Light Middleweight title with a majority decision win over Verno Phillips, who later became the IBF Light Middleweight Champion and a future IBHOF Champion. With the win, Jones became the first British-born Light Middleweight World Champion. "Freddie King" (Paul's trainer) said after the fight that he "Showed glimpses of absolute greatness and produced a great fight". Jones joined close friend and boxer Naseem Hamed as Sheffield's second world champion at the time. Hamed, who was also ringside for the fight, said, "Silkys's done the business tonight what a fight I knew he would win but not so easily".

Jones had become one of four world champions, from no one wanting to fight him to being world champion in the space of 6 months. Many Great fighters wanted to fight him, especially Winky Wright (who later picked up Jones' title on the way to becoming Undisputed Light Middleweight World Champion). The plan was for Jones to defend his WBO title against Bronco Banyon McKart of Bob Arum's Top Rank promotions. Both parties had a verbal agreement for the bout to be staged either in the UK or America. Many did say Jones's style would have been perfect for this big fight but unfortunately this did not materialize however Jones did go on to win the WBC Super Middle Weight International World Title. Jones' last fight was a points decision over the future EBU–EE Super Middleweight champion Kreshnik Qato. Jones retired in 2002 with a record of 31-12-1.

WBO controversy
In late 2014 it came to light via social media that Paul Silky Jones had never received his actual title belt from the World Boxing Organisation. Boxing fans began a trending campaign on Twitter with the hash tag #GetSilkyHisBelt. A very surprised Paul 'Silky' Jones was finally awarded his belt in Doncaster at a non-existent event staged by former trainer Ian Allcock and John Sheppard on 10 July 2015, after 20 years of fighting against the WBO and British Boxing Board of Control who denied his existence, retracted statements, and tried to charge him for the belt on more than one occasion. The belt arrived in England while Paul was on social media Tweeting support for world-famous Floyd Mayweather after his recent rift with the WBO.

Championships and accomplishments

 * World Boxing Organization
 * WBO Light Middleweight Championship
 * WBO Inter-Continental Light Middleweight Championship
 * 1995 World Boxing Organization Fighter of the Year
 * 1995 World Boxing Organization KO of the year.


 * World Boxing Council
 * WBC International Super Middleweight Championship


 * Commonwealth
 * Commonwealth Middleweight Championship


 * World records set in 2011- first ever boxer to commentate on a live boxing fight via YouTube.