In 2003, Roy Jones Jr became the first former middleweight champion to win a heavyweight title for 106 years. He also holds the record for most wins in unified light-heavyweight title fights. Now, he has broken another record over five years after his initial retirement.
Back in April and alongside his duties as a trainer, Jones made a comeback to boxing, fighting former UFC Lightweight Champion, Anthony Pettis, on what would be his opponent’s professional debut and Jones’ 76th official contest, aged 54-years-old.
To the surprise of many, Pettis claimed a majority-decision victory, handing Jones the tenth defeat of his career, but with an eighteen-year differential between the two Americans, it’s fair to say that the outcome would have been different if the pair had met in their earlier days.
Nevertheless, the fact that the bout counted as a professional fight rather than an exhibition means that Roy Jones Jr has broken a record that had been in place for almost a century.
The event with Pettis stretched Jones’ career to an official résumé that lasts over thirty-three years (12,384 days), handing Jones the record of the longest professional career of any of the 105 former and current heavyweight champions.
The previous holder was Jack Johnson, who also boxed for thirty-three years, between 1897 and 1931, over a total of 12,231 days. Like Jones, ‘The Galveston Giant’ continued to fight long after his days as a genuine title threat, continuing his career into his early fifties, fifteen years after he lost the heavyweight crown to Jess Willard in 1915.
However, there is no proof that the contest was an official one and is therefore left off of Johnson’s résumé, meaning Jones is the new record holder. Johnson would continue to unofficially fight in exhibitions, ‘cellar fights’ and fundraisers until the age of sixty-seven, and will forever be remembered for breaking racial boundaries in his thirties.