| Guillermo Jones | |
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Real name | Guillermo Jones |
| Nickname(s) | El Felino |
| Rated at | Cruiserweight |
| Nationality | Panamanian |
| Born | 5 May 1972 Colón, Panama |
| Stance | Orthodox |
| Boxing record | |
| Total fights | 42 |
| Wins | 37 |
| Wins by KO | 29 |
| Losses | 3 |
| Draws | 2 |
Guillermo Jones (born 1972-05-05 in Colón, Panama) is a Panamanian boxer best known for losing three world title fights in controversial decisions. He is the current WBA Cruiserweight Champion.
"El Felino" started to box in the paid ranks 1993 as a welterweight and later at junior middleweight.[1] He won his first 21 bouts in Panama then went abroad and was stopped in two rounds by Venezuelan David Noel. He avenged the loss by first round KO and promoter Don King gave him a WBA title fight against Laurent Boudouani in 1998. He drew once and lost the rematch by split decision.
After these fights he went up four weightclasses until fighting as a Cruiser starting in 2002. He fought Johnny Nelson for the WBO title, again scoring a draw.
After yet another split decision loss in 2005, this time to undefeated contender and future title holder Steve Cunningham, he rebounded the same year with KOs of Kelvin Davis and ex champ Wayne Braithwaite.
Jones got a shot at champion Firat Arslan on September 27, 2008 and won an undisputed fight by TKO. He is the heaviest and oldest professional fighter from Panama to have achieved a world championship and became Panama's 28th World Champion.[2] After winning the title Jones went through an extremely long period of inactivity (even for modern day boxers) and over 2 years later had still not made a single defence of his title. This was put down to a combination of fight postponements & 'out of the ring' problems.
In August 2010 the WBA finally threatened to strip him of their belt unless some action was taken by Jones and his promoter to rectify this. As a result he signed to make his first defence of the belt against Valery Brudov in October 2010 and retained his title with an eleventh round stoppage in Panama City.
Jones second defence of his title was then scheduled to take place on June 25, 2011 against the undefeated Ryan Coyne. However just a few days before the fight Jones pulled out, citing a back injury sustained after he fell out of the ring following a training session.[3] Following this latest cancellation he then announced that he would make a mandatory defence against WBA interim champion Yoan Pablo Hernández.[4] The fight was scheduled to take place in Germany on August 27, 2011, however once again a title fight involving Jones was cancelled this time with no specific reasons given. Hernandez would instead go on to challenge IBF champion Steve Cunningham in October 2011, winning the belt via a technical decision in somewhat controversial circumstances.
Following the cancellation of the Hernandez fight, Jones defend his title against career heavyweight Mike Marrone. The fight took place in Florida on November 5th 2011[5] with Jones retaining his title via a TKO in the sixth round.
| Preceded by Firat Arslan |
WBA Cruiserweight Champion September 27, 2008 – present |
Incumbent |