Reggie Jones (boxer)

rdf:langString Reggie Jones (boxer)

rdf:langString Reggie Jones

rdf:langString Newark, New Jersey, U.S.

rdf:langString yes

rdf:langString Jones in 1972

rdf:langString Reginald Dennis "Reggie" Jones (born 1951) is a retired boxer from the United States, who represented his native country at the 1972 Summer Olympics. There he was controversially eliminated in the second round of the light middleweight division (– 71 kg) by Valeri Tregubov of the Soviet Union in a fight he was generally accepted to have won. Born in Savannah, Georgia, Jones moved to Newark as a child, attending the public schools and graduating from Weequahic High School in 1969, where he played basketball and football, as well as running on the school's track team. Jones took up boxing at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba while serving in the U.S. Navy. He won a bronze medal at the 1971 Pan American Games, two Marines and Interservice titles, and two North Carolina AAU titles. He turned professional after the 1972 Olympics, and became the New Jersey State Middleweight Champion when he beat Bobby Patterson over 12 rounds. He would hold that title for the next two years, before he lost to fellow 2010 Inductee Rusty Rosenberger. After retiring from boxing he settled in Summit, New Jersey, to become a social worker with the Essex County Division of Welfare and then for 31 years with the New Jersey Division of Youth & Family Services, until his retirement in February 2016.