Roy Jones Jr has revealed he has been given the gold medal from the 1988 Olympics in Seoul — by the South Korean fighter who defeated him in their controversial boxing final.
Park Si-hun travelled to Jones’s ranch in Pensacola, Florida, two years ago and gave the Hall of Fame boxer the medal most observers outside of the judges felt he had earned. Park himself was shocked by the result — he knew he had been comprehensively beaten — and the public backlash led to calls for an investigation into the conduct of the judges.
The trip to the US followed a joint interview both boxers conducted with The Times’ Matt Lawton in 2021 in which Park said he wanted to give Jones the medal but was waiting for approval to do so from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
On Wednesday Jones released a video on social media of the moment that Park turned up unannounced at his gym. Jones had believed he was due to give an interview; instead, he found Park in the ring and both fighters’ families there.
“I had the gold medal, but I wanted to give it back to you. It belongs to you,” Park said, using his son as a translator.
Jones told The Times in 2021 he also wanted the IOC to change the result of the bout in their record books. He said: “It would be up to the IOC to change it with the history books. But if Mr Park was prepared to come forward and make the exchange, how could I not accept it? I’d be a fool after all these years. They [the IOC] should be happy to do something the two fighters feel should be fixed.
“I appreciate there are a lot of things they need to fix, but when a fighter says I genuinely know I didn’t win, I want to get what I rightly deserve, it’s kind of hard to say no to that. You know that there was corruption, so why not fix it? They got us into this situation in the first place, so if they want to get us out of it, it would be the right thing to do.”
Jones and Park, pictured in 2021, then reunited again two years later at Jones’s ranch, where Park handed over the medal
MARIA SHVETS
The official Olympics website still lists Park as the gold medallist and Jones as the winner of silver.
Park was awarded a 3-2 decision in the light-middleweight title bout in Seoul, South Korea, lifting the stunned Jones into the air in the ring after the result was announced. He has said the criticism he subsequently received and the depression he felt sometimes led to suicidal urges.
The IOC in 1997 concluded it had found no evidence to support bribery allegations against the judges who voted in favour of Park. The US Olympic Committee called for an investigation in 1996 after documents belonging to East Germany’s Stasi secret police revealed reports of judges being paid to vote for South Korean boxers.
Despite not winning gold, Jones was awarded the Val Barker Trophy for the best boxer at the Games. He went on to win professional world titles in four weight classes from middleweight to heavyweight and had a 66-10 win-loss record as a pro.
Park retired from boxing after the Olympics but later became a coach.