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HAYWARD, Calif. – Amari “The Reaper” Jones is considered the next big thing in the middleweight class in professional boxing.<\/p>\n
He’s 16-0 with 14 knockouts, to be exact.<\/p>\n
Now, the 24-year-old is set to take on former world champion Vincenzo Gualtieri from Germany on May 22.<\/p>\n
Roots in the East Bay <\/p>\n
The backstory:<\/p>\n
Jones is rooted from West Oakland and his life at one point was filled with tension.<\/p>\n
\u00a0“Dealing with stuff at home and just had a lot of anger built up, so I used to get in fights at school, yelling at teachers, my mom and stuff, kids in the neighborhood,” Jones said. “My mom was like I needed to do something with this, and my godfather took me to the gym, and ever since it’s been history.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0Jones’ first love was football, but he says boxing was his destiny. He appreciates the sport since it truly gave him his own identity.<\/p>\n
\u00a0“I stuck out. Everybody knew me in school and that I was a boxer, everyone was always like, ‘that’s Amari, that’s the boxer, leave him alone,’ Jones said.<\/p>\n
Making waves <\/p>\n
Signing with a legend:<\/p>\n
Not only did Jones stick out to his peers, but he caught the attention of boxing Olympic gold medalist Oscar De la Hoya, who’s won 10 different world titles in six world classes throughout his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
De la Hoya signed him to Golden Boy Promotions in 2025, one of boxing\u2019s most active and respected promoters, presenting shows in packed venues around the world.<\/p>\n
“It kind of shocked me that even though he knew who I was because I fought on a show of his before, it was more like he was personally excited to sign me, so that was the biggest thing,” said Jones.<\/p>\n
What they’re saying:<\/p>\n
Jones trainer Virgil Hunter has over 30 years of guiding fighters in the sport of boxing, including Oakland’s Andre Ward, who retired with an undefeated record and multiple world championships in two weight classes.<\/p>\n
Hunter said he believes Jones has the potential to reach Ward’s level.<\/p>\n
\u00a0“He’s the closest thing athletically to Andre Ward, [but] of course, all the other intangibles have to come along with that: the discipline, the desire, the tenacity,” Hunter said. “Those things are coming along, but he definitely has the potential.”<\/p>\n
What’s next:<\/p>\n
The stakes are high for Jones coming into the main event against Gualtieri.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Remaining undefeated is one thing, but a win in the match-up can grant a momentous opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’ll be in position to win a world title myself,” Jones said. “That’s the ultimate goal: to become a champion.”<\/p>\n
The fight will take place on May 22\u00a0at the SAP center in San Jose.<\/p>\n
If you would like to purchase tickets, you can do so here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Source: Interviews with Amari “The Reaper” Jones, trainer Virgil Hunter<\/p>\n Sports<\/a>Hayward<\/a>Oakland<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HAYWARD, Calif. – Amari “The Reaper” Jones is considered the next big thing in the middleweight class in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,1184,2955,143,145,144,127,1181],"class_list":["post-308444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county","tag-ca","tag-hayward","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-sports","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}