![\"Olivia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789428254_816_d0c617b3-c4b6-46ee-a378-7fdf663f30ff_1781892333.file.png\")
<\/a>ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nAt 21, Omari \u201cBanger\u201d Jones represented the U.S. at the 2024 Olympics in Paris and won a bronze medal.<\/p>\n
Now 23, the Orlando native is a professional boxer with a 7-0 record, and four of those fights were knockouts.<\/p>\n
Jones started boxing at age eight, earning the nickname \u201cBanger.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI just beat a lot of the guys that were boxing before me, so they were like, \u2018Okay, we\u2019re going to call you Banger.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The Orlando native attended Lake Gem Elementary, Meadowbrook Middle School, Edgewater High School, Valencia College, and the School of Hard Knocks in Casselberry, his boxing gym. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis gym has meant everything to me. This is where I won my first national title,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
Jason Galarza, owner of the School of Hard Knocks, has trained numerous professional fighters. But he said Jones is different.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to adjust as a coach because I\u2019ve never seen or trained anyone like him,\u201d Galarza said.<\/p>\n
Galarza said that when Jones first came to the gym, he had no one ahead of him to set the standard, so he set a high bar for himself and everyone who follows. <\/p>\n
Now, after his own workouts, Jones watches the younger boxers and offers guidance.<\/p>\n
Galarza said Jones\u2019 success is especially meaningful for kids from Pine Hills, where Jones grew up.<\/p>\n
\u201cPine Hills, you know, Silver Star, one of the roughest areas in Orlando, Florida. And for the youth to see that someone like themselves can make it out of that,\u201d Galarza said, \u201cout of this world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones has made giving back to Orlando part of his mission.<\/p>\n
The city recently honored him with a \u201cGlove to the City\u201d award and declared Sept. 9 Omari Jones Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have Omari Jones Day, it was amazing, like I always say, the city gives back to me,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
And Jones gives back, too.<\/p>\n
He is an author and runs his own foundation, which hosts boxing camps, youth career panels, toy drives and other community events.<\/p>\n
His message to young people comes from his own journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can be the kid from Orlando, you can go to the Olympics, and you can do so many different things; actually put your mind to it. Hard work pays,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
Now, Jones is preparing for another milestone.<\/p>\n
On Oct. 2, he is scheduled to headline a fight in his hometown for the first time at Caribe Royale Orlando.<\/p>\n
After reaching the Olympics and returning home with a bronze medal, Jones is now working toward an even bigger prize.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecome a world champion,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando honors boxer Omari Jones with his own day ahead of first hometown headliner ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 At…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[159127,159128,47917,187,22011,159129,159126,34520,1175,53840,139,141,97348,140,159130,4777,531,34066],"class_list":["post-399897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-banger","tag-boxing-gym","tag-bronze-medal","tag-city","tag-fight","tag-hard-knocks","tag-jason-galarza","tag-jones","tag-kid","tag-olympics","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-native","tag-orlando-news","tag-own-day","tag-pine-hills","tag-school","tag-toy-drive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}