Amari Jones is planning for a big year ahead, with ambitions of fighting in a step-up bout soon.
Jones stopped Luis Arias last Saturday when Arias refused to answer the bell to start the fourth round in their scheduled 10-round middleweight fight to open the Mario Barrios-Ryan Garcia pay-per-view show from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Jones, 16-0 (14 KOs), signed with Golden Boy Promotions last June. In his two bouts with the company, he has picked up two stoppages, with neither fight going past the fourth round. Jones has an idea for the type of next-level challenge he would now like to take.
“On the broadcast, Shakur Stevenson said ‘Ammo’ Williams would be a good next opponent for me, and that sparked some ideas for me,” Jones said. “I feel someone like ‘Ammo’ Williams, Aaron McKenna or Yoenli Hernandez. Guys at that level.”
All three middleweights Jones named are either in title fights or nearing that point. Williams will face WBC belt holder Carlos Adames on March 21; Yoenli Hernandez will meet Terrell Gausha on the pay-per-view undercard of Sebastian Fundora-Keith Thurman on March 28; and McKenna has yet to have a bout announced.
Jones, who now trains in Hayward, California, with Virgil Hunter, wants to make a leap to facing fighters of that level and be thought of as a contender, not as a prospect, by the end of the year.
“It is close to the time when I take the fights with top-10 fighters,” Jones said. “I train for all these guys the same; I don’t cut any corners. We all know that as a competitor it is a different motivation when you have a live dog in front of you.”
Jones became the second fighter to stop Arias. Erickson Lubin stopped the now 35-year-old Arias in 2023, but it came while Arias was still standing – and he objected to the stoppage. Jones did something no one else has done: He forced Arias to stop between rounds. Jones said his ability to finish opponents is where his moniker, “The Reaper,” comes from. He felt pride in the way he performed against his most accomplished opponent to date.
“You can’t run from The Reaper,” Jones joked. “I expected to go rounds with Luis, but once I get you hurt, I am going to take you out. That is what happened; he never recovered.”
Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.