An extraordinary power base has encircled Amari Jones as the switch-hitter seeks to advance from a red-hot prospect to a bona fide champion in a wide-open division.
On Friday, Jones will attempt to rise further in the middleweight division when he faces Vincenzo Gualtieri atop a Golden Boy Promotions card that DAZN will stream live from the SAP Center in San Jose, California.
Gualtieri has lost just once in 27 bouts — a sixth-round knockout to Janibek Alimkhanuly — but has rebounded with four wins since.
But considering Jones has manager Rick Mirigian overseeing his deals, Oscar De La Hoya and Eric Gomez promoting his career, and Virgil Hunter in his corner, the pressure will be on to replicate the damage Janibek did to Gualtieri.
Hunter heightened the expectations when he compared Jones’ athleticism to that of his most famous student, Andre Ward — a Hall of Fame fighter and one of the sport’s legends who hails from Northern California.
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If Jones plays it right, he could be the next big thing to come from that region.
“The sky is the limit,” Jones (16-0, 14 KOs) told Uncrowned days before the fight.
The sport is renowned for taking, but it can also give so much. And, for Jones, it offered a route away from an upbringing where he kept “getting into trouble at school” for fighting because of a complicated home life.
“I had stuff going on,” Jones said. “My father was in prison. I was rebelling against my mom. I was mad at the world and had a lot of anger built up.”
It’s amazing what a gym filled with leather bags and old equipment can do.
For Jones, it provided focus — a way for him to harness the negative energy he felt he had in his life and channel it instead into health, fitness and a goal-oriented sport.
“My godfather put me into boxing at age 9 or 10 because my godbrother was boxing before me,” Jones said.
Jones played football and even went to a specific school for that sport, dreaming of one day reaching the NFL. But the more he boxed, the more he wanted to fight professionally.
That didn’t always sit well with mother Debra.
“At first, she didn’t want me to fight. She wanted me to go to college and get a scholarship,” Jones said. “I had to really show her and tell her, ‘Mom, this is what I want to do. I’m winning fights. I’m really good at it.’”
Now she wears shirts with her son’s face on them at all his events.
If Debra is Amari’s biggest fan, others, like Devin Haney, will have to get in line.
But Haney, Uncrowned’s No.7 pound-for-pound boxer, got in line early.
Jones and Haney are longtime friends. Embedded in the Haney operation, Jones fought on Haney’s cards and sparred some of the top fighters in camps Haney organized. Haney’s father, Bill, even coached Jones earlier in his career, and the family was instrumental in bringing Jones to the Las Vegas area to live and work.
“I was still an amateur while Devin was pro, fighting on ShoBox,” Jones said. “We know guys being from the same city, we got mutual people in common, and it was only a matter of time before we got connected.
“A lot of people feel like he might be arrogant, but I feel he’s earned it because of what he’s professionally accomplished,” Jones said, referencing Haney’s three-weight world championship status, with wins over Jorge Linares, Vasiliy Lomachenko and Brian Norman, among others.
Since signing with Golden Boy in 2025, Jones’ career has only accelerated.
“Being with a big company, you know it’s locked in with a network and getting eyes on you,” he said. “I’m getting television time that I felt I’ve been needing my whole career.
“There were times I wasn’t even shown on TV, even though I felt I had the skills to be on it. Now I feel I’m right here, with the promotion, and Golden Boy, pushing me well.
“With Virgil every day, I’m more mature in the ring and my skills are sharpening. He’s teaching me all of boxing, inside and outside the ropes, different moves, how to mature, and how to use it and when to use it.”
In Jones’ previous two fights at Golden Boy, he boxed on a Vergil Ortiz undercard, and then the Ryan Garcia vs Mario Barrios pay-per-view.
Now, he’s headlining his own show in his hometown. And so it’s clear Golden Boy is putting him on a defined trajectory.
“We’re confident no one will be able to avoid him as he climbs toward the top of the middleweight division,” De La Hoya said upon signing Jones.
With his last two fights ending in knockouts on prominent DAZN cards, the question of what comes next — after Friday’s hometown headliner — is already being asked.
“Carlos Adames is a champion. Ammo Williams has been a contender over the last few years,” Jones said. “And there’s others, too, like Jesus Ramos. He’s a good fighter who I’d love to get in the ring with as well. These are the kinds of guys who I want.
“But [on Friday], I got to get past Gualtieri to even think about those guys.”