Was considered a pretty good (though perhaps not great) partial titleholder in his day. Lost his title when Marcel Thil bullied him around the ring and pressured him to foul out. Was largely shut down by Freddie Steele in a title challenge. Believe he had something of a reputation for fighting ultra defensively and sometimes boringly. Has the distinction of having never been stopped in his career. Later banged Mae West. That's basically all I know.
I`ve go about 12 minutes of his fight vs Thil, the frenchman was the aggressor throughout while Jones backpedalled and looked to counter, wasnt all that impressed with Jones to be honest from what I saw although maybe he was just having an off night, who knows.
I can tell you that he was at Jim Jeffries 75th birthday party! The two apparently got on rather well.
A few years ago Ring Magazine did a series of pieces on fighters where each one had a portrait/cartoon drawing of the featured ex fighter. One time it was Gorilla Jones, i read the article, i've probably still got the magazine somewhere. The part that always stuck out in my mind is that Jones, when asked about a time he was knocked down, said- 'there's no excuse for being hit with a right hand'. No excuse for being hit with a right hand!! The man must have had some pretty high standards for himself.
I saw some of Jones. I wasn't impressed. I believe his auto biography was a collection of press clippings. Information on this cat is hard to come by.
On the other hand I have an interview with Ray Foutts* from the west coast publication- "The Knockout" whein Fouts sez- The 2 best middleweights he ever saw were Harry Greb and Gorilla Jones Toss Up. Goes on to say, Forget Jones record, he carried more opponents' that an undertaker, when not fighting under pull he could do everything! [SIZE=-1] This content is protected [/SIZE][SIZE=-1]EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio, May 26 (~ -Ray Foutts, 48, manager of former middleweight boxing champion Teddy Yarosz, died of a heart ailment at his home here today ... [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] This content is protected [/SIZE]
