Ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Omari Jones, the welterweight representative of Team USA Boxing, shares his thoughts in an exclusive interview with BoxingScene.
BoxingScene: So, what’s changed since your win at the nationals to now being an Olympian?
Jones: I feel it a lot, coming from the Nationals I feel like you were the first one to interview me, so shout out to you for seeing that from the beginning. I just felt like a lot has changed. I’ve gone to so many different tournaments now. I mean, the worlds, Continentals, Pueblo, I had to fight for my spot for team USA, again to even getting another chance to qualify in Italy at their competition after I came up short at the Pan-Am Games. So, I just feel like since the nationals it’s just been up and down road, but I’m gonna hit.
BoxingScene: Tell us about your qualifying process.
Jones: So, I had to come back to Colorado Springs to fight for my spot again, with whoever won the Nationals. We had a duel out here. That was how I had to get my spot back in order to qualify in Italy.
It was definitely a high level of stress. Just us competing day-in and day-out from strength and conditioning, to sparring to how we act and conduct ourselves. It was just so much, and they decided to choose me. So, it was a stressful road. I went through a lot.
BS: Coming off such a stressful qualification process, how do you refocus going into this career-defining moment?
Jones: I feel like I have to give a big shout out to God of course, keeping him with me every day and every night. Then I have to just give a big shoutout to my team, because I mean from my parents to my coaches to my mentors. Those are the people I was able to talk to keep me level, like you know, ‘You’ll be alright, just you know you put the work in so now when it’s time just let it show me, you have all the talent and the tools so believing in myself.’ And then my team behind me as well was so important.
BS: Are you still in college?
Jones: Yes, I am still in college still pursuing my business degree. I’m going to get my associates first. It’s kind of tough being on the road and like we talked about, high stress situations, but I’m doing the best I can right now. I am going to Valencia College in Orlando, Florida.
BS: How does education play into your future?
Jones: I feel like education was instilled in me since a child. My two brothers graduated from college. So, I knew I wanted to make something out of college. I knew I was going to go to school for something, even if I don’t know for what. Even if I don’t get a masters [degree] and all of that, I’m going to get some type of degree after high school. So that was always instilled in me. I want to be able to look at contracts and run my website and my business that I have now with my clothing brand and stuff. Just things like that are what I’m looking at in the future. I want to be able to see things my way and be able to max out my money the best way I can.
BS: Your clothing company?
Jones: Yes, it is a lifestyle brand. I was in class one day, just listening to some J.Cole, and he said, a dollar and a dream. So just listening to that song… So, I was in class, and I had some free time. So, I just did a lot of drawings with t-shirts and just different ideas and thinking about how I wanted things to look. I was boxing full-time since the age of eight. I’d get some allowance from here and there, but I was trying to make my own money. The teachers supported me. My gym supported me, so everybody bought shirts. That was my way of making a little bit of money while in school and boxing.
BS: Any problems or any business things you had to learn along the way?
Jones: So, in the beginning, it was regular Gildan shirts, but I evolved into customized material, just testing out different things in different ways and what the people like and I felt like they really liked the last Olympic qualifier t-shirts that I dropped.
BS: What are some of the problems of running a business?
Jones: I definitely take the good with the bad. Just being able to budget the money, being able to listen to what the people say and think. So just being able to have the patience and hoping that the people have the patience to kind of work with me and my process and how I do things.
BS: How did the nickname ‘Banger’ come about?
Jones: I started out with karate. Then I saw all my friends transfer over to boxing because my dojo was karate and boxing. So, I just changed right over to boxing. The first day I started boxing was actually a sparring day. So, they threw me in there. People were like, ‘You’re a natural.’ So, everybody had their power. We call them power names. Back at my dojo, so I got my power name. They call me the ‘Banger.’
BS: Why are you capable of winning a gold medal?
Jones: I just feel like my style and my belief and the game plan that I have that I’ve put in so much work. I feel like I’m in Year 13 right now. Everything that I’ve been through to get to this point, it just showed when it came down to the Olympic qualifying match. I was in a position I wasn’t really familiar with, but I had to adjust to blood streaming down both eyes… my face.
BS: Talk about that fight
Jones: That was against India, Nishant Dev. We could possibly run it back. You know how the brackets fall sometimes. Whoever they put in front of me, it’s never been, ‘You don’t fight this guy, or you choose to fight this guy in the amateurs.’ It’s going to be the best of the best. A lot of those guys had to work hard to get here just like how I did. So, everybody got to bring their A-game, and I am going to bring mine, too.
BS: What do you want from boxing?
Jones: What I want from boxing is to first go down as one of the best amateurs to ever do it. I feel like that starts with me winning a gold medal. I’ll see where it goes from there. If whatever I decide that’s turning professional, things like that, a lot of things are just up in the air. But I want to be able to provide for myself, leave a legacy, provide for my family, and just give motivation and inspiration to the younger generation behind me and to everyone around the world that they can do it. That’s what I said after my interview after qualifying for the Olympics, is to show the kids from around the world that it is possible.