Olympic bronze medalist Omari Jones will turn pro in his hometown of Orlando, Florida.
Jones will debut on March 15 against Alessio Mastronunzio in a six-round bout at the Caribe Royale Orlando, Orlando, Florida. The bout will be telecast on DAZN.
Jones, 22, recently announced that he signed with Matchroom Boxing. Jones’ first fight will be as the co-feature, starting his career in the town where he first started working out in a karate dojo at four years old.
Jones developed his passion for boxing which led him to the highest level of amateur achievement, earning a medal at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, and setting the stage for potential future professional glory.
Jones explained that Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn had texted him after his last Olympic fight. In fact, Hearn took the train from London to Paris and sat with him immediately afterwards.
“The process I’ll say was pretty simple,” Jones told BoxingScene about signing with Matchroom Boxing. “Eddie knows what he’s talking about and he was the first promoter I ever talked to after the Olympic Games.”
When Jones met with Hearn for the third time in Philadelphia, Jones stated that “sealed the deal.” Hearn brought up India’s Nishant Dev, an amateur rival of Jones and one of the best fighters Jones fought as an amateur. Dev also recently signed with Matchroom Boxing. The two fought in March with Jones winning the bout via a 4-1 majority decision. The bout was notable as Jones suffered a cut in the fight and had to fight through an obvious impairment.
“From that point on, I knew Eddie Hearn was interested in signing Dev,” Jones said. Jones says a rematch with Dev is one he’d be interested in making in the pros.
Hearn’s ability to speak cordially also made a strong impression on Jones.
“I feel like having a relationship with the promoter and someone that’s on the team is really important,” Jones said. “You just don’t want to talk to the person’s right-hand man and not really have that relationship that you should have.”
Jones also mentioned that the use of social media attracted him to Matchroom, adding that he also liked that Hearn is a younger, more social media friendly promoter.
Jones is ready to make his first impression on fight fans who didn’t see him compete at the Olympics. Jones is turning pro against Mastronunzio, a 30-year-old Italian fighter who will be fighting in his 20th pro bout. Mastronunzio, who holds a record of 14-5 (4 KOs), enters on a two-fight winning streak and will be fighting in the United States for the first time in his career. Mastronunzio’s only notable opponent was a first-round stoppage loss to Xander Zayas in 2021.
“I traveled the world and I wouldn’t change it for nothing,” Jones said. “I had an amazing experience my last three and a half years with USA Boxing.”
Now the stage is set for Jones to debut at home and as luck would have it, Orlando is now becoming a fight destination in the United States.
“I just want to show dominance,” Jones said. “I want to show that I have a lot of experience stepping into the professional game.”
Lucas Ketelle took an unconventional path to boxing, eventually finding his stride in gyms and media. For the past decade, he has hosted the “Lukie Boxing” podcast, filmed training camps for fighters like Arnold Barboza Jnr, Mikey Garcia and Caleb Plant, and worked with top professionals such as Mike Bazzel. Ketelle is also an author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for ProBox TV, BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @LukieBoxing.
