BoxRec

Park Si Hun symbolically holds up Roy Jones Jnr's hand, nearly four decades after their Olympic gold medal match

Roy Jones Jnr receives Olympic gold decades after controversial loss

One of the all-time injustices of Olympic boxing has, at least symbolically, been corrected.

In a meeting that was 35 years in the making, Roy Jones Jnr and Park Si-Hun met face to face in May 2023, with the South Korean boxer handing his Olympic gold medal over to Jones. The two met in the light middleweight gold medal match of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea. Jones dominated the fight, outlanding his opponent by nearly triple, but losing a 3-2 decision that has been decried as perhaps the worst in Olympic boxing history. Park, for his part, acknowledged Jones’ dominance in the fight afterwards, lifting up a dejected Jones in the ring.

Two of the judges who scored the fight for Park were banned from judging Olympic boxing, and the scoring system was changed in an attempt to prevent future controversies.

Now, Jones says he is considering working on a documentary that touches on, in part, the Olympic controversy and how he overcame that to become a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest boxers of the 1990s.

According to a release that was issued Wednesday, Park traveled to Jones’ ranch in Pensacola, Florida on May 30, 2023 for a surprise visit with his former rival. Park, who had dealt with depression and had attempted suicide in the years after his Olympic gold win, handed over the medal to Jones, and held up his hand as the rightful winner.

“I had the gold medal, but I wanted to give it back to you. It belongs to you,” said Park, now 59, who was translated by his son. "This gold medal is your problem now.”

Jones, 56, didn’t let the disappointment from Seoul slow him down, winning world titles at middleweight, super middleweight and heavyweight, while cleaning out the light heavyweight division in dominant fashion. Jones’ last official fight was in 2023.

Prior to the Olympics, Park had been a respected amateur, winning gold at the 1985 and 1987 Asian Championships. He never turned professional, and instead became a gym teacher.

It was a close fight...

it was? i totally disagree, jones dominated every round

says he got the medal, but the result wasnt changed, he technically is still the silver medalist even though he clearly shoulda won

incidentally, south korea has massively dropped off in boxing. they used to regularly win medals in the olympics and other big events, had some pro world champs. now they are a pretty weak boxing country.

Yh not overturning the result is shocking.

His opponent didn’t even want the medal.

Koreans tried being dodgy at the 2002 WC too.

Very cool though that Park Si-Hun did that

giacomino wrote: ↑04 Sep 2025, 15:29 Very cool though that Park Si-Hun did that

Very classy indeed, really showed up the IOC.
Ali throws his gold in river, and they give him another one.
Jones gets robbed by their program, they do nothing and the opponent shows the class to do this.
Park Si Hun, you’re all class sir