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Julian Jackson: World Champion

Julian Jackson knows that in order to make a fighter out of a man, you first must take the fight out of the boy. His mentor, William “Willie” George, taught him this long ago. Today, Jackson, a former three-time world champion of the World Boxing Association’s middleweight and junior middleweight divisions, gives back this wisdom, along with a strong sense of faith, to his sons and other young boxers in his community.

Born a middle son in a fatherless family of five, where teenage rebellion was a given, Jackson’s fortunes changed forever when he followed a friend one day into the gym.

 “I remember it as clear as if it were yesterday,” says Jackson. “Willie pointed to me and told me I could be a champion.”

George, a father figure and coach, set the teenager on a strict training program. Jackson’s self-esteem soared when he won his first fight and he started to believe he was somebody instead of nobody.

Jackson’s career skyrocketed. He lost only two of 17 amateur fights, a record that landed him on the USVI’s boxing team for the 1980 Summer Olympics. The U.S. boycott of the Games robbed him of this opportunity, but Jackson moved forward and turned pro. He trained in the Virgin Islands and jetted to boxing matches in Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland, where he won left and right. The sudden death of George, a blow to Jackson’s spirits, ultimately strengthened his resolve to train as a boxer. The subsequent perfection of his spectacular pound-for-pound punches, a move that earned him the nickname “The Hawk,” caught the attention of well-known promoter, Don King, and Jackson’s superstar status took him to the world stage. The ride wasn’t without its roller coaster of ups and downs.

Jackson’s first shot at the WBA junior middleweight title came with a celebrity send-off by the island’s governor. But the triumph wasn’t to be.

“I lost and that low self-esteem I felt as a child came back,” says Jackson.

This was a mood that lingered several months and put his career in a tailspin few thought he could recover from. Yet it was his girlfriend, now wife and mother of his three sons, who urged him to turn his life from partying to prayer. Jackson accepted this advice reluctantly, but didn’t fully buy into it until nearly the night before the biggest fight of his life. Divine intervention prevailed, and Jackson left the ring with the title he failed to win the year before.

Life came full circle for Jackson in 2008. He finally went to the Olympics, not as a boxer, but as the Virgin Islands’ boxing coach to his two sons, Julius and John.

Through his “I Believe I Can Fly” program, Jackson mentors and coaches some 30 boys and girls after school. He is also working with promoters to spotlight the Virgin Islands as the Boxing Mecca of the Caribbean. His sights are ultimately set on one of his boxers capturing the territory’s first Olympic boxing medal in 2012.

The toughest fight in life is sometimes not fighting at all. “Self-discipline,” says Jackson, “is what boxing offers young people and what’s missing in many young people’s lives today.”