‘“Let’s go at it like this,” he says, “I didn’t have a hard life.” And with that, Carson Jones sets himself apart from so many of his peers, young men who saw the ring as an escape route, harrowing though it may be. “You know, I was adopted but adopted into a good family. If anything, I was spoiled. You know, most people say, ‘Oh, I was hard because I had a hard life’—I had an easy life, like, I was spoiled.” Jones is speaking on his preternatural toughness, one of his signature traits, and given his inauspicious start in an unforgiving sport, a crucial component of his success. And he is speaking about it honestly. Like his toughness, honesty—blunt and unsparing—defines the Oklahoma City fighter. This much is clear about Jones: he neither denies nor fears the was, is, and will be; the explanation for why is complex as it is compelling.’
Read One Life or the Other: The Return of Carson Jones on Hannibal Boxing.
In Between Rounds 