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MOSCOW, Russia – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, August 19 said he would be glad to grant a request for Russian citizenship from US boxer Roy Jones Jr as the multiple world champion visited Russian-annexed Crimea.
The 46-year-old boxer, famed for winning world titles in four different weight categories, drank tea with Putin in Crimea’s naval port city of Sevastopol, photographs released by the Kremlin showed.
Jones, who has branched out into rap and acting in films, was in Crimea to appear as a guest at a boxing show on Sunday.
“I think that if I had a Russian passport, for example, it would be a lot easier for me to come and go, because people love sport here and so I love this place,” Jones told Putin in comments translated into Russian by TASS state news agency.
Putin replied: “If you intend to link a significant part of your life with activities in Russia, then of course we will be glad and will fulfill your request to receive Russian citizenship with pleasure.”
A transcript on the Russian government’s website Kremlin quoted Jones as saying: “I want to ask you about maybe having a passport to go back and forth so that I can do business here. Because all the people here seem to love Roy Jones Jr. And I love when people love me.”
Boxing promoter Vladimir Khryunov, who works with Jones in Russia, told TASS that Jones had “no questions at all about travelling here,” despite Washington’s condemnation of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Jones has fought in Russia 3 times, being knocked out in 10 rounds by Denis Lebedev in 2011 before beating two lesser fighters on Russian soil.
Russia granted citizenship to French actor Gerard Depardieu in 2013 after he expressed his anger over French tax laws.
Putin, a judo black-belt, has previously hung out with a number of muscle-bound stars including US actor Steven Seagal and Hollywood star Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Jones (62-8, 45 knockouts) of Pensacola, Fla. was one of the biggest boxing stars of the 90s, winning titles at middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight. He remained the sport’s pound-for-pound best fighter until 2004, when he was knocked out in two rounds in a rematch with Antonio Tarver.
Jones represented the United States at the 1988 Olympics in South Korea, losing to hometown fighter Park Si-Hun in the junior middleweight gold medal match in what is considered the worst robbery in Olympic boxing history. – with reports from Ryan Songalia/Rappler.com
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