Packing a punch

So too did the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Julian Jackson was raised by a single mother and struggled to focus without the structure that boxing would eventually provide. She was deeply spiritual and he is too, crediting God for the sporting achievements that include championships at 154 and 160 pounds.

But he used to lack the self-esteem that boxing would develop, revealing that he "didn't realize that I was going to become anything, until I got involved in boxing."

He was 12 at the time and convinced to box by a fighting friend whom he'd follow to a local gym, thereby fulfilling his mother's request that he commit to a craft.

By 16, he was brimming with confidence, and enough pop in his right hand to drop a local professional in sparring. He hadn't yet knocked anyone out, let alone world champions like Baek Inchul, Buster Drayton and Terry Norris.

"I ran over to him. 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry!' And my coach screamed out 'No, don't do that! This is part of boxing. It happens," Jackson recalled. "I couldn't believe it, but after that, I realized there was something special about my punching ability."

Special is an understatement.

Try generational or legendary.

During his outstanding career Jackson won world titles at junior middleweight and middleweight, first holding the WBA 154 pound belt before stepping up to 160 pounds where the Virgin Islander's power was every bit as devastating. He held the WBC middleweight crown on two occasions.

"It's something you are born with," Jackson told when recounting the first time he knew he had fight-ending power. "I remember as an amateur and the first time I threw a punch was against a professional and I knocked him down. I was about 17 or 18 (years old). I caught him with a right hand. That was the first time I realized I had natural power.

"I always seemed to have that power punch in the bag. I felt the power and my coach said I don't have to try to hit hard all I need to do is throw the punch because my natural ability would click in. I realized that and I really found out I had that punching ability much more than a lot of amateurs I grew up with and trained with."

Jackson won his first 29 professional bouts, with only two opponents hearing the final bell, before challenging Mike McCallum for the WBA junior middleweight crown. Though Jackson hurt McCallum in the opening round of their August 1986 showdown it was his fellow Caribbean power-puncher that came out on top, stopping Jackson in the following round.

Prodigious punching power propelled Jackson to the pinnacle of his profession. To 21 fights in Las Vegas, where he won his first world title in 1987 and fought in six additional world title bouts. And to the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame, in which he was honored at Resorts World Las Vegas alongside the 26 other boxers and boxing contributors who comprise its 2020, 2021 and 2022 classes.

He claimed 49 of his 55 victories by way of knockout, unofficially qualifying as one of the most devastating punchers in boxing history and officially earning enshrinement in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the hall's annual gala, and delayed Jackson's return to Las Vegas.