Amari Jones shines bright as rising prospect on Barrios-Garcia bill

The Richardson Hitchins vs. Oscar Duarte co-main event being scrapped due to Hitchins coming down with an unspecified illness paved the way for Amari Jones to slide into the DAZN PPV portion of the Mario Barrios vs. Ryan Garcia main card Saturday night.

The 23-year-old middleweight prospect made the most of his opportunity by knocking down and stopping veteran Luis Arias at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to kick off the stacked card with the biggest win of his career.

Jones pummeled Arias to the point where the latter’s corner ended the fight at the end of the fourth round.

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The highlight of the fight came in the second round when Jones evaded a right hook, only to uncork a compact left hook across Arias’ jaw for an electric knockdown.

Though Arias hung tough with pure guts, even catching Jones with a few flush counters, Jones continued to walk the vet down.

During the third and fourth rounds, he was essentially teeing off on Arias, blasting him at will. A rabbit punch dropped Arias during the fourth, though it was not registered as an official knockdown.

Jones, backed by Golden Boy Promotions and trained by Virgil Hunter, pulverized Arias until the bell, after which the veteran's corner had seen enough.

With the victory, Jones improves to 16-0 (14 KOs) in further positioning himself as a looming threat in the middleweight division.

“I wanted to cement myself as a prospect, as a contender,” Jones told DAZN’s Chris Mannix, “and I feel like I did that tonight.”