Doug Jones Destroys Tom McNeeley in Heavyweight Contest

Feb. 3, 1964 - Doug Jones, punching hard and methodically, smashed Tom McNeeley’s nose in the scheduled 10-round main event at the New York Coliseum tonight and scored a technical knockout at the end of the fifth round. Despite the blood pouring out of his nose and streaming from a cut over his left eye, McNeeley tried to go out for the sixth. Dr. Alexander Schiff of the State Athletic Commission, who had stopped the fight between rounds, was swept aside, and only the presence of Zach Clayton, the referee, kept McNeeley in his corner.

“You got nothing to be ashamed about,” said Clayton, his gray shirt pink with McNeeley’s blood. “You gave a good account of yourself.” And McNeeley had, pulling and slugging and clinching and bouncing off the ropes in the savage battle. But Doug Jones is a fine, seasoned heavyweight, and Tom McNeeley is only a heavyweight.

Jones, a 26-year-old New Yorker ranked No. 2 (behind Cassius Clay) among heavyweight contenders, was a 4-1 favorite. He weighed 194½ pounds, 13½ lighter than the bulky, crew-cut blond from Arlington, Mass.

A capacity crowd of almost 3,500 saw Jones take the early rounds easily. Jones staggered McNeeley with right hands and, somewhere in the second or third round, he landed a vicious left hook. McNeeley recalled that his nose had stung badly in those rounds and had probably been broken then. There was no stopping the blood from McNeeley’s nose in the fifth, and the broken bone was protruding from the left side, but NcNeeley came out hammering. Head down, butting and clinching, McNeeley had little left as Jones stung him on the side of the head with hooks and belted him in the midsection with right hands.

After the round, Clayton told Dr. Schiff of the protruding bone, and the commission physician halted the fight. McNeeley couldn’t believe it was over. Jones seemed glad it was.

The victory was the 23rd in 28 fights for Jones and his 17th knockout. He has drawn one bout and lost four, including a recent controversial defeat by Cassius Clay. McNeeley’s defeat was his seventh in 37 bouts.