Impostor in the Ring? : Boxing: Florida panel is probing charges that fighter knocked out by Roy Jones Saturday was someone other than Derwin Richards.

The Florida State Athletic Commission is investigating charges that the boxer knocked out by Olympic silver medalist Roy Jones Jr. on Saturday is not the man he said he was.

Jones thought he beat Texas junior middleweight champion Derwin Richards. But Richards was quoted today as saying it wasn’t him.

“I was definitely not there,” Richards, a security guard at a Houston correctional facility, said in a telephone interview published by the Pensacola News-Journal. “I would like to fight Roy Jones, but that wasn’t me fighting.”

His manager, Willie Savannah, also of Houston, backed up his fighter. He said he didn’t know anything about the bout in this Florida Panhandle city, Jones’ hometown.

Jones, who lost a controversial decision in the 156-pound gold medal bout of the 1988 Olympics to Korean fighter Park Si Hun in Seoul, knocked out the mystery opponent Saturday 2 minutes, 2 seconds into the first round, advancing his professional record to 8-0, all by knockouts.

The fight is being investigated by the Florida State Athletic Commission, said Shelly Bradshaw, assistant to the panel’s executive director. She had certified the fight Saturday but agreed Monday that it was suspicious.

“At this point we would have to be logically moving in the direction that Derwin Richards did not fight here,” she said. “The next that we need to find out, and we’re already working on, is who fought here.”