Tom Stokes is looking to make it a hat-trick of victories when he takes on experienced boxer Danny Donchev next Saturday (16th November) on EJKO Promotions’ ‘Double Trouble 2’ show at Walsall Town Hall.

The 18 year-old has made a solid start to life in the paid ranks, chalking up points victories over Bheki Moyo and Matt Seawright since turning professional in May.

The West Bromwich-born welterweight is pleased with how he has adapted to life as a pro boxer and is ready to claim a third successive victory when he steps in with Bulgarian-born Donchev.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he told uko-boxing.com. “I’ve been training for a good few weeks now and I’m feeling sharp. I’ve been pleased with how I’ve done so far.

“Bheki Moyo is a defensive fighter and Matt Seawright is very awkward. He dips really low and is hard to hit.

“Danny is an experienced fighter so it will be another learning curve tonight.”

As an amateur, Stokes fought out of both Wednesbury ABC and Wodensborough ABC. He now trains out of Errol Johnson’s Wednesbury Boxing Academy and is believes he is learning all the time working alongside the likes of British champion, Martin Gethin, and British Masters Champion, Jason Welborn.

“It’s great to be working with top fighters,” he added. “Martin and Jason are nice blokes too and always offer advice. They’re good to be around and they help you all the time.

“I’m definitely improving by being around them.”

Tickets, priced at £30 and £60 Ringside, are available from Walsall Town Hall Box Office on 0845 111 2900.

The top of the ‘Double Trouble 2’ bill sees Cradley’s Chris Male takes on Coventry’s Troy James in a British Super Featherweight Title Eliminator whilst Stourbridge’s former Midlands Area Welterweight Champion, Steven Pearce takes on Stafford’s Rob Hunt for a British Masters Welterweight strap.

Walsall’s Chris Keane takes on Jiri Svacina from Czech Republic as chief support to the two main contests and ‘Tipton Slasher’ Lee Glover steps in with Igor Tsujev at super featherweight.

Halesowen super middleweight Lennox Clarke debuts against Congo-born Didier Blanch and fellow debutant, Tipton flyweight Ainsley Ratcliffe, steps in with Csaba Kovacs. Stafford’s Grant Cunningham and Stoke’s Andy Keates have both withdrawn.

Tickets, priced at £30 and £60 Ringside, are available from Walsall Town Hall Box Office on 0845 111 2900. The aftershow party will take place at The Pitch Sports Bar and Grill, Bridge Street, Walsall.

McIntyre Hits the Title Trail - Looks To Emulate Mentor Oakey’s Successes

Portsmouth’s unbeaten Light Heavyweight prospect Joel McIntyre gets his first taste of Championship action later this month, when he faces Tichfield’s Danny Couzens for the International Light Heavyweight International Masters title at the TRAD TKO Events promoted BRAGGING RIGHTS event at South Parade Pier in Southsea, on Saturday 30th November.

Joel’s journey to potential Championship honours began with a chance meeting with local hero, WBU Light Heavyweight World Champion Tony ‘Oakey Kokey’ Oakey, who first noticed the young scrapper aggressively attacking the heavy bag at a local gym and offered his advice.

After a year or so nurturing the youngster, Tony decided to introduce Joel to his manager and coach, the esteemed Johnny Eames, head honcho of the famous TRAD TKO Boxing Gym in London.

Johnny happily welcomed the talented youngster to the team and, with Tony’s support, began guiding Joel through a series of low key fights, mainly at local shows in the Portsmouth and Southampton area.

After six resounding victories Johnny, and then recently engaged coach John Murray, felt the time was right to introduce Joel to ‘the big stage’ and negotiated an slot on the undercard of the John McDermott versus Matt Skelton title battle.

Joel came through the test with flying colours, with an excellent points victory over Darren McKenna, in doing so convinced both his coach and manager that he was just a fight or two away from a minor title shot.

Two further top class wins, over Mitch Mitchell and Jody Meikle, that followed convinced Johnny and John that Joel was ready to step up to the plate and compete for his first title.

If those wins hadn’t convinced the pair that Joel was ready, then his regular full on sparring sessions with British and Commonwealth Middleweight Champion Billy Joe Saunders and star prospect Super Middleweight prospect Frankie Buglioni, clearly would have, as the Pompey lad really came into his own against two of the top talents in the sport today.

Following his latest sparring session with Frankie Buglioni, Joel took a little time to talk about his upcoming title fight.

“I’m so pleased to be fighting for my first title and it’s in front of a home crowd as well.

I’m really up for it, I’ve never been this up for a fight before.

It’s going to be a proper derby, he’s from Tichfield, so people are saying Southampton versus Portsmouth, so that’s even more reason to get in there and have it.

He says he’s had better opposition before, that doesn’t matter, he’s never fought me, that’s all I’ve got say.

To be fair to Danny, we get on quite well, we’re pretty respectful to each other, but I’ve said it before I’m not losing this fight, I’m seriously up for this fight.

This will be the first serious step up for me and I’m really excited by it.

Been sparring with Frankie Buglioni for the past few weeks, three days a week, it’s always good sparring, so good we should be charging for tickets on the door.

Frankie’s a very good fighter, you don’t get away with things twice with him, he learns from his mistakes, the same with me, if he catches me with a good shot, he wont do again, so we’re both learning from the sparring.

You have to be switched on when you spar Frank, I think he feels the same about me, it’s really good sparring.

I come up to the TRAD TKO Gym on Monday and stay to Wednesday, and other weeks come up on Wednesday and stay until Friday.

I have to say a big thank you to Tony Oakey, it was him that in me from day one, now I’m fighting for my first title.

He’s not that involved in things these days, as far as training goes, but we do still keep in touch.

Every story has a beginning, middle and an end, Tony was definitely my introduction, he bought me up to the TKO, when he was still fighting, I was training with him for his last fight and I went to his last fight, sat ringside.

He was World Champion and definitely put our town on the map, now I’m going to try and do the same.”

Joel McIntyre versus Danny Couzens, International Masters Light Heavyweight Title clash, headlines the Johnny Eames TRAD TKO Events promoted ‘Brothers In Arms’ event at York Hall in Bethnal Green, London on Friday 18th October 2013.

Tickets, priced £25 (Standard) - £70 (Ringside and Meal) - £10 (Under 18 years old) are available direct from Joel McIntyre – Tel: 07557 516657

In a move to quench its rather large boxing stakeholders in the (Africa, Mideast, Arabian & Persian Gulf (AMEPG) region and at the same time implement its buoyant pet sports tourism program known as the "IBF Sports Tourism", the IBF/Africa President will jet to  Dubai, the capital city of the United Arab Emirate to discuss a host of sports tourism protocols. 

On the heels of the impending historical visit would be the preparations to launch the "IBF Arabian Peninsula" titles that would be based in Dubai in the UAE Kingdom and cater for the entire Arabian Peninsula region

Under the management of Onesmo Alfred McBride Ngowi, IBF/Africa has expanded its wing rapidly to include the countries in the Mideast, Arabian and Persian Gulf region that make it a strong continental boxing organization in this part of the world.

Already, the IBF AMEPG titles has become very popular with boxers in the region as number of up and coming and experienced boxers rally for the titles.

It is obvious to conclude that IBF/Africa is perhaps the most strongest and beneficial boxing organization in the region that look after the welfare of its stakeholders most closely!

The move to setup "IBF Arabian Peninsula" titles would rejuvenate the boxing interests as well as tourism activities in the Arabian region which is now looking to diversify its oil and gas dependent economy.

The history of Dubai provides a very sober and interesting understanding to tourists of all ages as it has been known for its Arab population ever since it was established.

Dubai is a diminution of the word Daba meaning baby locusts, an Arabic proverbs says "they came with Daba Dubai" meaning they came with a swarm of locusts from this area.

Some claim that "Dubai" can be found in many stories. One of them is about a woman who was called Dubaa and who lived in the area while other refers to an insect that used to crawl or tadboo.

That "Daba" is derived from the word Yadub, which means to creep. The word refers to the process by which the creek creeps into the land. The term is likened to the way a snakes creeps into the sand."

Others say the name's origins can be attributed to the term Dubbor [bee], which are also called Dibi [bees].

In the 1820s, Dubai was referred to as "Al Wasl" in books by British historians. That geographical record included the present-day areas of Jumeirah, Shindagha, Deira and Bur Dubai.

The area across the creek is known as Deira. "It [Deira] does not mean a house or Deyar of Bani Abis, but it means al estedarah, or roundness," a term describing the (rounded) shape of the creek when it joins land, Handhal says. "We do not know exactly why it is called Dubai.

However, researchers have come to two different conclusions about the nomenclature. "Dubai as a name was mentioned in the sixth century in books as a name of a location," Al Budoor says. But "the mind is comfortable with certain stories while other narratives seem very unlikely". Very little evidence can be found about the origins of Dubai except for references in stories narrated by the elderly of Dubai.

As its rich history draws in many to this oil and gas rich Kingdom, so as IBF/Africa ………!