By Terence Dooley
Sunderland’s Tony Jeffries is enjoying life in Los Angeles under the watchful eye of top trainer Tommy Brooks. The 26-year-old former Olympic bronze medalist decided to relocate after struggling to a draw with Michael Banbula last July, a fight that saw ‘Jaffa’ raise his hands after six rounds only to discover that the bout was, in fact, scheduled for eight-threes. The ‘Mighty Mackem’ is financing the switch as he bids to progress as a professional pugilist.
“It is great, I’m really enjoying it and learning all the time with Tommy Brooks because he is a top coach. It is costing me a bomb but I have shown that I’m prepared to go away to train with the best,” enthused Jeffries.
“I’ve had time out because of work on my left eye caused by an injury in my last fight [a second round KO win over Tommy Tolan in Ireland last December]. I needed to get the work done straight after the last fight and can’t wait to be out again. I’m getting top quality sparring.
“I got a massive cut last time, he was a bit dirty with the head and was looking for it because he wasn’t beating me any other way. It is good to be out there in a different country because there is no pressure on the sparring the way there is over here. Every time I sparred there’d be people wanting to watch and video it but over there I’m just another lad in the gym and am having hard spars.”
Brooks has trained Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Wladimir Klitschko and Vassiliy Jirov, the veteran trainer boasts former four-time world heavyweight champion Holyfield amongst his gym’s customers. Jeffries revealed that ‘Commander’ Evander has welcomed him into the pack.
“Tommy and me get on really well, the set-up is wicked, he’s a top coach and I’m training alongside a legend in Evander Holyfield. Evander told me a few things that I could do like taking a couple of rounds to get into a fight when moving from amateur to pro and all sorts of useful things. It is great to be around someone like that, he inspires and motivates you to get into great shape. I am coming on in leaps and bounds,” insisted the light-heavyweight.
Tony, though, was heavily criticized after the struggle with Banbula, with some questioning his professionalism when he lost his way upon discovering that the fight was going to continue for two rounds longer than anticipated. The Frank Maloney-promoted prospect smiled ruefully when talk turned to the only blemish on his record.
“I was going to pull out three weeks before because training hadn’t gone very well, I’d had an injury, but we agreed on a six rounder, which is what I’d trained for, only for the bell to ring in round six and for the ref to tell me there were two more rounds. I was absolutely gutted,” he recalled.
“It is like training for a six mile run then learning that you have to do another two miles at the end of it. He won the last two rounds and ended up with the draw. He was an awkward opponent but I was in there to get the win and thought I’d got it. I’ve put a line under that now and think I’d knock him out if I got him again. Getting all that stick was horrible at the time but it has made us a lot stronger and made sure that I know how to deal with it, maybe it is a good thing.”
He added, “I want to get back to being busy, fighting every six weeks, but got the cut in my last fight. I think I’ll be out in June or July, hopefully back in Sunderland as I’ve not been there for a while and can’t wait to fight there again.”
Fellow Olympian James DeGale and former World Amateur Champion Frankie Gavin have stolen a march on Jeffries; the 8-0-1 (6) boxer believes that the success of his two amateur stable mates bodes well for his own career trajectory.
“It is great to see them all doing well. It is phenomenal that James DeGale has already won a British title by beating a very good champion in Paul Smith. Frankie has beat Michael Lomax and they both boxed really well. It shows that the lads coming through are good fighters. I want to be grabbing titles by the end of the year or as soon as possible. It is one fight at a time for me for now. I need to keep on learning over in America,” he mused.
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