By Terence Dooley
Tony Jeffries closes out his first year as a pro in Newport, Wales later tonight when he tussles with Andrejs Tolstihs over six three-minute rounds. Jeffries, an Olympic bronze medallist, has been given assurances by promoter Frank Maloney that 2010 will be just as busy as 2009 for the Sunderland boxer.
“Tony has impressed everyone with the start he's made in professional boxing,” said Frank when speaking to the Sunderland Echo. “This is the 100th fight of his career, but amateur boxing is completely different from the pros so he's still engaged in a learning process at the moment. I have to be careful not to ask him to do too much too quickly.”
“His opponents will get progressively better and he'll be stretched more as time goes on,” declared the veteran promoter. “He'll enjoy a nice break over Christmas and then I'd like him to go further afield to train – go into Europe and over to America to see how they work. It would do him good to see some different training and fighting styles.”
Jeffries is happy at the thought of learning his trade in America’s rough, tough gyms. “I'm focussed on doing really well tonight and then next year looks like being exciting again. I want to make progress and get as much experience as I can so it would be good to train abroad. I've trained in New York and Philadelphia when I was amateurs and they definitely do things a bit different over in the States, which would hopefully help me get better,” declared the 24-year-old boxer.
Tony, 4-0 (3), turned over in February, blowing away Aliaksandr Vayavoda at 2:42 of the first round. However, he looked laboured in his last bout, a points win over Artem Solomko, and later revealed to Boxingscene that he had been too eager to please his hometown fans. This time, though, Tony is boxing away from home and he should be relaxed, focussed and able to get Tolstihs, who has been stopped four times in sixteen defeats, out off there.
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