Tony "Jaffa Cakes" Jeffries

An Olympic medal was once the fast track to professional success, a who's who of champions have won medals of various colours. Although you may not expect a lot of bronze medal winners some top current fighters who “only” won bronze include Floyd Mayweather Jr, Jermain Taylor and Andre Dirrell...however Britains Tony Jeffries doesn't seem likely to emulate them in terms of professional success from looking at his recent fights.

Although a popular north eastern lad from Britain who has a relatively large following and was a very solid amateur with good basic skills his professional careers seems to be more of a failure than many would have thought just 12 months ago. Jeffries in July '09 was 3-0 having stopped all his opponents and looking relatively impressive in doing so, it appeared he had turned over well and that the professional game was suited to him at the early novice stage. Though since then, when he's faced fighters unwilling to just fall over he's generally struggled to impress the fans that had come out to see him.

First was a lacklustre points victory over Artsiom Salomka, but that was fine, Jeffries was only fighting in his 4th contest and Salomka was experienced, durable and hard to look good against. Having not been stopped in around 4 years Salomka was no push over and managed to test Jeffries' stamina over 6 rounds. A confidence building blow out over Andrejs Tolstihs helped to again get the public behind Jeffries, though Tolstihs just didn't look like he wanted to be there, dropped 3 times in the opening round it seemed to be a badly made match (though on paper Tolstihs looked durable enough, he turned out not to be). Though since then Jeffries has failed to shine in 2 of his 3 contest being pushed hard by British journeyman Nathan King over 6 rounds in which “Jaffa” seemed to fade and was cut late on the cheek in the 6th. Though he deservedly got the win he'd been given a tough test against against a fighter that wasn't meant to be a solid test but “just another win”. King had been beaten in 6 straight going in (stopped in 2 of them) and had generally been tough but not one to be scared of, his record of 12-15 said it all, he was a win some-lose some type, but a fighter as touted as Jeffries should have won easier than he did.

Matt Hainy was another confidence builder lasting into the second round though in Jaffa's most recent fight he was lucky to escape with a draw as Michael Banbula hammered him for the final 2 rounds and seemed to split the opening 6 rounds pretty fairly. Banbula's 10-25-3 record going in seemed to look very unimpressive going in though he proved to be better than those numbers as he was arguably robbed of a win. Though the fight was Jeffries first 8 rounder (and he claimed he had only trained for 6) it showed up more flaws in the bronze medal winner who was again given a cut. Jeffries seemed to have terrible stamina huffing and puffing for the final 2 rounds in a relatively casual paced fight, he was defensively open and shaken badly by Banbula, a fighter who had never scored a stoppage. More tellingly though was that he appeared to lack the mental attitude to fight the final 2 rounds.

Having turned over with plenty of hype behind him he's been exposed as a flawed fighter who appears, at this point, to lack the tools he'll need to really make a mark on the professional scene.

A look forward and a look backwards

So with this weekend being the biggest test of Nathan Cleverly's career as well as being the biggest test for Khetag Kozaev against the tough Makhankov (fight previewed in more detail here) could be one to keep a look out for in regards of the result. However some thing that boxing fans often forget is the true warriors of yesteryear, not those of the 1960's and 70's, the likes of Frazier, Foreman and of course Ali who will never be forgotten but those from back in the days of the prewar warriors. Fighters like Sullivan, Corbett, Fitzsimmons and Jeffries have established places in history, though the same can't be said about the forgotten sailor, Tom Sharkey the teak tough  Irish warrior.

As a result of this piece I've decided to take a look at the greatest Irish "boxers" of all time in an article for both Helium and associated content. Surprisingly the list of names I've been thinking (which I have included Sharkey and Peter Maher for) is actually longer than I personally expected (despite the article only including 5 in the final list). Having done similar lists for "English born" and "Scottish born" fighter this may become a weekly or a monthly thing looking at the top fighters from not only the specific eras but also nations and even areas in the future. An interesting subject despite what many may feel, it seems certain countries do have peculiar penchant for producing more than their fair share of top class talent. Puerto Rico for example have an alarming amount of top fighters, ditto for the Philippines (especially at the moment), whilst Russia and China have been sleeping giants in the sport. Although it's true the East are an arising force in boxing you'd expect with their size that they would have already started the charge and base it from Russia not through Germany.

The heavyweight kings of the 1890's

For those that did the first quiz in the heavyweight series, they may be interested in this article on the top heavyweight fighters of the 1890's, according to Helium.com this is actually a "history" article and not a sports article but whatever. For those who are fans of learning the old stuff in boxing, Tom Sharkey may well be one of the most forgotten fighters in the history of the sport and so expect an article on him when www.ringnews24.com is up and running. For those who would rather have a quiz the second part of my Heavyweight Boxing Quiz is now on Hubpages as is the 3rd and 4th (Joe Louis and the Post Louis era) parts which will go up over the next few days.

So what about this coming weekend, say what you want but it's the biggest fight in Nathan Cleverly's short career, one that promises to be one of the greatest in British history, as he takes on the Italian veteran Antonio Brancalion on Saturday. A fight that I may be able to preview some time before Saturday. Also on the same card are a bunch of the hottest British prospects in Kevin Mitchell, James DeGale, Frankie Gavin and Derek Chisora as well as the Walsh brothers. One I'm taking a personal interest in is the fight with the young KO machine Khetag Kozaev who's 8-0 (8KO's) record has come against mainly poor fighters but he's just 19. His opponent is the relatively tough Konstantin Makhankov who has been stopped once in 34 fights, that was when Makhankov's corner threw in the towel against Victor Oganov. A 9th straight stoppage for Kozaev will quickly see him getting a huge win for a man so young.

In America, Las Vegas to be precise there is an enthralling card that features several big names and a few intriguing contests:
Nonito Donaire v Gerson Guerrero (Prediction-a barn burner with Donaire winning late in an enthralling contests)
Fernando Montiel v Ciso Morale (Prediction- Montiel every day and twice on Sunday's, not sure what the 22 year old "Kid Terrible" has done to deserve this fight)
Gerry Penalosa v Eric Morel (Prediction- I think Penalosa will win this but it will be a classic fight that will almost certainly go under the radar. Definitely one of Penalosa's final fights of a brilliant career)
Bernabe Concepcion v Mario Santiago (Prediction- One I'm not sure on but it's a great fight between 2 young stars in the making)
Also on that card is Matt Korobov.

Boxing is dead? Hardly.

This blog may not see an immediate update after the fights due to the wonderful woman in my life being one whom isn't a big fight girl, though it will be updated sometime afterwards. Hopefully with a preview of both the Kozaev and the Cleverly fights.