Tony Jeffries

Tony David Jeffries (born 2 March 1985) is an English former professional boxer who won a bronze medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics. In 2012, an undefeated Jeffries was forced to retire due to hand injuries.

Tony Jeffries
Jeffries in 2008
Statistics
Real nameTony David Jeffries
(born Tony David Bryce)
Nickname(s)Jaffa
the Mighty Mackem
Weight(s)Light-heavyweight
Height6 ft 2 in (188 cm)[1]
NationalityEnglish
Born (1985-03-02) 2 March 1985
Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England
StanceOrthodox[1]
Boxing record[2]
Total fights10
Wins9
Wins by KO6
Losses0
Draws1
Medal record
Men's amateur boxing
Representing  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place Beijing 2008 Light-heavyweight
European Championships
Representing  England
Silver medal – second place 2008 Cetniewo Light-heavyweight
Bronze medal – third place 2004 Madrid Light-heavyweight
Bronze medal – third place 2005 Cagliari Light-heavyweight

Life and career

Jeffries was born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear and grew up around the East Herrington area of the city whilst attending Farringdon Community Sports College. He began to box at the age of ten, inspired by his uncle William Young "Billy" Bryce, a former professional boxer. He joined Sunderland Amateur Boxing Club, and in 1999 won the School Boys' Championships, gold in the European Cadets (U17) in 2001 [3] and won the juniors of the 2003 YMCA International Cup in New Delhi.[4] He was also a semifinalist in the 2003 Junior Brandenburg Cup[5] and 2003 European Junior Championships in Warsaw.[6]

He has won nine National titles and fought for England/Great Britain 56 times, having a total of 106 fights (96 amateur & 10 professional).

On 18 November 2011, Jeffries married his childhood sweetheart. The couple has three daughters. In January 2012, they both moved to Santa Monica, California.

He has two sisters.

At the 2005 Commonwealth Championships[7] he lost in the finals to Shawn Cox of Barbados, and in the quarterfinals of the 2006 Commonwealth Games[8] he lost to Scotland's tourney winner Kenny Anderson at light-heavy (had right hand surgery after). In other open international competitions, he was a finalist in Kaunas Lithuania's 2005 Szocikas Tournament[9] and Finland's 2005 GeeBee tournament[10] and Bulgaria's 2006 Strandja Memorial.[11]

At the 2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships he beat Daniel Kooij, Christopher Downs and Ramazan Magomedov in the preliminaries, but lost to Kazakhstan southpaw Yerkebuian Shynaliyev in the quarters. He did, however, qualify for the 2008 Olympics, becoming the first ever boxer from Tyne and Wear to do so. He won a bronze medal after losing to the Irish Boxer Kenny Egan in the semi-final round. Not long after, he presented his medal to the Sunderland people at the Stadium of Light, being a supporter of Sunderland A.F.C.[12][13][14] Jeffries signed his first professional contract during the half-time break of Sunderland's match against the Bolton Wanderers on Saturday 29 November, after a row over unpaid bonuses from the Amateur Boxing Association of England.

On 23 September 2012, Tony Jeffries announced on Facebook that he has retired. The numerous issues with his hands and unsuccessful surgery and treatment left him with no choice but to retire. Tony now owns and works at Box 'N Burn boxing gym in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, with Kentucky fitness expert Kevan Watson.

World Amateur Championships results

2007 (as a Light heavyweight)

Olympic Games results

2008 (as a Light heavyweight)

Pro Record

Professional career

Jeffries signed a professional contract with boxing promoter Kellie Maloney in January 2009. On 27 February, Jeffries won his debut fight at super middleweight on the Munroe-Martinez undercard in a first-round knockout of Aliaksandr Vaiavoda in Barnsley.

Jeffries won his second professional fight on home soil in impressive fashion. He produced another TKO at the Crowtree Leisure Centre to defeat Roy Meissner.

Jeffries racked up five more wins before a disappointing draw with Michael Banbula in July 2010 due to a mix up in rounds, Jeffries thinking he was going into a 6-round fight but after the 6 rounds he got told he had 2 rounds left and lost the last 2 rounds and ended up drawing the fight.

Professional boxing record

10 fights 9 wins 0 losses
By knockout 6 0
By decision 3 0
Draws 1
No. Result Record Opponent Type Round, time Date Location Notes
10 Win 9–0–1 United Kingdom Paul Morby PTS 8 3 Sep 2011 United Kingdom Doncaster, England
9 Win 8–0–1 Republic of Ireland Tommy Tolan KO 2 (8), 1:03 15 Dec 2010 United Kingdom Belfast, Northern Ireland
8 Draw 7–0–1 Poland Michael Banbula PTS 8 23 Jul 2010 United Kingdom Houghton-le-Spring, England
7 Win 7–0 United Kingdom Matt Hainy TKO 2 (6), 2:04 4 Jun 2010 United Kingdom Peterlee, England
6 Win 6–0 United Kingdom Nathan King PTS 6 23 Apr 2010 United Kingdom Coventry, England
5 Win 5–0 Latvia Andrejs Tolstihs TKO 1 (6), 2:17 11 Dec 2009 United Kingdom Newport, Wales
4 Win 4–0 Belarus Artsiom Salomka PTS 6 16 Oct 2009 United Kingdom Sunderland, England
3 Win 3–0 Belarus Iliya Shakura TKO 1 (4), 1:36 10 Jul 2009 United Kingdom Sunderland, England
2 Win 2–0 Germany Roy Meissner TKO 2 (4), 1:27 2 May 2009 United Kingdom Sunderland, England
1 Win 1–0 Belarus Aliaksandr Vaiavoda TKO 1 (4), 2:42 27 Feb 2009 United Kingdom Barnsley, England

Retirement


Jefferies retired from boxing after his hands failed to heal following surgery attempting to address his long-term struggle with hand issues in 2012.[15] Following his retirement, he moved to Los Angeles where he waited anticipating this healing process. Tony Jeffries started to work in a gym in Santa Monica where he met another trainer who is from Kentucky. Jefferies and his fellow trainer left this gym and started a boxing Bootcamp in Santa Monica which received investment from actor Mickey Rourke.[16][17][18] The terms of the premises were changed by Mickey Rourke, contrary to what Jeffries and the other trainer originally agreed upon so they went separate ways. The Santa Monica Bootcamp got voted Los Angeles' number 1 gym in 2013 on Yelp and the gym Box 'N Burn was successful after just a year of opening in 2014.[19] Jeffries and the other trainer opened Box 'N Burn's second location in Brentwood, Los Angeles. Alongside his ventures in boxing, Jefferies played a role in NBC TV's Blacklist in 2013 and was one of the figures in Levi's world campaign in the same year. His Levi's modelling pictures were on billboards across the world. Tony was also the head trainer for MMA fighter Brendan Schaub, cornering him for his bouts against Matt Mitrione, and Travis Browne, which ultimately led to Schaub's retirement.[20] He has also featured in the video for Cannonball (Skylar Grey song). In June of 2022, Jeffries also starred in a Dhar Mann video.

References

  1. "BoxRec: Tony Jeffries". BoxRec. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  2. "Boxing record for Tony Jeffries". BoxRec.
  3. "European Cadet Championships 2001". amateur-boxing.strefa.pl. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  4. "International YMCA Cup - New Delhi, India - February 3-8 2003". amateur-boxing.strefa.pl. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  5. "8.Brandenburg Cup - Frankfurt n/Oder, Germany - July 17-20 2003". amateur-boxing.strefa.pl. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  6. "18.European Junior Championships - Warsaw, Poland - August 22-30 2003". amateur-boxing.strefa.pl. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  7. "CommonwealthChamps2005". amateur-boxing.strefa.pl. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  8. "CommonwealthGames2006". amateur-boxing.strefa.pl. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  9. "KaunasTournament_Szocikas2005". amateur-boxing.strefa.pl. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  10. "GeeBee2005". amateur-boxing.strefa.pl. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  11. "Strandjata2006". www.amateur-boxing.strefa.pl. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  12. "Olympic boxer Tony Jeffries named as ambassador for Sunderland's Fans Museum - this is how he will help". www.sunderlandecho.com. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  13. "Tony Jeffries named as ambassador for the Fans Museum". Fans Museum. 13 September 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  14. Caulkin, George. "Tony Jeffries to put fight in Ricky Sbragia's Sunderland men". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  15. "Eric Del Fierro: game plan was for Alex Gustafsson to stop Jon Jones". www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  16. "Gym buddies". SkySports. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  17. "Rourke teams up with Jeffries". SkySports. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  18. "Sunderland boxer Tony Jeffries to retire". ITV News. 23 September 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  19. Anderson, David (8 August 2012). "Best of British: Beijing medalist says current crop of Team GB boxers are best ever". mirror. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  20. "Brendan Schaub's new approach paying dividends". thewhig. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
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