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.

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 and won the juniors of the 2003 YMCA International Cup in New Delhi. He was also a semifinalist in the 2003 Junior Brandenburg Cup and 2003 European Junior Championships in Warsaw. 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 he lost in the finals to Shawn Cox of Barbados, and in the quarterfinals of the 2006

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

he lost to

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

'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 and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

's 2005 GeeBee tournament and

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

's 2006 Strandja Memorial. At the

2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships The 2007 AIBA World Boxing Championships were held in Chicago, United States from October 23, 2007 to November 3, 2007. It was held at the UIC Pavilion. It was the biggest World Championships in AIBA history. The competition is under the supe ...

he beat Daniel Kooij,

Christopher Downs Christopher Downs (born November 5, 1974) is a US-American amateur boxer who won a bronze medal at the 2007 Pan American Games 2007. Career A member of the U.S. Army's World Class Athlete Program, Sergeant Christopher Downs only took up boxing ...

and Ramazan Magomedov in the preliminaries, but lost to

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

southpaw Yerkebuian Shynaliyev in the quarters. He did, however, qualify for the 2008 Olympics, becoming the first ever boxer from

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newc ...

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. Sunderland Association Football Club (, ) is an English professional football club based in the city of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. Formed in 1879, Sunderland play in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club has won six t ...

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) *Defeated Daniel Kooij (Netherlands) 13–6 *Defeated

(United States) 18–9 *Defeated Ramazan Magomedov (Belarus) 16–8 *Lost to Yerkabulan Shinaliev (Kazakhstan) 9–20

Olympic Games results

2008 (as a Light heavyweight) *1st round bye *Defeated

Eleider Álvarez Eléider Álvarez Baytar (born 8 April 1984) is a Colombian professional boxer who held the WBO light-heavyweight title from 2018 to 2019. As an amateur he won a gold medal at the 2007 Pan American Games in the light-heavyweight division. As ...

(Colombia) 5–5 *Defeated Imre Szellő (Hungary) 10–2 *Lost to

Kenneth Egan Kenneth "Kenny" Egan (born 7 January 1982) is an Irish politician and boxer from Clondalkin, Dublin best known for winning a silver medal in the final of the 81 kg, Light-Heavyweight boxing final at the 2008 Olympics. He won ...

(Ireland) 3–10
Pro Record

Professional career

Jeffries signed a professional contract with boxing promoter Frank 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

Retirement

After retiring from boxing when they couldn't heal his hands after major surgery in 2012, Tony Jeffries has been struggling for years with hand problems. He moved afterwards to Los Angeles where he waited for healing but it was never done. Tony Jeffries started to work in a gym in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...

where he met another trainer who is from

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

. They left that gym and started a boxing Bootcamp on

and they started to look for premises locally, then actor

Mickey Rourke Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke Jr. (; born September 16, 1952) is an American actor and former boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading man in drama, action, and thriller films. During the star of the 1980s, Rourke played supporting roles i ...

heard about the popular gym and invested in it. When some space was found

changed some terms on what Tony Jeffries and the other trainer originally agreed upon so they went separate ways. The

Bootcamp got voted Los Angeles' number 1 gym in 2013 on

Yelp Yelp Inc. is an American company that develops the Yelp.com website and the Yelp mobile app, which publish crowd-sourced reviews about businesses. It also operates Yelp Guest Manager, a table reservation service. It is headquartered in San F ...

and the gym Box 'N Burn was busy after just a year of opening in 2014. Tony Jeffries and the other trainer opened Box 'N Burn location number 2 in

Brentwood, Los Angeles Brentwood is a suburban neighborhood in the Westside region of Los Angeles. History General Modern development began after the establishment of the Pacific Branch of the National Home for Disabled Soldiers and Sailors in the 1880s. A sma ...

. Tony got a role in the NBC TV

Blacklist Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a 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 is head trainer for MMA fighter

Brendan Schaub Brendan Peter Schaub (born March 18, 1983) is an American podcast host, former professional mixed martial artist, and stand-up comedian. He is the host of ''The Fighter and the Kid'' podcast, the ''Below the Belt with Brendan Schaub'' podcast, ...

, cornering him on the pay per view show against

Matt Mitrione Matthew Steven Mitrione (born July 15, 1978) is an American mixed martial artist and former American football player, who competed for both the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and most recently for Bellator MMA. Prior to embarking on an MM ...

, and the career ending knockout Brandon received against

Travis Browne Travis Kuualiialoha Browne (born July 17, 1982) is an American retired mixed martial artist who last competed as a Heavyweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Background Browne was born in Hawaii to a father with Hawaiian Native ...

. He also featured in Cannonball (Skylar Grey song) video, single by

Skylar Grey Holly Brook Hafermann (born February 23, 1986), known professionally as Skylar Grey, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Mazomanie, Wisconsin. In 2004, at the age of 17, Grey signed a publishing deal with Universal Music ...

feat.

X Ambassadors X Ambassadors (also stylized XA) are an American pop rock band from Ithaca, New York. Its members currently include lead vocalist Sam Harris, keyboardist Casey Harris, and drummer Adam Levin. Russ Flynn is a touring member that plays guitar and ...

. In June 2022, Jeffries starred in a

Dhar Mann Dharminder "Dhar" Mann (born May 29, 1984) is an American entrepreneur and film producer. He is best known for his video production company, Dhar Mann Studios, that creates short films for social media platforms such as YouTube. The films targe ...

video.

References

External links

*
Official website

Blog

Bio

* Box 'N Burn {{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffries, Tony Light-heavyweight boxers English male boxers Olympic boxers of Great Britain Boxers at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Boxers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Sportspeople from Sunderland 1985 births Living people Olympic medalists in boxing English Olympic medallists Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games competitors for England