SATURDAY SPOTLIGHT: From the burger stall to Olympic hall (From The Northern Echo)

SATURDAY SPOTLIGHT: From the burger stall to Olympic hall

10:10am Saturday 5th July 2008 in

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IN five weeks time, Britain's boxers will assume centre stage on the opening day of competition at the 2008 Olympic Games.

Chief Sports Writer Scott Wilson met Sunderland-born light heavyweight Tony Jeffries and discovered a poetry-loving pacifist who has swapped burgers for Beijing.

ON Saturday, August 9, Sunderland light heavyweight Tony Jeffries will take to the ring on the opening morning of the Olympic boxing programme in Beijing.

With the eyes of an expectant nation upon him, Jeffries will set the tone for an eight-strong boxing squad that has been hailed as the strongest Olympic line-up ever to leave British shores.

He will carry the standard for the rest of Britain's hopes, but while the weight of expectation on the 23-yearold's shoulders could hardly be more intense, the pressure is nothing compared with what Jeffries was experiencing 12 months ago.

On August 9 last year, the former Farringdon School pupil was running a burger van at Sunderland Enterprise Park. Two days later, he was selling hot dogs from a stand outside the Stadium of Light as Sunderland's football team kicked off their Premier League programme against Tottenham.

If he didn't make enough money, he didn't pay his mortgage and he didn't buy the petrol he needed to travel to Sheffield for his weekly training sessions with Britain's boxing squad.

Competing in the Olympics is arguably the biggest test a sportsman can face, but it is nothing compared with the pressure of putting food on the table.

So with his burger-selling days behind him, it is little wonder Jeffries is tackling his boxing career with relish.

"I've always done everything I can when it comes to my boxing," said the Sunderland ABC fighter.

"But before I qualified for the Olympics, it really wasn't making me a penny. I was boxing all over the country to make a name for myself, but I had to fit some work around that to pay for it.

"Before I was awarded lottery funding, I had to do all sorts to make ends meet. I always tried to fit things around my boxing because that was the number one priority, but it wasn't paying the bills so I had to do other things with my life as well.

"I've done various different jobs through my life, but the burger van was probably the most successful.

"It was certainly the most flexible because I could flog myself selling burgers on a weekend and leave most of my weekdays free for the boxing.

"It wasn't particularly enjoyable - I would come home on a night and my hands would be covered in grease - but it was something I had to do to pursue my dream."

Prior to buying his own burger van, Jeffries had worked as a bouncer at pubs and nightclubs in Sunderland and Durham.

The physique that enabled him to win two national schoolboy titles and a European Cadet Championship crown in the ring made him an ideal candidate to stand on some of the roughest pub doors.

But the skills that made him such a formidable boxer were difficult to transfer to the North-East's streets. After a couple of unavoidable scuffles, Jeffries found that he didn't much care for fighting.

"I worked as a doorman from the age of 18," he said. "I didn't mind it, but I decided to get out of it because the lifestyle was wrong.

"Because I was built pretty strongly, and because people knew that I liked to box, I started to get an image as a bit of a thug. People made judgements about me that were totally wrong.

"My character's entirely the opposite of that, but I was aware that people were saying certain things about me and I just thought I had to get out.

"There were other things I didn't like - the late nights weren't good for my training and, because it was before the smoking ban, my lungs always seemed to be full of cigarette smoke - but it was everything that went with it that eventually made me decide to give it up.

"Getting to the Olympics has been like a dream, but the best thing about becoming an Olympic boxer is that for the last few months, I haven't had to combine my sport with other things as well."

Instead, Jeffries has been able to devote his undivided attention to the pursuit of an Olympic medal.

His place at Beijing was secured when he beat Bulgarian Ramazan Magomedov to reach the quarter-finals of last November's World Championships in Chicago, and he has spent the last nine months honing the skills that saw him narrowly miss out on a medal when he lost to eventual champion Kenny Anderson in the quarter-finals of the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

That competition was supposed to mark the start of a prolonged run of success in the amateur ranks but, instead, a serious hand injury meant he was sidelined for the best part of a year.

The extended lay off made Jeffries question whether he would ever fight at the highest level again but, back in his native North-East, he sought solace in the most unusual of areas.

Poetry and boxing do not normally go hand in hand, but with his career falling apart around him, Jeffries found comfort in the written word.

And while his boxing might be back on track now, his poetic sensibilities sporadically continue to come to the fore.

"It's something I've always done," he said.

"But it really took hold when I was injured. I know it's not really something people associate with boxers, but I've always found it helps me relax.

"I was one of those kids that always liked to be doing something, so I found I would be writing different bits of things whenever I got bored. I guess nowadays kids would go on the internet and send emails to their mates or whatever, but I couldn't do that so I used to write poems. I started as a child and it's something I've carried on as an adult.

"The rest of the lads know about it because I wrote a poem in Pescara (Italy) during the second Olympic qualifying event.

"I wasn't fighting because I'd already qualified, but there were five lads out there trying to qualify and I wrote them a poem they could stick on the wall.

"They read it out in their meeting, and all the lads loved it and used it to motivate them for the fight.

"A few people have mentioned writing something for Beijing, but it's not something I want to do if I'm fighting myself. As long as I'm still in the competition, the pencil and paper will stay out of sight."

If Jeffries lives up to his potential, that will mean the poetry remaining on hold for the duration of the Olympic Games.

Last year's World Championships confirmed his standing among the top ten light heavyweights in the world, and his most recent displays on the European stage have increased the optimism that will accompany him to Beijing.

He will have to handle the pressure of being the first British fighter into the ring on the opening day of the Olympic competition, but provided he survives his firstround bout, most observers are talking up his medal prospects in the second week of the Games.

"This is a whole new level in my career," said Jeffries. "It's the biggest thing in sport, and this is what I've dreamed of ever since I had my first fight.

"Every athlete that competes in an Olympic Games has trained for so many years just to get there.

I've watched it all my life, and it's brilliant to think I'm going to be competing in a British vest.

"I'm scheduled to fight on the first day. That puts a tiny little bit of extra pressure on my shoulders, but it's something I'm really excited about. I get the chance to put a marker down for the rest of the British team and I'm absolutely determined to make the most of it."

From burgers to Beijing in less than a year, Jeffries has seen the Olympics turn his life on its head. All that is missing now, is a gold medal to provide the topping.