Boxing News

Posts Tagged ‘Johnny Eames’

By Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro

On Saturday night British Light Welterweight Champ Ashley ‘Treasure’ Theophane defended his coveted Lonsdale belt against late replacement Ben Murphy.

Whilst Theophane did manage to retain his title, it was far from a convincing win, and it was the challenger who received all the plaudits, probably because he dominated the fight and all ringside judges had Hove’s Murphy firmly ahead on points at the start of the eleventh.

No surprise then that most of the media reports make a big point that Theophane was very, very lucky to get the win in the end, as well as lavish praise on Murphy for his magnificent performance. Something I readily agree with especially knowing the circumstances surrounding the fight - Murphy took the fight at just a couple of days notice, fought at a higher weight division than he normally does and more importantly had been cut during the successful defense of his Southern Area Lightweight title just two weeks earlier.

As such I really wanted to get an inside track on this mighty warrior, as well as the fight itself, so rather than talk with Murphy so soon after the fight Instead I spoke with his coach Johnny Eames at his famous fight factory The TRAD TKO Boxing Gym in Canning Town.

However before we get onto the interview with the esteemed Mr Eames I thought it sensible to give a very brief rundown on the fight for those that hadn’t been lucky enough to watch Murphy’s magnificent performance.

Murphy completed dominated the first half of the fight, he took the fight to the bigger man, pinning Theophane on the ropes and letting rip with nonstop venomous salvos, to win the first five rounds easily. Theophane had a little more success in the sixth, but still not enough I felt to win the round - mainly because it was clear that it was Murphy that was still in full control.

Round seven see the Tasmanian Devil Dog like Murphy completely tie up the champ, as in the early rounds, to secure the round, even though Theophane had managed to tear a nasty gash over Murphy’s right eye - On this point some reports say was the result of a left uppercut, whilst various of those present ringside, including his coach Johnny Eames, claim this was due to the dubious use of the elbow.

Either way at the end of the day Murphy was badly cut, something that clearly affected him, as such initially he seemed wary to go full pelt as previously, which allowed Theophane to actually gain some semblance of success for the next couple of rounds.

Round eleven sees Murphy fly out the traps and again take the fight to the Champ and keeps the pressure up for a minute or so. As soon as the major assault subsides Theophane starts one of his own. Theophane steps up the pace and continues to do so until the referee Howard Foster steps in and stops the fight on the 2 minute 33 second mark.

Interestingly many pundits disagreed with the ref stepping in and stopping the fight at this point, including myself, but it was surprisingly refreshing that Johnny Eames didn’t, something he explains during the following interview.

Rio -First question I have to ask is just how did this fight actually come about?

Johnny- Frank Maloney called me on Tuesday evening and asked me if Michael Grant wanted to fight Ashley Theophane for the British title as Nigel Wright unfortunately had a problem with his brain scan - obviously my sympathies go out to Nigel Wright, who’s a good friend of mine. I spoke to him up there and hopefully all will be all right once they get the second opinion - I said Michael wasn’t available and maybe he should try Peter McDonagh, who trains here in the gym.

Obviously the answer was that he couldn’t do it, so I said look I’ve got another guy here, who I don’t actually manage, but train and I’ll have a word with him, Ben Murphy, I said the only problem is he only fought two weeks ago and in that fight he got cut, so it was a big if Ben would be willing to take the fight.

That was a stupid question really, because I phoned Ben, maybe I should have rang his manager first but I always have a sort of special relationship with my fighters and I rang Ben he answered immediately I said do you want to fight for the British title Saturday, bearing in mind this was Tuesday and the answer was yes. He didn’t ask who, where, how much, what weight, nothing!

Obviously it was a step up in weight, which was a gamble, but I worked with Ashley (Theophane) for two or three years and I know Ashley quite well. I knew that Ben was the kind of fighter that Ashley really didn’t like fighting. The big question mark over the fight was it was two weeks since he fought and had been back in the gym once, all right he did a couple of runs and he always keeps himself fit.

We hadn’t prepared for it, but that’s all right because Ashley hadn’t prepared for us - then again how can you prepare for Ben Murphy - you know he was prepared to fight Nigel Wright, a southpaw, and now he’s got a little bull like animal who wants to rip his head off with every punch he throws.

Rio - You touched on my next question, normally Ben fights at Super Featherweight and Lightweight, didn’t you worry about him stepping up to Light Welter so quickly.

Johnny- If it had been any other Light Welterweight in the Country I might have been a bit concerned, but I know Ashley quite well, he aint what you call a big puncher, he’s quite accurate but not a big puncher so I knew Ben would be able to deal with the power.

Ben walks around at 10st 4lbs, 10st 5lbs and he makes Lightweight quite comfortably and he did make Super Featherweight for Prizefighter, so he’s pretty flexible. He’s a good liver so he can keep the weight on or take it off as it makes no difference for him, so we virtually fought at walking around weight.

Ben’s a different animal, yeah it was a gamble, but a calculated gamble.

Rio- Ben’s only been with you around six weeks or so, so I assume a lot of what we see was his normal fight style and not that you have bought much on board yet.

Johnny- When he came to me he had three weeks ‘til his Southern Area title defense, there’s nothing I can teach in three weeks, not even Superman could teach anyone anything in three weeks, and there’s a lot better trainers than me out there (Rio - I doubt there are many better, with the levels of Championship success Johnny has had over the years) that would tell you that you couldn’t teach anyone anything new in just three weeks, so we just had to make sure he was ready for a ten rounder, which he was.

After the first fight I said we’ll get you in the gym and I’ll start teaching you some of the things you need to know. He was due to be in this Monday to start our coaching for fights after Christmas.

Obviously it’s not how I want him to fight, but for Ashley it’s the way he had to fight. I spoke to him beforehand and said that there’s things I want to teach you to do, but said to him for this fight just go out there and do what you do, because he had to do what he does. It aint pretty but it’s effective.

Rio- Now I’m going to get onto the fight itself - unfortunately I couldn’t get up to Sunderland so I watched it on TV - I thought he did amazingly well and that the stoppage was early, but please tell me how you see that fight.

Johnny- I was amazed at how he could back Ashley up so easily in the first six rounds, I mean at first I thought Ashley was having a look to see what Ben’s got to offer. I knew he hadn’t prepared for Ben, all good fighters can adapt during a fight and Ashley is a good fighter.

As I said I thought Ashley was just having a look, then after the first round went, and then the second and then the third went I realised he couldn’t deal with it.

Ben was very fired up, I was asking Ben not to put power in every shot, unfortunately that side of it we haven’t taught him that yet and he just went round after round.

I had us win the fist six rounds, without a shadow of a doubt. For me personally I had us lose the next four, going into the eleventh I had us two up. I believe, no I know for definite because I spoke with the judges, that one judge had Ben five up going into the eleventh, one had him four up and one had him one round up.

In hindsight if I had known that I would have told Ben to go out there and hang on him for dear life, but not knowing if he’d be able to do that or not, because that’s not his style.

Everybody was in his favour, at the end of the tenth round, I think it was, he came back - he was cut in the second round, it was a cut that he got two weeks before and we knew it would reopen, and then cut again in the seventh round - and he’d started to get beaten up a bit, I’m not someone that I’m not one for letting my fighters get beat up so I said to him unless you win this eleventh round I’m not letting you out for the twelfth.

Obviously partly to fire him up but also to make him aware he was taking too many shots. Unfortunately the referee didn’t let him get back to the corner, but a lot of people who watched it on TV said they didn’t feel the stoppage was justified, from ringside it was and Howard (Foster) did a good job, a very good job.

Ben did everyone of us proud, when we went back to the hotel the officials stood and clapped us in, I’ve never seen that before.

The bottom line is that it could open doors for Ben in his own weight division.

Rio -Again you’ve touched on my next question - what’s next for Ben.

Johnny - Ben is a Lightweight, he really is a Lightweight, he will do Lightweight again and he will be fighting at Lightweight in the next fight.

I’d love to think, and reading the reports and website that everybody thinks that Ben should be mandatory challenger for the British Lightweight title. I’d love to think he would.

Anthony Crolla is a good friend of mine, Joe Gallagher is a good friend of mine, but I’m pretty certain if they was watching that they wont be fancying facing Ben Murphy at Lightweight and I’m pretty certain that he could go and take the title from Anthony.

Rio- So if he does get the shot and wins the title, do see Ben progressing further than that?

Johnny- I never look beyond the British level with one of my fighters until they win it and defend it and then we look to see what’s around. The Lightweight division on the European scene is a very good division.

I’m not saying Ben aint good enough, but let’s see what happens with the British title first and then we’ll see where we go after that.

Rio- You’ve only had five weeks working with Ben, what’s your absolute honest opinion of him.

Johnny- The American trainer that was with Ashley said to me after the fight ‘put that man back in the cage, he should be on chains.’ That’s exactly what he is, he’s a total throwback, he’s not scared of anybody or anything.

When he was up here training with Bryan Lawrence, he’s a Lightweight but he was sparring with Middleweights because the lighter weights didn’t want to spar with him. That’s the kind of kid he is and any fighter that has Ben’s attitude I’ll give them as much time as I can.

As a character and as a person he’s amazing, he’s just amazing you know I’ve never had a fighter with such a positive thinking way of fights. In his mind no one can beat him and he don’t care who he fights.

I just wish there were a lot more fighters like him out there. Fighters these days are picky, want to be guaranteed wins, this kid don’t give a shit, he’ll fight whoever you put in front of him.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

By Rio

London - Thursday, 8th December 2011

British Title Shot Is A Golden Opportunity For Me Says Murphy

Just thirteen days ago Ben Murphy successfully defended his BBBofC Southern Area Lightweight Title, with a magnificent fourth round stoppage of Tony Owen at the Coronet Theatre in Southwark, London.

This coming Saturday the tough, pit bull like, thirty one year old from Hove will move up a weight division to challenge Ashley Theophane for his British Light Welterweight title at the Frank Maloney Promotions event at the Peterlee Leisure Centre.

Murphy got what he describes as a ‘Golden Opportunity’ following the proposed opponent, Nigel Wright, being forced to step aside on medical grounds.

Following a training session, under the watchful eyes of his coach Johnny Eames at the TRAD TKO Boxing Gym in Canning Town, an elated Murphy spoke briefly on his unexpected shot at the British title, “I keep pinching myself and asking myself is it real, you know.

Yeah I know it’s not even two weeks ago I fought Tony Owen, so this may seem too soon to some, but it didn’t go the distance, it was a fourth round stoppage.

Tony’s pretty decent, a good boxer, but I bullied him really, I bullied my way in and stretched him.

I knew that was going to happen. I may have been able to out box him as well, but I just knew I was going to take him out and finish the job. I just didn’t want to wait around, so got it done quick and kept my Southern Area title.

It’s good I done the job so quickly because now I’ve got a shot at a British title against Ashley (Theophane) on Saturday.

I still can’t believe it’s happening. Johnny (Eames) called me up on Tuesday and said do you want to take the fight.

Yeah, I jumped at the chance, it’s a golden opportunity for me to come out and prove to people what I can do.

I don’t know Ashley personally, I know he used to train here at the TKO, I’ve seen him fight and seen him spar so I’ve seen a little of him.

He’s a decent fighter, you can’t take that away from him, that’s why I’m so excited for this opportunity.

If I go in there and do this job - I’m so positive, I can see visions of me winning this fight you know. There’s no negatives in my mind about this fight, it’s all positive visions coming to me - I see the British title coming back with me.

When I do that I’m rolling from there and I’m looking forward to it.”

Ashley Theophane versus Ben Murphy, for the British Light Welterweight title, headlines the Frank Maloney Promotions event at Peterlee Leisure Centre, Peterlee, Tyne and Wear on Saturday 10th December 2011, and broadcast live and exclusive on Sky Sports HD1.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

By Rio

London - Monday, 28th November 2011

Title Shot For Nathan Weise, Faces Steve O’Meara On 14th December

One of the most exciting young prospects from Johnny Eames’ always excellent TRAD TKO stable, ‘Sugar’ Nathan Weise, gets his first taste of Championship action - when he challenges West Drayton’s Steve O’Meara for the Southern Area Light Middleweight title on December 14th.

Weise-O’Meara will be chief support to the Lee Selby versus John Simpson British Featherweight title clash at Francis and George Warren’s Queensberry Promotions event at York Hall in Bethnal Green on Wednesday, 14th December and broadcast live on BoxNation (Sky platform Channel 456 & Virgin 546).

Speaking earlier Weise made it clear that he intends to emulate TRAD TKO gym mates; Southern Area Lightweight Champion Ben Murphy, Southern Area Middleweight Champion Billy Joe Saunders, British Cruiserweight Champion Leon ‘Solid’ Williams, British Welterweight Champion Colin Lynes and WBO Inter-Continental Lightweight Champion Kevin Mitchell, who all bought back titles to the famous Canning Town gym this year.

“First of all I want to thank my manager, Johnny Eames, for getting me the opportunity to fight for the Southern Area title.

My last fight I drew against former Champ Ryan Toms, who Steve O’Meara beat to get the title.

If it wasn’t for the knockdown I would have won the fight, but that’s boxing for you. It only takes one punch.

I showed heart and got up and got myself back in the fight. As I said if it wasn’t for the knockdown I would have won.

I can see this fight being a whole different type of fight, as I don’t think O’Meara’s as big a puncher as Ryan Toms, even though he stopped him in the first round his record doesn’t say he’s a big puncher, he’s more of a stylist boxer.

I see this fight being more of a chess match, but he’s a champion so I’m going to have to put it on him, take it to him and take the fight from him.

My trainer, Mark Tibbs, has had me training so hard in the gym in preparation for this fight, training’s spot on.

I only boxed just over three weeks ago so really I’ve been training for this fight for seven or eight weeks already. I’m going to be in tip top shape, I’m ready to go

You know what they say ‘styles makes fights’ and I just can’t wait to get in there and win the Southern Area title.

I’m not going to say I am going to stop him but I’m going to outwork him out hustle him and bring the title back to the TRAD TKO gym, where it belongs, and have a good Christmas.”

Nathan Weise versus Steve O’Meara for the Southern Area Light Middleweight Championship takes place on the Francis and George Warren’s Queensberry Promotions event at York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, on Wednesday 14th December 2011 and broadcast live on BoxNation (Sky platform Channel 456 & Virgin 546)

Tickets, priced £40 (Standard Seated) and £60 (Ringside) are available on-line at www.tkoboxoffice.com. Tickets are also available in person from Nathan at the TRAD TKO Boxing Gym, Gillian House, Stephenson Street, Canning Town, London E16 4SA.

PHOTOS

Nathan Weise in action against Aaron Fox earlier this year

Nathan Weise ready for action

PHOTO CREDIT
Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro

JustListen2This Publicity & Promotion

London, UK, Gzira, Malta & Philadelphia, USA

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

By Rio

London - Thursday, 27th October 2011

Prizefighter Dilemma For Johnny Eames.

One of Great Britain’s best known coaches, Johnny Eames, and his fighters never seem to be out of the sports pages or off the TV screens these days. Just last Friday Johnny guided Leon ‘Solid’ Williams to victory, over Rob Norton, to become the new British Cruiserweight Champion. So no surprise then that two more of his charges, ‘Saint’ George Jupp and Ian Bailey, are in action at the York Hall in Bethnal Green this Saturday.

OK, not that unusual for a coach to have a pair of fighters in action on the same show, but when that particular event happens to be the hugely popular Matchroom Sports Prizefighter tournament it’s kind of different.

In any normal event there would never be the possibility of two boxers from the same stable fighting each other in competition, but the Prizefighter tournament is another thing altogether and there is a very high chance Johnny’s boys will face each other, which has created a real dilemma for the erudite Mr. Eames, as became clear when Johnny spoke about the upcoming tournament earlier today, “Prizefighter is a great boost for anyone’s career, whether it’s that they’re career is flagging or if they are trying to get their career to take off.

I have two boys in Prizefighter on Saturday night, both capable of winning it. It’ll cause me a real dilemma if they meet early.

If it’s in the final if that they meet, then I’ll be real happy with that.

Yeah it’s a dilemma that might and could happen and hopefully will happen, that is as I just said as long as it’s not until the final.

Who do I think will win if they meet is something I’ll keep to myself. All I know is they both deserve to win it, they both work very hard and are both totally committed.

As fighters they are very different, Georgie Jupp is a Super Featherweight coming down to Featherweight and Ian Bailey is a Super Bantamweight going up to Featherweight.

Ian’s probably got the harder side of it, being the smaller guy coming up. But he always gives his all against anybody and everybody. I’m sure that whoever he fights is going to know, if he doesn’t win which I’m pretty certain he has a good chance of winning, but if he doesn’t I’m sure that whoever he fights will know they have been in a war.

Georgie’s style is a little different, he’s a boxing type. I spoke about it already but I’m sure there is nobody in the tournament he can’t out point on the night.

It’s just a matter of how the draw goes so we’ll have to wait and see.”

After Johnny had spoken it was the turn of his charges to give their opinion, 20 year old George Jupp was the first to speak, “It’s not the best situation but being in this Prizefighter is something we both want.

In an ideal world we wouldn’t meet until the final, but if we meet earlier there’s nothing we can do about it. If it happens, it happens.

We’re both gym friends and have sparred untold rounds together, so we know each other really well.

If we have to fight each other on the night we’ll just shake hands and get on with it. It’s something we have to do to further our careers”

Ian Bailey, who had sat nodding in agreement at as Johnny and George spoke, then added, “Obviously we’re mates, it wouldn’t be nice for either of us to knock the other guy out of the tournament.

But like Johnny said, hopefully we’ll meet in the final rather than early on. But if we meet early on that’s OK. We don’t hold back in sparring, we’ve beaten the sh*t out of each other in sparring before so it’ll be the same on the night and we’ll shake hands afterwards.”

Ian Bailey and ‘Saint’ George Jupp will be joining two time World Champ Choi Tseveenpurev, Irish Champ Mickey Coveney, Lee Glover, Troy James, Rhys Roberts and Lee Jennings in Prizefighter - Featherweights, which takes place at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, London on Saturday 29th October 2011 and will also be broadcast live on Skysports.

Tickets, priced £35 (standard seated) and £60 (ringside), for Prizefighter - Featherweights are available now, either on-line at www.tkoboxoffice.com or in person at the TRAD TKO Boxing Gym, Gillian House, Stephenson Street, Canning Town, London E16 4SA - for further information call 07960 850645.

PHOTOS: George Jupp, Johnny Eames and Ian Bailey

PHOTO CREDIT: Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro

JustListen2This Publicity & Promotion

London, UK, Gzira, Malta & Philadelphia, USA

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

IAN BAILEY

Prizefighter - Featherweights

29th October @ York Hall, London

By Rio

London - Tuesday, 25th October 2011

Ian Bailey - Quietly Confident Of Prizefighter Success This Saturday

One of the most underrated boxers in the lower weight divisions, Ian Bailey, believes that this coming weekend he’ll finally get the opportunity to show boxing fans ‘what he’s made of’, when he takes part in the hugely popular Matchroom Sport promoted Prizefighter series, which showcases the Featherweight division for the first time, at York Hall in Bethnal Green on Saturday, 29th October.

Since turning pro three years ago 27 year old Bailey has earned a reputation of willingness to fight anyone, no matter how short the notice, and as such has fought some of the divisions biggest names, such as British and Commonwealth Champ Lee Selby, Scottish Area Champ Kris Matthew Hughes, English Champ Ryan Walsh, Commonwealth Champ Carl Frampton, Kid Galahad and Michael Walsh.

It’s this experience, aswell as his total willingness to face ‘all comers’, that is likely to stand Bailey in good stead in this edition of Prizefighter, as mixing it up with the likes of two time World Champ Choi Tseveenpurev, Irish Champ Mickey Coveney, the undefeated pairing of Lee Glover and Troy James, or come to that experienced fighters like Rhys Roberts and Lee Jennings, is unlikely to faze him one iota.

Following a tough sparring session with Ben Murphy, at the TRAD TKO gym in Canning Town, Bailey spoke briefly on his upcoming appearance, “I was delighted when Johnny (Eames) told me. It’s a really good opportunity for me , it’s a fair crack at a leading competition so hopefully I can prove how good I am.

I’m not worried about it being televised at all, I’ve had a couple of my bouts shown on telly before. I think I’ve had one win on telly and two losses, but they’ve normally been short notice jobs.

The Boxing public have not got to see me at my best, I mean the Prizefighter is something I have had time to prepare for, unlike those fights, so they’re going to see me at my best, that’s important to me.

I need to get the first fight out of the way and then I’ll win it, it’s a mental thing I need to stay cool and calm, it doesn’t matter who I get in the first fight as long as I can stay relaxed, which I’m gonna do, win the first fight then I can win the whole thing. ”

Bailey then turned his attention to his TRAD TKO team mate ‘Saint’ George Jupp, who will also be taking part in the tournament, “I have mixed feelings about George also being on the show, I mean I’ve sparred god knows how many rounds with George, right since I turned professional three, three and half years ago, so obviously I know him inside and out, but he can say the same about me.

It would be a shame if we met each other early on in the competition, ideally it would be great to fight each other in the final, doubt that’s gonna happen though. We’ll probably end up getting drawn first.

He knows me as well as I know him so if we fought each other it would be a good fight for the crowd, but wouldn’t be great for us, or the TRAD TKO gym, but we’ll get the job done and then shake hands afterwards.”

Prizefighter - Featherweights takes place at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, London on Saturday 29th October 2011 and will also be broadcast live on Skysports.

Tickets, priced £35 (standard seated) and £60 (ringside), for Prizefighter - Featherweights are available now, either on-line at www.tkoboxoffice.com or in person at the TRAD TKO Boxing Gym, Gillian House, Stephenson Street, Canning Town, London E16 4SA - for further information call 07960 850645.

PHOTO: Ian Bailey in action against Pavels Senkovs in May

PHOTO CREDIT: Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro

JustListen2This Publicity & Promotion

London, UK, Gzira, Malta & Philadelphia, USA

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

Hide Sites