From burger van to Beijing battler

IF YOU are one of the thousands of Irish fans who have travelled to Sunderland supporting the Black Cats in the Premiership, you may have met Tony Jeffries, the British boxer who faces Kenny Egan in an Olympic light heavyweight semi-final tomorrow night.

Indeed you may have spoken to the affable Jeffries though he probably did most of the talking. He would have enquired if you wanted salt or vinegar on your chips or a full helping of salad on your burger as he slaved away for hours on end in his catering van.

This weekend 54 weeks ago Jeffries was selling hot dogs from a stand outside the Stadium of Light as Roy Keane’s side kicked off their Premier League campaign against Spurs.

But those weekends of tedium and toil has brought him here to Beijing where he is guaranteed an Olympic bronze after dispatching Hungary’s Imre Szello 10-2 at the Worker’s Gymnasium on Tuesday night and setting up a clash with Dubliner Egan.

But Sunderland’s first Olympic boxer admits his sights are set on a brighter medal hue after the series of sacrifices which have acted as road markers on his journey to the Chinese Capital.

“Before I qualified for the Olympics, I wasn’t making me a penny. I was boxing all over 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,” he told the Sunderland Echo.”

Ironically for a man who wants to follow many boxing icons and own a restaurant, Jeffries doesn’t miss the old ways since his move to full time boxing. He laughed: “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.”

The money earned from feeding the masses meant he kept a roof over his head and filled the petrol tank for the weekly training sessions with the British National Squad in Sheffield.

But Jeffries was never afraid of hard work and dirty jobs. After a devastating underage career when he won two national schoolboy titles and a European Cadet Championship, he funded his burgeoning sporting career working as a bouncer at some of the toughest clubs in the north-east. He was just 18 and had a big reputation. Countless brawny customers fancied their chances against a European champion. It was a spell he hated.

“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 judgments 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.”

And it was having a negative impact on his boxing. “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.”

However, two years ago, these Games must have seemed an impossible dream. ‘Jaffa’, a nickname he shares with his father Phil for their love of oranges, was controversially defeated by Scotland’s Kenny Anderson in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Jeffries was “devastated” by the loss, more so when the Scot went on to win gold, and then he missed the remainder of the season through injury. But perhaps fuelled his incredible work ethic, Jeffries wasn’t about to give up and go awol.

“I was still on the England boxing team and in 2007 got picked for the GB Olympic squad full time training team, I trained full time Monday to Thursday down at Sheffield until the world championships the Olympic qualifiers, and I boxed well and ended up Qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympics — the first ever boxer to do that from Sunderland. This has been my long term goal ever since I can remember.”

BUT there is another layer to Jeffries personality — one which he shares with the great Ali. When he is away from the ring and training he spends his time writing poetry to his mother Doreen, his girlfriend Sarah, and his sisters Sarah and Lucy.

“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. But as long as I’m still in the competition, the pencil and paper will stay out of sight.”