Jeffries Destroys Vayavoda

By Boxing News - 03/02/2009 - Comments

jeffries5434234By Jim Dower: In his first fight as a pro, British 2008 Bronze medalist Tony Jeffries (1-0, 1 KOs) destroyed Aliaksandr Vayavoda (5-13-1, 3 KOs) in the 1st round on Friday night at the Metrodome, Barnsley, in Yorkshire. Jeffries, throwing huge right hands, staggered Vayavoda late in the 1st round. Jeffries then poured it on adding four more big right hands ending with referee Howard John Foster stepping in and stopping the bout at 2:42 with Vayavoda still on his feet.

Jeffries looked very impressive, reminding me of a stronger version of Carl Froch. Jeffries’ jab is nothing short of incredible, a weapon that he used against Vayavoda like a second power punch. With a jab like that, Jeffries hardly needs other weapons because at 6’2″, he’s rangy enough to control the distance with it and dominate.

However, along with his jab, Jeffries revealed a powerful right hand that he used to hurt Vayavoda on number of occasions in the round. Although Jeffries fought as a light heavyweight as an amateur in the Olympics, he plans on fighting as a super middleweight where he’ll be much stronger.

Indeed, he looked like a powerhouse as he took Vayavoda apart punch by punch. Jeffries did an excellent job of slipping Vayavoda’s punches, and coming back with hard jabs and right hands. Jeffries scored well to the body, hammering Vayavoda with hard hooks to the body with both hands and giving him big problems.

Early in the round, Jeffries began to showboat a little after hitting Vayavoda with two consecutive right hands to the head. Jeffries looked as if he knew that he could take him out anytime he felt like it. And sure enough, after blasting him around the ring with mostly right hands during the round, Jeffries staggered Vayavoda late with two monstrous rights to the side of the head. Referee Howard John Foster could see how things were going and decided upon saving Vayavoda from sustaining any further punishment by putting a stop to the fight at 2:42 of the 1st.

“Been working a lot on body shots,” Jeffries said. “I felt fantastic.”

Jeffries, 24, perhaps along with Frankie Gavin, is one of the best fighters coming from the amateur ranks in 2009. However, in the case of Jeffries, he seems ready to hit the ground running judging from his offensive skills. With the kind of power shots that he was hitting Vayavoda with on Friday, not too many super middleweights would have been able to stand up to that kind of punishment without going down.



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