By Chris Kelly: Local celebrity, The Mackem Mover, accompanied Sunderland’s Tony Jeffries to the ring last night for his decision win over Arten Solomko. It seems as though the mover could teach the Olympic Bronze medallist a thing or too, whilst obviously I’m not for one minute actually suggesting that the key to progression in Jeffries’ career lies in body popping, I would like to see more movement come from Jeffries both in and out of the ring.

The talent is definitely there, anyone who has seen the undefeated light heavyweight will have no doubt about that. However, his performances seem to have been somewhat lacking in any impressive footwork. Jeffries is a big, tall light-heavyweight with an excellent jab, he seems to be particularly effective when employing the double jab followed by a straight right and in the few instances that he has looked to consistently land these punches he has looked utterly sensational, stepping in and out of range to land these sharp, scoring punches with ease. Unfortunately the Beijing Olympian has a tendency to simply move forward on his opponents searching tirelessly for the knockout punch. Whilst you have to admire the relentlessness of the young man from Sunderland, one cannot help but notice he often smothers his own work by unstintingly moving onto his opponent. This was particularly evident during his win last night over Solomko. Perhaps what Jeffries needs to look to do now is; have more patience, look to get his combinations off and then step away, moving in and out as well as laterally before landing his next shots. He does possess incredible knockout power in both hands but he will be able to put this too much greater effect if he looks for opening and picks his shots.

It is not only in the ring that I hope to see this movement but also in his choice of opponents; Jeffries is unbeaten in four with three knockouts, it is now time for Frank Maloney to allow Jeffries to assert himself on the domestic scene.

Last night’s opponent Artem Solomko was himself a national champion in his native Belarus, and proved to be a classy operator, if somewhat of a spoiler. This step up in opposition provided a test for the unbeaten prospect, one that he was able to come through well. Tony needs this step up in class in terms of opposition in order to improve and progress onto bigger and better things. I would definitely like to see Jeffries come through some more testing bouts with proven British fighters at Light-Heavyweight such as Billy Boyle, Courtney Fry and Darren Stubbs before looking to set up meetings with the cream of the domestic crop in likes of unbeaten Nathan Cleverly, the experienced Tony Oakey or the difficult young Danny McIntosh.

What is certain is that Jeffries is a phenomenally talented young prospect with undeniable talent and at times frightening power. Combine this with an incredible popularity in his hometown Sunderland, a popularity which seems to be ever widening across the UK, almost resembling that of a young Ricky Hatton, and we can all be sure that the future looks sure to be bright for young Tony Jeffries, if not as much for the Mackem Mover himself.