Britain’s talent-laden light heavyweight division got a little bit deeper on Saturday night when Troy Jones beat the respected Leon Willings to win the English title.
Jones (11-0, 6 KOs) spent a couple of years finding his feet as a professional but has worked hard with his trainer, Lee Beard, and stayed as busy as possible.
On Saturday, he and his team decided the time was right for him to step up, and Jones, a 26-year-old from Birmingham, England, repaid that faith by beating a solid opponent for a good title. Jones now finds himself nudging the top 10 of the 175-pound division and is setting himself up for some even bigger nights.
“It was a great feeling, but it wasn’t anything that I didn’t expect to happen,” Jones told BoxingScene. “Me and Lee put a lot of good, hard work in. It was a great feeling but not a shock to the system. I knew I was coming back with it.
“It was more of a mental thing. I’ve done six rounds, but that’s the only time I’ve gone that long a distance. It was more of a mental battle, but I thought I managed the fight and the rounds really well and I kept a good pace. At least I know it’s in there now.”
Willings (8-3, 3 KOs) is best known to British fight fans for refusing to buy into Ben Whittaker’s shenanigans and giving the Olympic silver medalist eight good rounds in March. The Central Area champion, Willings is a strong, solid operator who enhanced his reputation against Whittaker and saw Saturday night as the ideal opportunity to reestablish himself at title level and earn his way back on to television screens.
It wasn’t to be. Jones took advantage of Willings’ tendency to wait in between his attacks and refused to be drawn into the rhythm of the Widnes, England, native. He had to be defensively aware throughout but established a semblance of control over the second half of the fight to emerge with a unanimous decision victory.
“He’s better than his record says,” Jones said of Willings. “He’s tricky to land clean on and pin down, to be honest, but I think I did it well. I got comfortable. I got my rhythm and got my range. Me and Lee have always said that. Once I get my rhythm, I can set a high pace and put a high amount of pressure on people. It’s hard to keep up, and I think he struggled mentally as well as physically in there. He’s a great boxer, but I think he’s a great boxer at his own pace. He likes to plod a little bit and come with these long, fast shots. I wasn’t giving him the time of day to do that. I was punching in bunches a lot of the time and I think that’s what upset him.”
The win resulted in the first tangible sign of success for Jones’ partnership with Beard. The Mancunian is a technically precise trainer who likes his fighters to think about what they are doing and why they are doing it. Jones has grasped Beard’s method and is beginning to thrive.
“I think it suited me right away, to be honest,” Jones said. “He might say different. I think I took to it well. I was always quite an aggressive fighter – I just needed to be polished a lot and bring the boxing side out. Lee’s style suits that. He’s quite a technical, defensive coach, but he’s offensive with it. He’s quite physical in some ways, too. He still boggles my head with some things now, but that’s part of it, isn’t it? When I started with Lee, he opened my mind to the art of fighting. I love Lee’s style. I think he’s a fantastic coach and I can’t thank him enough for what he’s done for me.”
Jones doesn’t need to rush his next step. He won’t be short of solid challengers for his English title, and there will be no need to make a rash step up the levels to contest bigger prizes. Jones has plenty of sensible targets at which to aim, and when the time is right to make his next move, he should be ideally prepared to do so. For the time being, though, his main aim is to continue improving.
“I think, domestically, it’s one of the hottest divisions in Britain,” he said of the light heavyweight class. “I haven’t got anything in mind right away, but it’s all about progression. If that comes from a couple of defenses, so be it. I just want to keep progressing at our own rate.
“I’m definitely ready, but I’ll just listen to the team around me, and when they say to step on, we’ll step on. I’m happy to keep progressing. There’s a lot of good names domestically, and I’m ready for them. It’s just a case of listening to where and who the team around me say, and I’ll be there.”
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