Smith Jets Off To Malta, To Prepare Martin For Zilic Showdown OnJuly 12th

London – Monday, 8^th July 2013

Over the past year or so TRAD TKO supremo Johnny Eames’ right hand man, Barry Smith, has been splitting his time between the TRAD TKO Gym in London and the Fight Factory Gym in Malta, where he has been coaching the top Maltese prospects.

On Sunday Barry, who in his relatively short career has coached such luminaries of the sport such as former British Cruiserweight Champion Leon Williams, former Southern Area Lightweight Champion Ben Murphy, as well as current Southern Area Featherweight Champion Ian Bailey and WBU Super Middleweight World Champion Scott Dixon, once more packed his bags and set off to the idyllic Islands.

 

This time Barry has flown over to prepare WBU International Light Welterweight Champion Steve Martin for his upcoming fight, against Adnan Zilic, at the Greek Theatre, Ta Qali, this coming Friday.

Before setting off Barry spoke briefly about Steve Martin, his upcoming fight and the planned defense of Steve’s WBU title at York Hall, on October 4^th.

“Yep, I’m off to Malta again, to train the WBU International Champion Steve Martin.

We’ve got a six rounder coming up on Friday, it’s going to be a good fight for him, he’s improved so much of late. I can see it now, this kid’s a hungry kid.

I bought him over to the TRAD TKO earlier this year for a bit of experience, we had him sparring with the likes of Colin Lynes, Dion Reid, Michael Grant and people like Freddie Turner, you know what I mean, classy fighters.

This is what Stevie needs, good sparring with real prospects, because he wants it more than anyone and he’s prepared to come over from Malta and spar with these guys.

He wasn’t even fazed by these guys, which proved to me just how much he wants this.

Steve Martin’s my boy, he stands out as a real good prospect.

Also there’s another one over there that is beginning to look like a good prospect, he’s another one that will be turning pro with us.

I like bringing the boys over, as they are respectful and they can fight, just they don’t get the chance to spar with quality opponents in Malta at the moment. I’m sure this will change, but at the moment it’s best to bring them to London so we can really test them.

Besides this fight in Malta on Friday, we’ve got Steve coming to London in October to defend his title.

This is fantastic for Steve Martin, also for myself and for the Fight Factory boys, I mean he’ll be coming over to defend his WBU title.

Steve is the real Champion of Malta, as we all know, now we want to bring him over to London and defend his title against guys over here, you know what I mean, we’re not frightened to travel anywhere and we’ll fight anyone.”

Steve Martin versus Adnan Zilic features on the Abner Ablea promoted event at the Greek Theatre, Ta Qali, which is headlined by the professional debut of Heavyweight sensation Billy Corito, against Radenko Kovac, as well as also features WBU Super Middleweight World Champion Scott Dixon in a non-championship battle against Remo Arns, on Friday 12^th July 2013.

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Twitter: @TradTkoBoxing

Loaded And Dangerous In London: Pompey Prospect Joel McIntyre Ready For The Limelight

Tony Oakey Protégé Steps Up With London Test Ahead Of Future Challenge For Championship Honours.

Back in May 2010 British, Commonwealth and WBU Light Heavyweight World Champion Tony ‘Oakey Kokey’ Oakey announced his retirement from the ring. Some three months or so later Tony could be seen back in his old home from home, The TRAD TKO Boxing Gym deep in the heart of London’s East End.

 

This time however Tony wasn’t the one bringing the gym to a standstill, with a trademark full on sparring war, but it was another Pompey lad - Joel McIntyre.

At the time nobody at the TRAD TKO knew who the kid with the crazy tattoos was, but after just one sparring session everyone in the gym knew he was going to be ‘one to watch’ though.

Under Tony and TRAD TKO’s Johnny Eames’ tutelage the rough diamond, that was Joel McIntyre, was slowly but surely being polished into a genuine Championship prospect.

Johnny has had him regularly sparring with some of the best in the business, former British Cruiserweight Champion Leon ‘Solid’ Williams and British and Commonwealth Middleweight Champion Billy Joe Saunders being just two of the most recent ‘names’ to employ Joel as a sparring partner.

It wasn’t enough that the tough youngster could hold his own in sparring against such illustrious opponents though, they wanted Joel to learn his trade the traditional way, so throughout the past couple of years Tony and Johnny carefully nurtured Joel, guiding him through a series of low key fights, mainly at local shows in the Portsmouth and Southampton area, as they plotted a major launch of the talented youngster to a much wider boxing audience.

After six resounding victories Tony and Johnny felt it was now time to introduce Joel to ‘the big stage’ and what better than to have him compete on the undercard of a televised Heavyweight Title event, to prepare him for a shot at the Southern Area title in the near future.

So on Friday night, at York Hall in Bethnal Green in London, on the Loaded TV broadcast ‘Loaded and Dangerous in London’ event, which is headlined by the Matt Skelton versus John McDermott battle for the vacant English Heavyweight title, a star will surely be born when Joel finally makes his long awaited TV debut.

Even though the spotlight is about to shine brightly on him, young Joel seemed quite relaxed, about his upcoming big time boxing TV debut, when he spoke earlier.

“I’m really looking forward to March 15th, it’ll be my first televised fight.

As a kid I’d watch the boxing on TV, even after I started boxing I’d always watch any televised boxing, so who’d think I would be fighting on TV myself and after just six fights.

I can’t thank Johnny (manager Johnny Eames), Frank Maloney and Loaded TV enough for the opportunity to fight on this show.

Training’s been great, I’ve had the best preparation I could possibly ask for this fight. Billy Joe (British and Commonwealth Middleweight Champion Billy Joe Saunders) asked for me to be one of his sparring partners to prepare for his title defense against Matthew Hall on the 21^st March, which will also be at York Hall.

Have been getting in a lot of rounds with Billy Joe, which really is something of an experience. We know each other quite well now, we’ve sparred so many rounds, which is really good and keeps you on your toes. It’s just good to be in the same ring as him, to be fair.

I love training and sparring here at the TRAD TKO, but it’s hard for me to do so all the time so usually train with John Murray at VK Gym in Bognor, which has brilliant facilities.

As I said I have had the best preparation I could ask for, besides the sparring with Billy Joe, I’ve been getting some serious conditioning work and training. My fitness has gone right up, my weight’s good, yeah couldn’t be more pleased about it really.

It’s a Frank Maloney show, you know there’s the poster with some big names on it, Skelton, McDermott, and there’s my name as well.

It seems like a step up for me already so when Johnny says I’m ready to step up for a title, Southern Area, English, I feel I’m ready for it, I know I can trust my manager and trainer to know when they feel I’m ready to go for it, if they told me tomorrow I’m ready for a title then I know I am.”

Joel’s esteemed manager, and the UK’s newest promoter, Johnny Eames then added.

“So yeah touching on what Joel said, we are looking to move Joel into title contention, we were hoping that Danny Couzens was successful in his challenge for the Southern Area Light Heavyweight title on Saturday night, unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

The reason is we’re close to securing the exclusive boxing event rights to a venue on the South Coast, it’s a big venue and we had hoped to have had Danny, who’s a good friend of the gym, having his first defense of the Southern Area title and Joel having his first shot at a title both on home turf so to speak. It would have been a huge local derby, Portsmouth versus Southampton is always a huge event no matter what sport.

That’s not to be, but new Southern Area Champ Leon Senior is from Swanley in Kent, I’m pretty sure he would bring a big crowd if we can make the fight in a couple of months time.

It will be Joel’s seventh fight on Friday, he’s improving so much all the time, when he’s in the gym regular. We’ve changed his training regime around, which has helped him a lot because he can spend a bit more time at home.

John Murray has definitely improved his fitness, without a shadow of a doubt and now Joel has the best of both worlds, as he comes up here for a bit of tuition and quality sparring.

We’re looking for Joel to take over the South Coast from Tony Oakey, who is his mentor and someone that bought Joel to the gym in the first place. Joel still has Tony’s backing, we speak regularly on the phone. He called last Saturday and said how much he’s looking forward to Joel getting his first title fight.

We want to take him the same route as Tony, Southern Area, British and Commonwealth titles and of course World Champion.

If Joel achieves half of that, then he’s done great, so yeah we’re looking forward to it.”

Joel McIntyre, against a yet to be named opponent, features on the undercard of Matt Skelton versus John McDermott for the vacant English Heavyweight title at York Hall, Bethnal Green in London on Friday 15^th March 2013, which will be broadcast live and exclusive on Loaded TV (Sky platform channel 200)

Tickets, priced £30 and £70, for the Frank Maloney promoted ‘Loaded and Dangerous In London’ event at York Hall on Friday 15th March, are on sale now at www.tkoboxoffice.com or direct from Joel McIntyre at the TRAD TKO Boxing Gym, Gillian House, Stephenson Street, Canning Town, London E16 4SA.

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Heavyweight Action as Rappers Prepare For Chart Assault At East London Boxing Gym

Independent band LIMITLESS wanted a proper East End feel for the video of the latest track ‘Hold It Down’. After weeks checking out, and rejecting, various locations around the area the boys popped into the TRAD TKO Boxing Gym in Canning Town for a quick recce and in an instant knew they had found the perfect place.

After some nifty negotiations the boys secured the gym and just over a week later got down to shooting the video. 

Whilst retaining the feel of a gritty East End fight factory - after all the TRAD TKO is the very place that World Champions Graham Earl, Kevin Lear and Tony Oakey honed  their skills and where today’s stars such as WBO Inter-Continental Champ Kevin Mitchell, Commonwealth Middleweight King Billy Joe Saunders, former British champs Colin Lynes and Leon Williams train for their big fights - director Ounjoye has somehow created an smooth, yet stylish video.

Following the final edit, Eren Tame, the CEO of LIMITLESS, and rappers Warren and Ben returned to the gym to showcase the video to TRAD TKO supremo Johnny Eames and some of the boxers, after which he spoke a little about the band and the making of the new video.

“Yeah, we’re a young music group called LIMITLESS, from right here in the East End of London, we’ve been making music together for about three years now. 

There’s six members altogether, we’ve got Luke, he’s like the producer, he writes also and does a lot of hooks on the songs. We’ve got Warren, singer/rapper, Ben, he writes and also does the e.mails and stuff, then we’ve got Reece and Jamie, they’re younger lads, they’re seventeen, they MC , they attract a younger crowd as well, you know more from their age group. Finally there’s  me, I’m the CEO of the group and I’m also a singer/rapper. 

This is our new video, which we’ve done for our YouTube channel, but also want to get it on TV, yeah the next step is getting onto TV, maybe channel AKA Flavour, then let’s see where it goes from there.

We’ve made a few videos now, all around the East End, obviously we’ve just finished one here at the TRAD TKO Gym, it’s a brilliant gym and I’ve always wanted to come here, done me ankle in so couldn’t do it, but now I have.

We’re just gonna keep going in the industry and showing East London differently, instead of all the negatives, you know something a little more up tempo.”

the video of ‘Hold it Down, by LIMITLESS, which at time of writing had already had over 24,000 plays on-line, can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=foSt0FxLiRw

Leon Williams: Friendship’s On Hold Until After Saturday’s Title Fight

Whilst all the recent media focus has been on next week’s highly controversial Heavyweight clash, between David Haye and Dereck Chisora, another, and probably far more significant, Clash of the Titans takes place this coming Saturday, with the long awaited showdown, between former British Cruiserweight Champion Leon ‘Solid’ Williams and current Southern Area Champ Tony ‘Conqueror’ Conquest, taking place at York Hall in Bethnal
Green.

After three false starts, each due to injury, this most defining of domestic Cruiserweight battles will also decide, for once and for all, just who is the Capital’s true #1 of the division as well as, along the line, earn the winner a shot at the coveted Lonsdale Belt.

The early betting seems to be heavily in favour of Streatham’s Former Champ Williams. No surprise really, as when the pair met as Amateurs, Romford’s Conquest was knocked out in just 45 seconds of the first round!

Earlier today, following his final training session at the TRAD TKO Boxing Gym in Canning Town, Leon Williams spoke briefly on the upcoming battle with his old foe and good friend Tony Conquest,  “We’re really good friends but that’s on hold until after the fight, during the fight it’s purely business.

The plan is to just get my rounds in, punch hard and keep pressuring him and get the win, then say sorry afterwards and I’ll be the first to buy him a drink.

Then I want a shot at getting back my British title. That’s the main goal and that’s where my motivation for this fight is coming from. If it wasn’t a stepping stone to get the Lonsdale belt back where it belongs, with me,
I probably wouldn’t have taken the fight.

The Southern Area title isn’t really what I want to fight for, I’m not devaluing the title at all, it’s a very worthwhile title, just me and my team feel it is a backward step as I was British Champ earlier this year.

I will get back there, but first I have to win this fight, and I will win this fight. We train hard at the TRAD TKO, me, Johnny (Manager/Coach Johnny Eames) and Barry (co-trainer Barry Smith) and we will get back to where we were, and I will get my British title back.”

Leon ‘Solid’ Williams versus Tony ‘Conqueror’ Conquest  for the Southern Area Cruiserweight title co-headlines Olivia Goodwin’s ‘One More Round’ event at York Hall in Bethnal Green, London on Saturday 7th July 2012.

There are limited tickets, priced £60 (Ringside) and £35 (Standard Seated), still available, for Leon Williams vs. Tony Conquest, on-line now at www.tkoboxoffice.com - tickets are also be available direct from Leon Williams or the TRAD TKO Boxing Gym, Gillian House, Stephenson Street, Canning Town, London E16 4SA.

BRIXTON HEAVYWEIGHT IAN LEWISON LOOKS TO RE-START HIS CAREER ON 7TH JULY

“With my new team I am heading for the top”

Brixton Heavyweight Ian Lewison looks to get his faltering career back on track on July 7^th.

Lewison who lost in two ABA finals to David Dolan and David Price (disputed decision) has made an inauspicious start to his career winning 4 and drawing 1 from 6 fights.

“Fights kept falling through and I lost motivation for the sport” said Lewison who weighed 18 stone 12 for his last fight when an unfit Lewison lost to Colin Kenna on points over 4 rounds. “I was a disgrace and an embarrassment to myself. I was not fit and in no condition. It will never happen again”.

Lewison who will weigh in around 17 stone 7 lbs on July 7^th has signed a long term deal with fledgling promoter Steve Goodwin and is re-motivated with Steve promoting him “It was an easy decision to sign with Steve. He is going places and I saw what he did by giving Ali Adams a big chance with Audley Harrison.  The only difference is when Steve gives me my big chance is that I will take it and win.”

“Steve will get me four fights this year and next year we will start to aim high. We have decided we do not want easy fights so on July 7^th I will take on Istvan Ruszinsky who has lost only 1 from 5 fights and has knocked out 2 of his last 3 opponents. He comes to fight and I aim to knock him out and put on a big show to issue a statement that Lewison is coming!”

The Lewison v Ruszinksky fight is on the undercard of a dual title show at York Hall promoted by Goodwin Promotions featuring the eagerly awaiting Southern Area Cruiserweight title fight between Tony Conquest and Leon Williams and the Light-Middlewieght title clash between Nathan Weiss and Ryan Toms.

Chief support to these two fights sees the sensational Ghanain Champion Richard Commey (11 fights 11 wins 11 knockouts) take on Kris Hughes who most recently fought Carl Frampton for the Commonwealth title. Hughes is moving up in weight and wants to make a statement whilst for Commey this is the scalp he wants to show that he is en-route to the top. Commey promises fireworks and his twelfth straight knock out.

Tickets for this exciting night of boxing can be obtained from www.goodwinmainevents.co.uk or by calling 01525 851150.

EON ‘SOLID’ WILLIAMS Vs. TONY ‘CONQUEROR’ CONQUEST Southern Area Cruiserweight Championship 7th July 2012 @

GOODWIN MAIN EVENTS: L York Hall, London

 


For Immediate Release

London - Wednesday, 13th June 2012


Former Champ Williams Ready For July 7th Title Showdown With Conquest.

After three false starts, the long awaited showdown, between former British Cruiserweight Champion Leon ‘Solid’ Williams and Southern Area Champ Tony ‘Conqueror’ Conquest, is finally set to take place, on the Olivia Goodwin promoted ‘One More Round’ event at York Hall on Saturday 7th July.

The last time this highly anticipated Clash of the Titans was due to take place was back in January, as Williams’ first defense of his British Crown, however Conquest was forced to withdraw due to a viral infection.

With Conquest out  Williams instead defended against Nottingham’s Shane McPhilbin.

For eleven rounds Williams totally dominated the proceedings, including sending McPhilbin to the canvas twice. However after just thirty seconds of the final round things took a dramatic turn, for the worse, after McPhilbin landed a powerful clubbing shot, to the back of the defending Champ’s head, which ultimately lead to the fight being stopped and a new British Champion crowned.

With no quick rematch with McPhilbin, or a shot at current British Champ Enzo Maccarinelli on the horizon, the only way Williams could get back into the Championship mix this year would be to challenge his good friend
Conquest.

A situation that wasn’t lost on the former Champ, as he made clear when he spoke briefly, following a training session at the TRAD TKO Boxing Gym, earlier. “Yeah it’s a stepping stone, I know I gave up the Southern Area
title before I beat Rob Norton and became British Champ, but it does lead to bigger and better things.

God willing, I’ll get the chance to get my Lonsdale belt back after beating Tony on the 7th.

No make that Johnny willing, Johnny, my manager Johnny Eames, will do the business side for me, I’ve just got to win.

Preparation has been very good, sparring has been the best. I’m Dereck Chisora’s main sparring partner, so that’s good experience and I learn from it all the time.

This is really going to help me with the fight. Dereck’s a very big, strong guy and after all this work Tony will feel like a lightweight in comparison - Thank you Dereck Chisora.

I’m not trashing Tony, he’s a good friend of mine and a very good boxer, but there’s no friendship when you step in the ring, you fight, and that’s what we’re going to do - fight.

Team Solid is back...and climbing the ladder to the top. Team Solid all day, every Day...Yeah.”

Leon ‘Solid’ Williams versus Tony ‘Conqueror’ Conquest  for the Southern Area Cruiserweight title co-headlines Olivia Goodwin’s ‘One More Round’ event at York Hall in Bethnal Green, London on Saturday 7th July 2012.

Tickets, priced £60 (Ringside) and £35 (Standard Seated), for Leon Williams vs. Tony Conquest are available on-line now at www.tkoboxoffice.com - tickets are also be available direct from Leon Williams or the TRAD TKO Boxing Gym, Gillian House, Stephenson Street, Canning Town, London E16 4SA.