Maloney 'sorry' to Jeffries fans
Frank Maloney has said sorry to fans for the "embarrassing" standard of opposition faced by Tony Jeffries in Newport on Friday.
Jeffries stopped Latvian Andrejs Tolstihs in the first round of their mismatch and Sky Sports pundit Glenn McCrory – a former world cruiserweight champion – was critical of the contest, complaining that the Sunderland super-middleweight would have learned nothing from it.
Liverpool super-heavyweight David Price also had a quick win against a poor Latvian opponent on the same bill and promoter Maloney says the standards were unacceptably low.
He said: "It is embarrassing for my company when foreign opposition comes in and folds so easily.
"I am not saying David or Tony should be in wars at this stage of their career, but I admit Friday's win didn't give them any education.
"In the future I will not book any fighters from Latvia unless their records are decent or they are based in Britain with managers or promoters I trust.
"I can only apologise to people who bought tickets, Sky Sports who broadcast the show and of course their viewers who deserved better."
Jeffries has no influence over selecting his opponents, of course, and could only deal with what was in front of him as he made it five wins out of five as a pro.
He said: "All I can do is prepare properly and deal with the man I go in against. Frank's the man making the decisions and I trust him to make the right ones for my career.
"Plenty of other top fighters have had quite easy wins early in their careers against opponents who didn't have the strongest record so it's a bit unfair to have a go about it.
"But I expect my fights to be more difficult than this one was."
Jeffries will now have two or three weeks off before preparing for his next fight, probably back in Sunderland in March.
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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